CINEMA: Masked & Anonymous

You could begin the story of Todd Haynes’s Dylan movie at the very beginning, about seven years ago, while Haynes was driving cross-country in his beat-up old Honda. But since Todd Haynes?s film about Dylan is as much about Todd Haynes as it is about Dylan (or maybe even more); and since Haynes is a filmmaker who, in midcareer at age 46, is doing his best to take the experimental into the multiplex; and, further, since those who don’t like the film are likely to consider it a kind of gorgeous indulgence, a bizarre experiment, the temptation is to skip […]

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CINEMA: In The Kingdom Of The Senseless

LUST, CAUTION (2007. Directed by Ang Lee, 157 minutes, U.S./China/Taiwan) THE KINGDOM (2007. Directed by Peter Berg, 110, USA) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Caution: Lust! It’s a little pathetic that a few scenes of canoodling can overwhelm the advance word on Ang Lee’s excellent new wartime drama Lust, Caution. With the success of Brokeback Mountain Lee has done what few film directors dare, that is demanding an NC-17 rating rather than cut back its emphatic and very specific scenes of sex. It’s an embarrassing reminder of the weird dichotomy of the U.S.’s view of sex: It teases us from […]

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GROSS: The Ritz Bullying Indie Cinema Outta The 215?

The Ritz at the Bourse pulled “In the Valley of Elah” from its screen Tuesday, telling callers to the box office that the decision had been made “for legal reasons” and referring would-be moviegoers to the Roxy Theatre (2023 Sansom). Roxy owner Bernard Nearey [NOT pictured] says Landmark Theatres, which bought the three Center City Ritz theaters in March, is trying to muscle him out of showing first-run movies. Sources say Landmark told Warner Independent, the film’s distributor, that it pulled the film to protest the Tommy Lee Jones‘ movie being booked at the Roxy, too. “It’s an example of […]

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CINEMA: A Madman Lurks Inside Every Rock Star

BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC YOU’RE GONNA MISS ME (2005, directed by Kevin McAlester, 91 minutes, U.S.) A MILLION YEARS OF KENN KWEDER (2007, directed by John Henderson, 119 minutes, U.S.) Its title, taken from the sole hit of the Texas psych-rock outfit The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, is sadly untrue — the world had forgotten the brightly-blazing talent of their lead singer, Roky Erickson. A glaring injustice, that, because Erickson was the Real Deal, a man with hell hounds on his trail who had a naturally blood-curdling howl to rival Van Morrison’s raw vocals with his early band Them. Mental […]

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CINEMA: Super Happy Japan Rock Fun Time!

Between “The War” and “Dancing With The Stars,” anyone leaning toward the “total nerdbucket” end of the cultural scale will be at home in front of the ‘tube tonight. No worries, that just means more room for you at the International House, which at 7 p.m. shows the rare 1968 Japanese rock film Go Forward! BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The Beatles are so ubiquitous 37 years after their break-up that their music finds ways to wriggle into your life whether one invites them or not. So where can a fan go after they’ve worn out their records and the […]

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CINEMA: Eastern Dark

EASTERN PROMISES (2007, directed by David Cronenberg, 97 minutes, U.K.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Except for a few memorable side trips, Canadian director David Cronenberg spent the first 25 years of his career as a feature film maker chronicling his characters’ relationships with reality and their own mysterious and ill-functioning innards. Around the turn of the century he made eXistenZ, whose plot revolved around video games you could plug right into your spine that dissolve reality. eXistenZ seemed to be the perfect summation of all of Cronenberg’s icky preoccupations with guts and the nature of reality. Since then, Cronenberg […]

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EARLY WORD: Sangria And Santa Sangre At Molly’s

Molly’s Bookstore will host a film screening of Jodorowsky‘s classic Santa Sangre on Friday, September 14 to dedicate our new mosaic facade by Isaiah Zagar. Doors open at 7PM and the screening starts at 8PM. Admission is free. Donations and book purchases are encouraged. Join us for free sangria, refreshments and surprise special guest performances before and after the film. Molly’s Bookstore is a general interest new and used bookstore. It is located at 1010 S. 9th Street, in the heart of The Italian Market.

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CINEMA: 1970’s Sleaze As 21st Century Kitsch

BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC While the popular narrative cheers New York City’s revival in the 1990s, lovers of fringe cinema bemoan Times Square’s transformation from the sleazy world capital of grindhouse cinema into Disney-Come-To-Manhattan. Tonight’s Video Vault resurrects the Times Square our parents warned us about, the former glamour hub of the Big Apple, whose blinding lights were illuminating a semi-lawless open air market of unconventional sex, hard drugs and many other things not on sale in the suburban mall. These three exceptionally rare films tell the story of the street (affectionately called “The Deuce” by its denizens) from […]

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CINEMA: The Hotness

THE HOTTEST STATE (2006, directed by Ethan Hawke, 117 minutes, U.S.) NO END IN SIGHT (2006, directed by Charles Ferguson, 102 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC For a guy who has been acting in films for over 20 years, something about Ethan Hawke remains uneasy on the motion picture screen. The characters Hawke specializes in are often cocky, moping cads who suffer easily and whose angst-ridden intellect has not won themselves any inner peace. My feelings toward the men he portrays has inescapably bled over into my thoughts about the actor as well, sensing him strain for a […]

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