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Author Archives: Ross Birks
Star Time (1992)
A truly peculiar early 90s drone trip that unfurls with both jagged simplicity and abstract unpredictability. Star Time appears to be a serial killer movie, and it is that, but it’s also a strange satire on television consumer culture featuring a baby-faced suicidal teen … Continue reading
Mosaic (2018)
For Soderbergh nuts like myself I suppose the main thrill of Mosaic (which I saw in its episodic version and not through the intended app) is seeing how he stages, blocks and edits scenes to fit the hectic shooting schedule. Yes it’s … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
Tagged 2018, Devin Ratray, Frederick Weller, Garrett Hedlund, Jennifer Ferrin, Sharon Stone, Steven Soderbergh
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Sleeping Dogs (1977)
Not just the movie that kickstarted the New Zealand filmmaking boom and gave the world Sam Neill, Sleeping Dogsis also a wildly entertaining and furiously political action flick which slowly morphs into a kiwi Rambo. Moves like a rollercoaster but rattles on … Continue reading
Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)
A strange mash-up of guerilla-shooting-in-the-streets-of-70s-San Francisco with mild tinges of Manson family hippie paranoia and traditional, stiff vampire lore. Robert Quarry makes a meal out of the title role but this isn’t especially well paced or sharpened to deliver proper … Continue reading
American Beauty (1999)
Oh boy does a lot of this not hold up but that Conrad Hall lighting is still absolutely gorgeous. Very much a 1999 movie that I once considered one of the Greatest Movies of All Time. Sadly it established a … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Rewatch
Tagged 1999, Allison janey, Annette Bening, Chris Cooper, Kevin Spacey, Mena Suvari, Peter Gallagher, Sam mendes, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley
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Julie & Julia (2009)
Sorry but Meryl Streep is great in this. Despite my early hesitance, I thought the traintracking of both stories worked very well too even if it set me up for a false ending. I assumed it was building to a … Continue reading
The Fortune (1975)
Nichols’ flair for busy anamorphic master shots is well suited to screwball, letting his actors interact in prolonged stretches and allowing the physical gags to unfold naturally in tandem with the camera, but ultimately The Fortune just doesn’t work. Both Beatty and … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
Tagged 1975, Jack Nicholson, Mike Nichols, Stockard Channing, Warren Beatty
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Ready Player One (2018)
The Spielberg this most reminds me of is 1941. Like that film it’s absolutely choc-a-bloc with visual information and infinite content to the point where you just end up glazing over and unplugging from the action, barely engaging with it beyond … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
Tagged 2018, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, Mark Rylance, Olivia Cooke, Simon Pegg, Steven Spielberg, Tye Sheridan
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Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)
This spends a lot of its meandering running time avoiding being a TCM movie altogether. There’s so much ambling around in the woods which never seem as expansive or cavernous enough to justify all the characters constantly splitting apart and … Continue reading
Messiah of Evil (1973)
A neglected mood shocker that occasionally feels like the true successor to Carnival of Souls. Written and directed by William Huyck and Gloria Katz, a husband and wife team who would go on to work on some of the most iconic … Continue reading
"This Film Should Be Played Loud" 