It was a nine-year wait between writer-director-producer-actor-composer Shane Carruth’s first film, Primer (perhaps the most realistic, challenging, and compelling time-travel movie ever made), and his masterpiece, Upstream Color, an even more complex and challenging movie, and certainly a more visually appealing one. It has now been nine years since the latter was released, with no…

On January 04, 2018 I wrote an article about Movies That Ruthless Reviews Eagerly Anticipates in 2018. Terry Gilliam worked on this film for an unbelievable 30 years before it finally came to fruition. This is after 10 attempts for this off and on film. No one but the whacky genius Terry Gilliam could have…

“Top Gun: Maverick” – Shock and awe. If ever there was a movie where my expectations were set to negative one million, it’s every Fast and Furious movie. One tick higher was Top Gun: Maverick. Like every other Gen X/Millennial, I have fond memories of the original Top Gun, complete with the ability to sing…

I despise Stephen King, his novella of Rita Hayworth, and The Shawshank Redemption. It was an un-readable blot of blueberry mustard smeared on a Maine tourist map from 1973. Why ’73? Well, that’s the last year of Maine’s state pride as it is the last year it WOULD NOT be associated with this human cowlick…

With Hold the Dark, Jeremy Saulnier’s third such endeavor and fourth feature, the director’s reputation as a state-hopping connoisseur of America’s backwoods is well and truly confirmed. A reputation not so much for achievement as inclination; mainly an infatuation with subcultures situated at the peripheries of mainstream society. His penchant for uncompromising and violent depictions…

We have discussed this many times, the separation of the actor from the person and the person’s politics and religion. In the movie review world, except for rare occasions like the aging Queen Rex Reed, an actor or director’s greatness overwhelms whatever personal shenanigans that he or she might harbor in real life. Nevertheless, Clint…

Switchblade Sisters AKA The Jezebels (1975) Normally if a movie contains knife fights, rape, pimping, drug dealing, nudity and shootings, you can safely assume it’s a drama. Not Switchblade. It’s pure comedy from start to finish. It’s so OTT there’s not one ounce of dramatic tension to be found, but wander into its overheated, estrogen-fuelled…