f i l m j o u r n e y . o r g

While the popularity of Japanese horror films has recently penetrated these shores, the genre has its share of classics, many from the ’50s and ’60s, when Japan’s studio system (like Hollywood’s) was beginning to crumble and smaller studios were experimenting with edgier (and sometimes downright sensationalistic) fare. This weekend, the American Cinematheque has been screening [...]

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The gravity of the upcoming US election makes it difficult to concentrate on a lot of movies this week, but stay tuned for at least a couple more reviews. In the meantime:
ïThe new issue of Senses of Cinema is now online.
ïThe excellent Canadian film magazine, Cinema Scope, now has a nice website.
ïWhy I continue [...]

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Short film compilations commissioned for a theme have been a staple genre of the festival circuit for years, and although they rarely achieve artistic cohesion, they sometimes have their stand-out works and a few of them even manage to get released on video (for example, ’60s collections like Rogopag or Six in Paris or [...]

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My friend Mike Hertenstein has outdone himself and written a wonderful review of Dariush Mahrjui’s landmark Iranian film The Cow (1969) as part of his coverage of the Chicago International Film Festival, and to commemorate the film’s release this week on DVD:

“An awareness of at least two sides to every story is a hallmark for [...]

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“It is the hour when practically all business, office hours and duties are at an end, and everyone is hurrying home to dinner, to lie down, to have a rest, and as they walk along they think of other pleasant ways of spending the evening, the night, and the rest of their leisure time. [...]

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I’ve mentioned the Time Out Film Guide before as being my favorite capsule review book in print, so it’s a real pleasure that they have included a plug for Masters of Cinema in their newest 13th edition. They also highlight the sites of several friends, including (obviously) DVD Beaver and Acquarello’s Strictly Film [...]

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Although Stan Brakhage died in 2003, another icon of Beat Generation experimental filmmaking, Ken Jacobs, has just released the latest iteration of his Star Spangled to Death, a fabled project he began in 1957 but didn’t complete, reworked as a performance piece in the ’70s, and decided to go ahead and finalize on digital video [...]

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I’m flattered to have just been invited to join Cinemarati: The Web Alliance for Film Commentary as a member critic. The organization is a “professional guild for film writers whose work appears primarily on the Web” that includes folks like my friend Acquarello of Strictly Film School and Ed Gonzalez of Slant. I’m [...]

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What must surely be the best film (re)released in theatres this year has become what could also be the best single-title DVD package of the year, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966). The Criterion Collection doesn’t disappoint with its three discs of material and 55-page booklet to be released next Tuesday. I [...]

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The Small Town (Kasaba)
I try not to get too cynical about the cultural constraints enforced by popular film discussion, but here in Los Angeles, one of the NPR radio stations hosts a high-profile and thoroughly middlebrow program entitled Air Talk, which includes a weekly summary of opening movies called Film Week. The show’s faux-intellectual [...]

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