Short Cuts: Joint Security Area (2000)

First feature-film from Korean director Park Chan-wook's (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy). Set on the border between South and North Korea, J.S.A. is a wonderful, smart, emotional, action-packed film that never betrays the intimacy of story and the depth of character at the expense of its slickness and assured flashiness. It also proves that Park was the real deal from the get-go. Can't wait to see Sympathy for Lady Vengeance which was just released in Asia at the end of July.

Short Cuts: Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)

This is an IFC documentary focusing on the turbulent life of indie-cable television programmer Jerry Harvey, who made his name as one of the most passionate and knowledgeble champions of the hard-to-find, must-see films of the classic era as well as the contemporary. Harvey worked out of L.A. in the 1970s and 1980s, a time when the big cable channels (e.g. HBO, Showtime, The Movie Channel, ON, etc.) were unaware that the market place (i.e. US!) was interested or would support a channel that showcased the finest in film, be it arthouse fare like the latest Visconti or Kurosawa or genre delights like Peckinpah or Argento. Eventually, HBO and their ilk figured out that people were interested, so the fat cats moved in and tried to extinguish Harvey from the market place. Z Channel also explores the rather dark side of Harvey's personality (he was prone to severe bouts of depression and suffered from alcoholism) and most certainly doesn't shy away from the last chapter of Harvey's life (it all ends in murder/suicide). But don't get me wrong, Z Channel is not a ghoulish look at this troubled man's life. It's a celebration of film, obsession, and the way the moving image has a way of transforming us into something that exists only within the flicker of shadow and light. And it's achingly inspiring. A magnificent documentary indeed. If for no other reason, the Cinematic God will bestow great gifts upon Mr. Harvey's soul for championing Michael Cimino's much-reviled flop Heaven's Gate (one of the great political Westerns ever made!) when no other critic had the balls to do so. Amen.

Short Cuts: Ossessione (1942)

Visconti's take on James M. Cain's sultry noir masterpiece, The Postman Always Rings Twice, is gritty, moving, and erotic in that classic Italian neo-realist style. Nothing says reality like the camera lens. A masterpiece of world cinema if there ever was one. Skip the Lana Turner/John Garfield version and hit this baby instead.

Short Cuts: Dogville (2003)

Ambitious, and almost successful allegory of American tyranny and cultural subjugation as seen through the eyes of young Grace (Nicole Kidman), a wide-eyed innocent who seeks refuge in the small town of Dogville from a gang of ruthless mobsters. Captivating in so many ways (the acting, the sets, the music, the emotional of power of some scenes), director Lars von Trier (Zentropa, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark) ultimately fumbles Grace's story under the weight of too much symbolism, too much contrivance, and way too much finger pointing at us Americans and our inability to deal with the sins of our past and . . . present. Point taken, but what did your grandfather do in World War Two? And, of course, there's that whole European slave trade thing . . . .

Short Cuts

Because I'll be saving my longer reviews for the print zine, I thought I'd start posting some of my short, short ruminations about film here. So look forward to more of these "reviews" over the next few weeks, months, blah, blah, blah.

Ran (1985)

Akira Kurosawa's splendid adaptation of King Lear was the perfect balm to soothe my troubled mind after I made the mistake of re-watching George Lucas' soulless piece of shit Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace in preparation for Sith. Well, I never made it through the re-watch and ultimately never made it to the theaters to observe the masses fumbling over themselves to see the latest craptacular "entertainment" from Mr. Lucas. Ran, on the other hand, is one of the greatest films ever made and one of the coolest, most spectacular and emotionally devastating samurai-science fiction creations ever made. Don't believe me that it's SF? Watch the armies of samurai/aliens/insects battle across the blasted-earth at the base of Mount Fuji and try to deny the feeling that you've left this earth for good. If you can deny it, go back to your fucking Star Wars abominations and rot in your own mediocrity.

And Speaking of blogs . . .

This one has been out of commission for awhile. But hey, it happens. I should, though, be updating it with a bunch of new reviews and stuff within the next couple of days. So be prepared!

And the next hardcopy issue of Nightmare Town (issue two, #1) should be hitting the streets within the next couple of weeks. I do have a few issues of the "Preview Issue" still available, so if anyone wants one they can email me with their contact information. The new issue will have a great feature-length piece on Catholic horror films, a duel review (one pro, one con) of Kevin Costner's western Open Range, a fabulous parody/homage to H.P. Lovecraft and Hollywood, and much, much more as "they" say. For those of you who enjoyed the first issue, I'm sure you'll like this one as well.

Wherever the River is Going

My partner in crime, Lynda Rucker, has her new blog up and running. She's already posted some great pieces about "the beautiful game" and how it's currently consuming our lives, the latest from Italian horror director Dario Argento, and our plans on venturing down south to see the Once Upon a Time in Italy: The Westerns of Sergio Leone exhibit currently going on in Los Angeles.

Check out Lynda's blog at: lyndaerucker.blogspot.com

Update?

Well, contrary to what my friends say, I'm not dead. I'm just a lying, lazy, good for nothing bum. Actually, I've been working on the latest issue of Nightmare Town and on other writing related stuff. So there. If anyone out there actually cares, the blog site is not dead. It's just resting its eyes. So stay tuned . . . .

Debra Hill, the producer of a few of John Carpenter's finest films, including the classic Halloween (and the first two pesky, lesser sequels that I pretend don't exist), The Fog, and Escape from New York, as well as films such as David Cronenberg's adaptation of The Dead Zone, and Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King, died today at the age of 54. For those of us who fed our imaginations with those early, fabulous Carpenter films, her death is a sad one indeed. For more info, check out the link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4328323.stm

Update Coming Soon!

I realize it's been awhile since my last update, but it's been pretty busy around here lately as I've been working on the next issue of the zine, among other creative endeavors. But I will post some new reviews within the next couple of days, including pieces on The Blind Swordsman--Zatoichi, Badaasssss!, Time of the Wolf, Bright Future, Old Boy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Dark Water, a bunch of Shaw Brothers kung-fu stuff, and I'm sure some other things that I've forgotten. So stay tuned if you still give a damn!