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Author Archives: Ross Birks
Murder Party (2007)
Jeremy Saulnier’s debut feature is a far cry from the controlled genre meditations of Blue Ruin and Green Room but it still feels apiece with those movies. There’s a useless protagonist in the lead and sudden outbursts of violence drive the film’s pulse. It’s … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Watched In 2016, Reviews
Tagged Jeremy Saulnier, Macon Blair, Murder Party
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The Sound of Fate: William Friedkin’s Sorcerer (1977)
Friedkin’s follow-up to The Exorcist might have taken almost forty years to gain the respect it deserves but better late than never. This is a masculine and brutish picture, extremely physical in design and presentation but flavoured with a crackling existential shroud. … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Watched In 2016, Reviews, Rewatch
Tagged Roy Scheider, Sorcerer, Tangerine Dream, William Friedkin
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Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989)
A pretty lacklustre threequel which lacks both the surprise of the first movie and the delight of the second by being little more than a retread. Shot back-to-back with Sleepaway Camp II it’s like the Back to the Future III of slasher movies. Die … Continue reading
Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988)
There’s a lot of ghoulish fun to be had here. Gone are the pointless whodunnit shadings of the first film and any pursuit of the transgender subplot is done between movies. By the time we meet Angela Baker here (now … Continue reading
Junun (2015)
Junun documents the making of the album of the same name by Jonny Greenwood, Shye Ben Tzur and The Rajasthan Express. As far as documentaries go it’s a pretty laid-back affair, more akin to those you get on album bonus DVDs … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Watched In 2016, Reviews
Tagged Jonny Greenwood, Junun, Paul Thomas Anderson
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Torso (1973)
Torso is even better the second time around. Martino really commits to making a movie about sexual violence and as is often the case with the genre, there’s a lot of female flesh on show, especially in the murder sequences. It … Continue reading
Last Embrace (1979)
Jonathan Demme’s take on the Hitchcock thriller is enjoyable enough and moves with a 90-minute swiftness. Roy Scheider is one of the best actors the 70s blessed us with and it’s fun to see him play a conflicted, cookie-cutter hero. … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Watched In 2016, Reviews
Tagged Christopher Walken, Jonathan Demme, Last Embrace, Roy Scheider
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Forbidden Planet (1956)
Forbidden Planet is such a seminal piece of science fiction history that just the mention of it’s title brings to mind imagery from the film, even if you’ve never heard of Anne Francis beyond her namecheck on the opening song of The … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Watched In 2016, Rewatch
Tagged Anne Francis, Forbidden Planet, Fred M. Wilcox, Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon
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The Headspace of a Holocaust Survivor: The Pawnbroker (1964)
Sidney Lumet made a lot of movies in his lifetime, many of them are regarded as classics while others, like The Pawnbroker, have become hidden gems waiting to be unearthed by subsequent generations of filmgoers. The film follows Sol Nazerman (Rod … Continue reading
Posted in Movies Watched In 2016, Reviews
Tagged Rod Steiger, Sidney Lumet, The Pawnbroker
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Cut to the Chase: Midnight Special (2016)
While watching Midnight Special, I suspected that Jeff Nichols wrote an action-packed sci-fi/road movie then decided to completely jettison the first two acts and expand the last third to feature length. He deliberately eschews character set-up and plot context in favour … Continue reading
"This Film Should Be Played Loud" 