There are many strange legends in the Amazon. Even I, Lucas, have heard the legend of a man-fish.
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
21 May
Some kind of instinct. Memory of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives.
Boyz n the Hood (1991)
17 May
Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the hood.
Sideways (2004)
16 May
No, if anyone orders Merlot, I’m leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!
The Raid (2011)
15 May
Artfully sadistic and elegantly hypnotic, Gareth Evans’s “The Raid” is a master class in brutally stylistic and simplistic storytelling. Ostensibly a traditional cops-vs.-bad-guys frenetic beat-’em-up, Evans executes his tale with such flair and guile that this is far superior fare to comparable genre pictures. Evans’s appreciation of and fascination with the Indonesian martial art Pencak Silat ensures that every punch and kick hits the mark, subjecting his audience to a relentless assault on the senses.
THE LOWDOWN WEEK 17
15 May
Retreating into dark shadows and having a private but very audible sob was my reaction to watching the trailer for Tim Burton’s latest catastrophe. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter have shown Burton unrivalled loyalty in recent years (one senses they’re in on some sort of terribly unfunny joke) as he slowly undoes any of the good will that his early work may have garnered with clangers following swiftly on from stinkers. The fact that Dark Shadows shows little sign of breaking that run means that save for Corpse Bride, Burton hasn’t made a good film since Mars Attacks in 1996 and even that was iffy at times.
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
15 May
Frankly, you’re beginning to smell and for a stud in New York, that’s a handicap.
24 Hour Party People (2002)
13 May
And tonight something equally epoch-making is taking place. See? They’re applauding the DJ. Not the music, not the musician, not the creator, but the medium. This is it. The birth of rave culture. The beatification of the beat. The dance age. This is the moment when even the white man starts dancing. Welcome to Manchester.
From the Archives: Wah Do Dem (2009)
12 May
Guerrilla indie filmmaking meets slacker road movie, “Wah Do Dem” is a well crafted black comedy that benefits from its raw, improvisational feel. Conceived when young filmmaking duo, Ben Chace and Sam Fleischner decided to turn a cruise Chace had won in a raffle into a film project, “Wah Do Dem” follows the hapless Max (a well observed Sean Bones) as he embarks on a cruise from New York to Jamaica and subsequently stumbles from one misfortune to the next. It’s a touching and sometimes farcical tale that touches on cultural isolation, loneliness and how desperate situations can sometimes be a blessing in disguise.
crash/burn 