Having covered the original Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein on our Film at 11 podcast a couple weeks ago (Ep. 34), I thought it would be a fun idea to close out this year’s Halloween run by watching Mel Brooks’ classic 1974 parody Young Frankenstein with my son Joseph. Sadly, he didn’t respond to it… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 36 | Young Frankenstein (1974)
With his breakout 1987 directorial debut Hellraiser, Clive Barker seemed poised to establish himself as one of the horror genre’s great auteurs, as talented and successful at filmmaking as he was at writing bestselling novels. However, even while his books drew legions of fans, Barker’s second movie, 1990’s Nightbreed, fizzled with both critics and audiences.… Read More A Narrow Path Between Divinity and Trickery | Lord of Illusions (1995)
The choice of movie to watch with my son for the Film at 11 podcast came right down to the wire this week. This is another Halloween-themed episode, and until just about two minutes before recording, I was all set to run with the original 1982 Poltergeist. Those plans shifted when I decided that Thomas… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 35 | Hellboy (2004)
“We all sell out every day. Might as well be on the winning team,” says a character in John Carpenter’s They Live, a movie originally sold as a sci-fi/horror flick but that has become more famous over time for its blunt political satire. Originally produced at the height of the Reaganomics era, the film’s messaging… Read More Obey, Consume, Conform | They Live (1988)
In most of our Film at 11 podcasts, I’ve focused on introducing my sons to movies from the 1980s and ’90s, because those were the years when I fell in love with film and was most active going out to the theater. For this week’s Halloween-themed episode, however, I take Joseph back much, much farther,… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 34 | Frankenstein (1931) & Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
I’d never be so brazen as to call the low-budget, arty vampire film Nadja any sort of neglected or misunderstood masterpiece. It’s not nearly good enough to earn that distinction. However, watching the movie again so many years later takes me right back to a very specific moment in the indie film renaissance of the… Read More The Pain of Fleeting Beauty | Nadja (1994)
As Halloween approaches, it’s time to start watching scary movies with my kids. Because my sons are both 11, however, I won’t start them with anything too strong, at least not right away. For our Film at 11 podcast this week, Thomas and I sit down with The Monster Squad, director Fred Dekker and writer… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 33 | The Monster Squad (1987)
Likely best known in film appreciation circles as the feature directing debut for Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life), Badlands is both one of Malick’s shortest movies and seemingly his most straightforward. A lovers-on-the-run crime tale inspired by the real-life Charles Starkweather murder spree of the late 1950s, the film no… Read More Nobody’s Comin’ Out of This Thing Happy | Badlands (1973) Criterion Collection Blu-ray
Disaster in space seems to be a theme we’re working through in the Film at 11 podcast at the moment, at least in recent episodes with my son Joseph. Moving on from Apollo 13, this week we tackle Ridley Scott’s adaptation of the sci-fi bestseller The Martian, in which Matt Damon plays an astronaut stranded… Read More Film at 11 Podcast: Episode 32 | The Martian (2015)
Released very early in 1950 as one of the first new American films of that decade, the noir thriller Gun Crazy wasn’t regarded as a piece of art worthy of much distinction, at least not at first. Upon its arrival, notable critics of the day dismissed it as just another B-movie, a trashy crime picture… Read More Fine Shot You Are | Gun Crazy (1950) Blu-ray
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