Grindhouse: Planet Terror (2007)
The idea for Planet Terror came up while Robert Rodriguez was making The Faculty. He told the young actors that zombie movies were ready to rise from its grave and he wanted to get there first. He was more than correct and he missed his chance to be the first of many modern zombie films. When […]
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
From Dusk Till Dawn came from the brains of Robert Kurtzman — the K in KNB — who wrote the original story, co-produced the film and helped create the special effects. It brings together Quentin Tarantino — who wrote the script and acts in the film — with Robert Rodriguez, the director of films such […]
True Romance (1993)
So here I am . . . sitting in a theatre watching Professor Q’s ninth directing effort, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, 25 years after the release of a movie that proved Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs wasn’t a fluke: Pulp Fiction, a film which served as his third film overall—and his second directorial effort. […]
Jackie Brown (1997)
Jackie Brown is the only Tarantino movie — so far — based on a previous work, the book Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch. Inspired by Coffy and Foxy Brown — just look at that poster — and starring Pam Grier and Robert Forster, who hadn’t had lead roles in years. Although Tarantino took liberties with the novel, Leonard loved […]
Pulp Fiction (1994)
There are movies and then there are forces of pop culture nature. Pulp Fiction is just such a film. While so much before influenced it, nothing after would ever be the same. In its wake, so many films tried to xerox its non-linear narrative, ultraviolence and wildly veering plot points. Pretty much not a single one […]
Natural Born Killers (1994)
What seemed subversive and important in 1994 feels silly and weightless today as I sit here, 25 years later. At one point — let’s say 2006, when Entertainment Weekly published their list of the most controversial films in history, it placed eighth. I call BS on any list that doesn’t list Salo and has Cannibal Holocaust at twenty. […]
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
While a formally educated and cinematically well-rounded film critic viewing Tarantino’s oeuvre will level accusations of plagiarism, schleps like me, who attended the Community College of Film Criticism with Quentin Tarantino, i.e., the local video store, realize Quentin crafts youth-inspired homage. He, like this writer and most of the B&S Movies’ readers, are graduates of […]
The Editor (2014)
Astron-6 is — well, was as the recent release of the collected Divorced Dad is supposedly their last project together — a Canadian film production and directing company founded in 2007 by Adam Brooks and Jeremy Gillespie which later expanded to add Matt Kennedy, Conor Sweeney and Steven Kostanski. They’re known for producing low-budget horror/comedy […]
Mutual Admiration (2006)
Andrew Bujalski is the godfather of mumblecore, a subgenre of independent film “characterized by naturalistic acting and dialogue (sometimes improvised), low-budget film production, an emphasis on dialogue over plot, and a focus on the personal relationships of people in their 20s and 30s.” His film Funny Ha Ha is considered the first film in this form. […]
Scrawl (2019)
Scrawl is the film debut of Daisy Ridley, who has gone on to star in Rey in the new series of Star Wars movies. Shot in 2015, she plays Hannah, who literally becomes death itself in this movie, which is about teens that create a comic book that comes to life with deadly results. Simon Goodman […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.