Martin Scorsese directed this Roger Corman-produced knock-off of Bonnie and Clyde the year before he became a critic’s darling with Mean Streets, and his strong visual aesthetic and playful editing are almost enough to coverContinue reading
Category: U.S. Independent Cinema
Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky, 2000)
The first time I saw Berlinger and Sinofsky’s 1996 documentary Paradise Lost, which chronicles the arrest, trial, and conviction of a trio of teenagers for the brutal murders of three 8-year-olds in West Memphis, Arkansas,Continue reading
Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky, 2000)
The first time I saw Berlinger and Sinofsky’s 1996 documentary Paradise Lost, which chronicles the arrest, trial, and conviction of a trio of teenagers for the brutal murders of three 8-year-olds in West Memphis, Arkansas,Continue reading
Encounters at the End of the World (Werner Herzog, 2008)
Call it the anti-March of the Penguins, the great German madman’s documentary about Antarctica and the unique population of scientists and wanderers who live there is a fascinating portrait of extremes, both natural and human.Continue reading
War, Inc. (Joshua Seftel, 2008)
Running about half an hour longer than it should, this would-be Dr. Strangelove for the 21st century certainly has some good moments of satirical hilarity revolving around a private U.S. corporation occupying a fictional MiddleContinue reading
Savage Grace (Tom Kalin, 2008)
Tom Kalin’s provocative but frustratingly shallow true-life portrait of the Baekeland family’s interpersonal debauchery certainly lives up to its marking hook, proving quite convincingly that “Truth is more shocking than fiction.†The film is indeedContinue reading
Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel, 1975)
One of the quintessential cult films of the 1970s, this Roger Corman-produced gem of sicko low-budget ingenuity is spun around a uniquely perverse premise: In the near future, the most popular sport is a cross-countryContinue reading
Count Yorga, Vampire (Bob Kelljan, 1970)
One of the first of the low-budget vampires-in-the-modern-world flicks that were popular on the drive-in circuit in the early 1970s, Count Yorga, Vampire is fairly slow going in its opening reel, but it picks upContinue reading
The Visitor (Thomas McCarthy, 2008)
A gentle drama about a bereaved and isolated college professor’s emotional reawakening after his experiences with a Syrian émigré, his African girlfriend, and his loving mother, MCarthy’s follow-up to the indie hit The Station Agent (2003)Continue reading
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader, 1985)
Schrader’s unique approach to the life and death of Japanese writer Yukio Mishima is to defy all the tired conventions of the biopic and instead engage the complexities of the film’s subject through that whichContinue reading