TCMFF Day 2, Film 5: Blood on the Moon
I was introduced to film noir westerns decades ago when I saw Robert Mitchum in Pursued at Telluride Film Festival. That started to make me rethink of some others in a similar vein (notably Johnny Guitar).
So when I saw that Blood on the Moon was screening and that it was listed as a noir western and I had never seen it, it jumped to the top of my must-see films…
TCMFF Day 2, Film 4: Footlight Parade
Seeing Jimmy Cagney dance is always a pleasure. Then add in a wise-cracking Joan Blondell (is there any other kind?), insane Busby Berkeley musical numbers, pre-code naughtiness, poking fun at censors, and you have something pretty irresistible.
There is also, however, the embarrassing awkwardness of Ruby Keeler made to look Asian to be and to sing Shanghai Lil.
The Busby Berkeley numbers are legit crazy. There is no pretense that these numbers could…
OK if you take on the mantle of Evil Dead then you have a lot to live up to. It may not be fair but it's the truth. Sam Raimi created The Evil Dead and endowed it with his unique blend of gore, bodily fluids, horror and humor. You can pretend the first film did not have humor but Raimi and star Bruce Campbell never hid their love of the Three Stooges and it is evident in The Evil Dead…
When Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool screened last week at Sundance Film Festival, it came with all sorts of warnings about gore, violence, sexual content, and strobe effects that could cause seizures. It delivers on all that but with an elegance of craft and meticulous care that audiences might not expect. From its opening shots that spin the world upside down, it’s designed to throw you off kilter and make you uncomfortable.
The film’s set an an isolated foreign resort where…
