I’m Fairly Well Conditioned to Shock | Experiment in Terror (1962) Blu-ray
A title like Experiment in Terror seems primed for disappointment six decades and change later. Could any film from 1962 actually scare a jaded audience conditioned by modern horror movies to expect graphic violence and gore from something with a name like that? Perhaps not, even probably not, especially once you tell those same viewers…
Film After 11 Podcast | Tremors (1990)
We’re all shook up on the Film After 11 podcast this week as we tackle director Ron Underwood’s 1990 horror comedy Tremors. The movie wasn’t much of a box office hit during its theatrical run, but quickly grew into a cult classic on home video. My son Thomas has taken an interest in horror movies…
A Hundred Is Enough | Drowning by Numbers (1988) 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
In many interviews and talks, Peter Greenaway has declared with some certainty and no small amount of pomposity that narrative and character development are not only inessential, but weaknesses of the cinematic medium. He treats his work not as “movies” in the widely-accepted sense, but as a form of visual art in motion, the sort…
Kinski Skinski | Cat People (1982) 4K Ultra HD
I learned a somewhat interesting fact from watching Paul Schrader’s 1982 quasi-remake of Cat People. Actually, I had to look it up afterward. Regardless, now I know that leopards and panthers are the same species, differentiated mainly by color. Perhaps that’s common knowledge to others, but I’d never given it any thought previously, until confused…
Film After 11 Podcast | Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Vegas, baby! The Film After 11 podcast travels to the city of sin this week, in the company of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and a whole bunch of famous friends. Yes, Film After 11 takes on Ocean’s Eleven in an 11-minute review with a 12-year-old viewer. Maybe I should have done this last year for…
I Like the Dark, It’s Friendly | Cat People (1942) Criterion Blu-ray
Ever since the phrase “auteur theory” was coined in the early 1960s, audiences and film connoisseurs who care to notice such things have typically considered a director to be the main artistic guiding force behind any movie. That thought often applies even in retrospect to older films, but wasn’t always the case, especially not during…
Forth and Back | Memento (2000)
While Christopher Nolan may not have invented the ingenious “backwards” gimmick, he did perfect it. Memorably, even Seinfeld beat Nolan to the punch in a famous episode three years earlier. Perhaps the most innovative prior example was Harold Pinter’s play (and 1983 movie) Betrayal. Even if the reverse-chronology narrative isn’t Nolan’s invention, nor is it…
Film After 11 Podcast | Batman Begins (2005)
We’re all done with that alphabetical marathon on the Film After 11 podcast and, at the moment at least, not beholden to any specific theme. If you think of one, please let me know. In the meantime, this week’s episode is timed to correspond with the theatrical release of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. I figured…
We’re Suspicious of Strangers, Is All | Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) Blu-ray
Part Western, part noir, and mostly a bunch of tough guys glaring at one another for 80 minutes, Bad Day at Black Rock was a collision of B-movie and prestige picture when it was made in 1955. Headlined by a couple major stars, one veteran character actor, and some other notable talent on the rise,…
Film After 11 Podcast | Zoolander (2001)
We’ve finally hit the end of our alphabetical marathon on the Film After 11 podcast. That of course brings us to the letter “Z,” for which I thought Ben Stiller’s fashion industry parody Zoolander would be a good choice. That movie’s rated PG-13, right? No, it’s rated R? Turns out, both are true. I explain…
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