NOSFERATU
I suppose this film’s tag line, “Succumb to the Darkness” is an apt sentiment in the age of global warming…
Literary Adaptation
NOSFERATU
If you’ve seen Robert Eggers’ excellent film “The Lighthouse,” then you should have high expectations for how Eggers could approach…
QUEER
Capsules Blog, Italian Cinema, LGBTQ, Literary Adaptation, Queer Cinema, sex, Sexploitation, ZERO STARS
Everything about “Queer” screams failed experiment. Luca Guadagnino has no natural instinct for narrative structure. Guadagnino’s is a fake formal…
FEUD: CAPOTE VS. THE SWANS
Biopic, Capsules Blog, FOUR STARS, LGBTQ, Literary Adaptation, sex, Social Satire, Women Filmmakers, Women's Cinema
Mired in the cruelty of its real-life characters, the series starts off bumpy. If you can make it past the…
AMERICAN FICTION
2023 stands as perhaps the best year for satire. “American Fiction” puts a fine point on that fact with a…
POOR THINGS
Academy Awards, Capsules Blog, Erotic, FIVE STARS, Greek Cinema, LGBTQ, Literary Adaptation, Magical Realism, sex, Sexploitation, Women's Cinema
When I met Yorgos Lanthimos at the Fox Searchlight party for his film “The Favourite,” I told him that I…
NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, New German Cinema, sex, SHOCKTOBER!, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Werner Herzog’s inspired homage to F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film is an appropriately chilling telling of the Gothic tale derived…
THE NINTH GATE — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Cult Film, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Religion, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, THREE STARS, Women's Cinema
Pauline Kael said that “great movies are rarely perfect movies,” and this truism certainly applies to The Ninth Gate. Actress…
FIGHT CLUB — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, Dystopia, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Neo-Noir, Podcast, Political Satire, Religion, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Transgressive Cinema
Misogynist, anti-capitalist, and class-conscious, novelist Chuck Palahniuk’s “Fight Club” takes a “Trainspotting” brand of glee in dismissing lifestyle mores and…
STARSHIP TROOPERS — SHOCKTOBER!
Black Comedy, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Corporate Corruption, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Political Satire, Sci-Fi, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, War, War Fantasy, Women's Cinema
“Starship Troopers” is a canny war satire that outshines even Kubrick’s great satire “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to…
FORBIDDEN GAMES — SHOCKTOBER!
Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, Horror, Literary Adaptation, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Realism, Social Satire, War, War Fantasy
Rene Clement’s 1952 adaptation of Francois Boyer’s 1944 novel is an exquisitely pragmatic film about the corruptive effect of war…
PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER — SHOCKTOBER!
Opulent and grotesque, this brassy achievement from director Tom Twyker (“Run, Lola, Run”) is based on the best-selling novel by…
THE SKIN I LIVE IN — SHOCKTOBER!
Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, FOUR STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Magical Realism, SHOCKTOBER!, Spanish Cinema, Women's Cinema
Pedro Almodóvar proves himself an apt technician at sustaining suspense in the thriller genre. Antonio Banderas returns to work with…
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, Dystopia, FIVE STARS, Horror, LGBTQ, Literary Adaptation, Music, Political Satire, Rock 'n' Roll, Sci-Fi, sex, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Women's Cinema
“The Man Who Fell to Earth” is brilliantly stylized science fiction satire about an alien who comes to our big…
SALO, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Italian Cinema, LGBTQ, Literary Adaptation, Political Satire, sex, Sexploitation, SHOCKTOBER!, Transgressive Cinema
Welcome! Groupthink doesn’t live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.…
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER — SHOCKTOBER!
Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Crime Drama, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Gothic, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Noir, sex, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Charles Laughton, a consummate British actor of stage and film, directed only one film during his lifetime, but he made…
IN COLD BLOOD — SHOCKTOBER!
Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, SHOCKTOBER!, True Crime, Video Essay
Screenwriter-director Richard Brooks’s faithful adaptation of Truman Capote’s innovative 1966 “non-fiction novel,” about a 1959 multiple homicide in Holcomb, Kansas,…
1408 — SHOCKTOBER!
Adapted from a short story by Stephen King, Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom (“Derailed”) skillfully helms this twisting one-man showcase in…
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH — SHOCKTOBER!
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire, Women's Cinema
Roman Polanski’s cinematic riposte to the heartbreak he suffered in 1969, when his pregnant wife Sharon Tate was brutally murdered…
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE — SHOCKTOBER!
Banned Films, British Cinema, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Cult Film, FIVE STARS, Horror, Literary Adaptation, Political Satire, SHOCKTOBER!, Social Satire
There’s Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange,” and then there’s everything else. Kubrick’s 1971 adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s complex literary satire…
COLE SMITHEY’S CLASSIC CINEMA
