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Author Archives: Ross Birks
A De Palma Double: Femme Fatale & Passion
If you’re going to pair up two Brian De Palma erotic thrillers nine times out of ten you’d go for Dressed to Kill and Body Double. Upon recently revisiting De Palma’s canon for the umpteenth time, however, I found a … Continue reading
Lifeboat (1944)
Damn it’s been a long time since I scratched a new Hitchcock off of the watchlist! One of the things I love about Hitch is his desire to constantly challenge himself. You get the feeling he thrived off of giving … Continue reading
The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974)
This is a weird one: an Italian zombie movie set in the British Moors aka my back garden! Out of all the harebrained explanations for a zombie infection, the one in Living Dead at Manchester Morgue must be one of … Continue reading
Cooties (2014)
A fun and screwy horror-comedy that isn’t afraid to get squishy. Making a bunch of children the enemy is hilarious as it leads to endless scenes of kiddies getting their brains bashed in. You don’t see that every day. I … Continue reading
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Tagged Allison Pill, Cooties, Elijah Wood, Leigh Whannell, Rainn Wilson
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Chi-Raq (2015)
Full of life and stylisitc vigour, Chi-Raq is the most eye-popping display of Spike Lee’s passions in years. That being said, it still suffers from the same problems that weigh down most films in his filmography. It feels over-stuffed and … Continue reading
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Tagged Angela Battis, Chi-Raq, Nick Canon, Samuel L Jackson, spike lee, Teyonah Parris
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Der Fan (1982)
The praise surrounding the recent blu-ray release of this movie is what led me to finally seeing it. What a beautiful little oddity. Concerning the exploits of a young girl obsessed with a pop idol in 80s Germany, the film … Continue reading
Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)
My first Assayas! Clouds of Sils Maria is a curious little movie. The mix of international stars with an unmistakable art-film sensibility is fun and actually lends the film more texture as opposed to weakening it. The film plays like … Continue reading
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Tagged Chloe Grace Moretz, Clouds of Sils Maria, Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Oliver Assayas
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Room (2015)
Room takes hold of you in it’s opening seconds and keeps a firm grip for the first hour. Director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Emma Donaghue (adapting her own novel) wisely confine the audience in the same room that has oppressed … Continue reading
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Tagged Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, Lenny Abrahamson, Room, William H. Macy
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The Parallax View (1974)
This is easily the least-essential of Pakula and Willis’ Paranoia trilogy, probably because the plot is the silliest and most pulpy of the three, but it’s still a great example of crackerjack thriller filmmaking. I’ve been obsessing over Willis and … Continue reading
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Tagged Alan J. Pakula, Gordon Willis, The Parallax View, Warren Beatty
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Spotlight (2015)
Much has already been written about how un-cinematic Spotlight‘s direction is and I agree 100%. Comparisons to All the President’s Men are appropriate as far as subject matter goes but in terms of execution the two really couldn’t be further … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
Tagged Liev Schrieber, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Stanley Tucci, Tom McCarthy
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"This Film Should Be Played Loud" 