FRANK MILLER’S SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR
Oozing with more hard-boiled wit than two Dashiell Hammett novels put together, and more visually compelling than every comic-book movie…
BDSM
VENUS IN FUR — CANNES 2013
BDSM, Cannes Film Festival, Comedy, Erotic, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, Literary Adaptation, Reviews Blog, sex, Video Essay
With a Tony Award nomination under its belt, and the dubious honor of being America’s most produced play in the…
“Pleasure or Pain” on DVD
Zalman King’s last project before his untimely death, PLEASURE OR PAIN breaks new ground and presents a 9½ Weeks for the new millennium.
NYMPH()MANIAC: VOLUME I
BDSM, Danish Cinema, Erotic, Exploitation, Fantasy, FOUR STARS, Porn, Reviews Blog, sex, Sexploitation, Transgressive Cinema
Just as with Harvey Weinstein’s famous mistake of splitting Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” into two parts, the producers of Lars…
FREDDY GOT FINGERED — CLASSIC FILM PICK
In this sadly unloved comedy, class clown extraordinaire Tom Green brings his anti-establishment performance art comedy to a recurring boil…
KISS OF THE DAMNED
Decadence and debauchery are equal parts death and creation in a cool little vampire movie that makes the “Twilight” franchise…
BLANCANIEVES
BDSM, Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, FIVE STARS, sex, Silent, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
More evidence — behind “The Artist” (2011) — that black-and-white silent films are still a viable storytelling approach; Pablo Berger’s…
CALIGULA — CLASSIC FILM PICK
BDSM, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, Erotic, FIVE STARS, Historical Epic, Horror, LGBTQ, Porn, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Video Essay
If ever there was a cinematic guide to Roman debauchery — real or imagined — “Caligula” is it. That this…
SIN CITY — CLASSIC FILM PICK
Animation, BDSM, Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, FIVE STARS, Neo-Noir, sex, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
“Sin City” is a high concept tour de force rendering of Frank Miller’s wickedly sexy and grotesque graphic-novel-homage to the…
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
Disconnected significantly from the flow of logic between the first and second installments of Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” films, “The Dark…
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO — REBOOT
David Fincher can do a great re-make. Now, let’s hope he never does one again. By definition, remakes demand that…
A DANGEROUS METHOD
Christopher Hampton’s stage play “The Talking Cure” provides the cerebral basis for David Cronenberg to dive into the largely overlooked…
SHAME
BDSM, British Cinema, Porn, Psychological Thriller, Reviews Blog, Romantic Drama, Romantic Fantasy, Satire, sex, Sexploitation, Transgressive Cinema, TWO STARS, Women's Cinema
“Shame” is an immature attempt at a psychosexual drama with thinly sketched characters set in bare-bones plot structure. Fassbender and…
SLEEPING BEAUTY — CANNES 2011
BDSM, Cannes Film Festival, Erotic, FOUR STARS, Porn, Psychological Thriller, Reviews Blog, Satire, sex, Sexploitation, Women Filmmakers, Women's Cinema
A bold feminist think-piece about the perceived and disguised societal demands placed on women, “Sleeping Beauty” is a hauntingly erotic…
SLEEPING BEAUTY — CANNES 2011
Art Film, BDSM, Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, Erotic, FOUR STARS, sex, Sexploitation, Social Satire, Women Filmmakers, Women's Cinema
A bold feminist think-piece about the perceived and disguised societal demands placed on women, “Sleeping Beauty” is a hauntingly erotic…
A DANGEROUS METHOD — NYFF 2011
“A Dangerous Mind” is a lush character study and history lesson that tenaciously explores the personal conflicts of ego and…
THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER — CLASSIC FILM PICK
Agitprop, Art Film, BDSM, Black Comedy, British Cinema, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Political Satire, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
“The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover” is a masterpiece of British cinema built on several hundred years…
TABLOID
Funny, snarky, and filled with grand scale self-delusion, “Tabloid” is the most gleefully enjoyable—and, given recent headlines about British tabloids,…
PERFORMANCE — CLASSIC FILM PICK
BDSM, British Cinema, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, Erotic, Experimental, FIVE STARS, LGBTQ, Music, Rock 'n' Roll, SHOCKTOBER!, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
A collaboration between British directors Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, “Performance” is a stunning experimental film. It pioneered a slew…
COLE SMITHEY’S CLASSIC CINEMA
