Different is Good in this pleasant, sometimes silly rural fantasy in which talking animals solve a crime. No, no, no … it makes sense on its own level. Hugh Jackman is good to sheep, and there is no lack of suspects among his neighbors. But the fun is in the woolly personalities and how they…
We don’t miss every good opportunity at CineSavant — when reviewer Terry Morgan expressed interest in this picture it was a blessing. Carrie White’s story has seen several do-overs — this is the Brian De Palma original with Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Nancy Allen, Amy Irving, John Travolta, P.J. Soles and William Katt. It’s not…
André de Toth’s sordid crime tale is tops in all departments. Tough cop Sterling Hayden suspects parolee Gene Nelson of being in cahoots with the murderous bank robbers Ted de Corsia, Charles Bronson and Ned Young; Gene’s wife Nelson finds herself menaced both by Bronson and the ultimate psycho Timothy Carey. The direction emphasizes tense…
Blu-ray 3-D should never die — and they need to bring the players and monitors back! The latest and most polished vintage 3-D presentation yet is The 3-D Archive’s painstaking remaster job on Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis’s first movie in color and their only 3-D effort, a comedy with Damon Runyon gangsters, set mainly…
To put Sam Peckinpah’s directing in better perspective, completists ought to catch up with this independently produced oater, his first credited feature. Peckinpah was prevented from touching the screenplay, yet it has qualities we associate with his work. The shoot suffered from a fundamental clash of personalities, and the ‘auteur’ of the uneven result may…
One of the pleasures of being a cinephile is watching a young filmmaker find their voice and get better as they make more movies. There’s something exciting in seeing potential in an artist early on and then seeing that promise fulfilled and hopefully exceeded. Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun first got noticed with 2021’s We’re All Going…
Trailers From Hell Guru Allan Arkush’s The Last Reel video essay series hits the open road! In 1968, Allan was 20 years old and yearning to be his own Jack Kerouac. He and his best friend hitchhiked across the country. This was reckless and ill-advised, but — to paraphrase Steppenwolf — they were looking for…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies, and many more, at Trailers From Hell. This week, a trio of movies about people who operate way outside the norm. There are crazy wine pairings to go with each. Maniac Cop is a 1988 slasher flick which the…
Like so many collectors, special CineSavant reviewer ‘B’ has been waiting forever for a decent disc of Frank and Eleanor Perry’s hard-to-forget 1969 film about three restless, careless teenagers idly summering on Fire Island. Beautifully restored on Blu-ray by The Warner Archive, it is back in circulation as few of us have seen it, in…
