Blog Archives
Back to Hell
I recently found Straight to Hell with Spanish subtitles on YouTube. Like Blue Velvet and River’s Edge, Straight to Hell was released in 1986. Three decades haven’t dulled this whacked-out western which married MTV to the wild west with a cast of rockers including the Pogues, Joe Strummer, Courtney Love, Dennis Hopper, Grace Jones, Elvis [...]
River’s Return
In 1981, in a small California town, a teenager raped and killed his girlfriend. Afterwards he took his friends to see the body. About a dozen young people had seen the body and known about the murder before the murder was reported two days after the slaying. River’s Edge is based on those events. The [...]
Frank’s Wild Years
My last post celebrating Blue Velvet at 30 created a lot of fun comments and discussions on social media, and that made me glad that I’d bookmarked this great interview with Dennis Hopper. This chat covers Hopper’s work with David Lynch on the film, and looks back at the star’s storied, sordid, remarkable career. Stay [...]
Love Letter
This year we celebrate the 30th anniversary of David Lynch’s surreal skewering of suburbia, Blue Velvet. A 2002 documentary illuminated that story’s darkest shadows. Here’s IndieWire with the word… The 70-minute-long, 2002 documentary The Mysteries Of Love dives deep into the 1986 film, with interviews with key members of the creative team, including Lynch himself, [...]
Dennis Hopper’s Chainsaw
This year we celebrate the release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. You read that right. The first film is the best horror movie of all time for some, but if it seems odd to be celebrating the sequel, you obviously haven’t seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Did I mention it stars Dennis Hopper [...]
40 Years of Assault
After spending nearly a week lounging in the Gulf of Mexico I spent Sunday afternoon lounging on the rocks in the water at Dale Hollow reservoir. All this warm weather resting has reminded me what a sun worshiper I’ve always been — I think most summer babies are. I brought two songs back from the [...]
Blow-Up Again
This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up. A movie about images, the first time I saw through the film’s most superficial layers I was in the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, TN. I think it was during a Noir Fest screening — it was a double-feature with De Palma’s Blowout. Again, this [...]
Hail, Taxi Driver
Continuing our celebration of Taxi Driver at 40, here’s 70 plus minutes of analysis by Lewis of Channel Criswell. He’s a budding filmmaker and I enjoyed his understanding of the Scorsese classic, and I wanted to share it with y’all. It’s also a great opportunity to revisit the movie along with behind the scenes bits [...]
Flap Flop
My review of Batman v Superman hit the streets Monday in this week’s edition of The Contributor. I saw the movie in previews a few days before its big opening weekend, but given the paper’s editorial calendar this one is merely adding a drip to the deluge of negative criticism and fan reactions that found [...]
Anita, I Need Ya
Today we celebrate the 1944 birthday of model, actress and Rolling Stones’ muse Anita Pallenberg. Pallenberg was Brian Jones’ girlfriend before he destroyed himself with drugs and she hooked-up with Keith, during which time she filmed the infamous love scenes in Performance with Mick Jagger. Performance is a landmark psycho/sexual/crime drama masterpiece by Donald Cammell [...]
