• The Man and the Monster

    The Man and the Monster

    ★★★★

    Faust meets Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde* meets the Phantom of the Opera meets the Wolf Man --Mexican style. Unexpectedly, the otherwise laughably made-up monster struck me as real nightmarish and made me literally sick. The scene with the little girl playing Tchaikovsky on the piano, before the concert in the final act, was the best in a quite surprising elliptical fashion, and still I found myself talking to the screen and the characters on it more often than not from…

  • The Fearless Vampire Killers

    The Fearless Vampire Killers

    ★★★★

    If you watched this as a child, it was more terrifying than Rosemary's Baby.

  • Wings of Desire

    Wings of Desire

    ★★★★

    Damiel, the angel in love with a trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin), may well be Bruno Ganz's most beautiful performance. The cinematography (by Henri Alekan), in particular, reaches its own kind of poetry.

  • Pepi, Luci, Bom

    Pepi, Luci, Bom

    ★★★½

    The movida madrileña as pop-art, LGBTQIA+, feminist cultural and social satire. Almodóvar at his rawest yet most authentic and groundbreaking. Alaska as her teenage Punk/Goth self.

    Assumpta Serna!

  • Scanners

    Scanners

    ★★★★

    Now picture a movie co-starring Jack Nicholson, Michael Ironside, and Danny Huston 🤯

  • The Omen Legacy

    The Omen Legacy

    ★★★

    How can this be narrated by Jack Palance and not have Holly Palance as one of the interviewees?

  • Omen IV: The Awakening

    Omen IV: The Awakening

    ★½

    Last shot of the last Omen (made-for-TV) movie sequel: Delia and her adoptive father, carrying her little brother, walking down a lane that is revealed to be an inverted cross after the funeral.
    Me, still appreciating the desperate effort to enhance a beyond-mediocre flick: "I see what you did there!"

    Bad, very bad --and not the evil kind of bad it's supposedly aiming for--, yet not in the same godawful level of unimaginativeness as the 2006 remake of the original classic.

    My ranking of the Omen franchise: boxd.it/lxsfE

  • Cruising

    Cruising

    ★★★★

    The look on Pacino's face when he breaks the fourth wall at the end is so beyond disturbing!

    Cruising remains one heck of an ugly and arguably offensive picture, yet also an intriguing and fascinating thriller that dares to go some crazy places --and this is the reason why it can provoke an almost primal reaction still felt as of today.

  • Omen III: The Final Conflict

    Omen III: The Final Conflict

    ★★★½

    I had kind of forgotten how new everything is in this entry, hence making it a risky and ultimately compelling effort: Jerry Goldsmith's score, the political plot and the overall frame of the narrative heavily relying on Scripture (in a similar way as the original production), and Sam Neill as an adult Damien. The finale is the best! Of course, there are some shocking murders, but their significance is better realised here than in the previous sequel --although I still…

  • Scarface

    Scarface

    ★★★★★

    "Chi Chi, get the yeyo." ~Tony Montana

    Is this the perfect remake? Fuck YES!

  • The Omen

    The Omen

    ★★★★★

    Perhaps more fascinating than ever. One of Gregory Peck's most moving works.

  • Blue Collar

    Blue Collar

    ★★★★

    The Oreo Gang: Pryor, Keitel, Kotto.