CINEMA: Love Is Blind

CRAZY LOVE (2007, directed by Dan Klores & Fisher Stevens, 92 minutes, U.S.) BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! (2006, directed by Guy Maddin, 95 minutes, U.S./Canada) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC When it comes to telling a melodramatic story through weathered old imagery, few recent films have done it better the new documentary Crazy Love. Rescuing a 50-year-old tale from ancient tabloids, this expensively-mounted doc tells the tumultuous saga of Burt and Linda, a Bronx couple whose romance crashed to a halt in 1957 when the jealous Burt hired men to throw lye into her face, after she dumped him to […]

THE EARLY WORD: The Valerie Project

BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Next week Philly will reprazent at the Jarvis Cocker-curated Meltdown Festival, to be held in London’s prestigious Southbank Centre. After a week featuring resurrected rock acts Roky Erickson, The Stooges and Devo plus Beth Orton singing Disney tunes with Pete Doherty & Shane McGowan (for sake of their health please keep those two apart) the week will climax with with the Philadelphia conglomeration known as The Valerie Project sharing the bill with the former Pulp frontman’s closing set. Originally formed for a screening at UPenn’s I-House last year, The Valerie Project will tune up for […]

CINEMA: She’s Gotta Have It

Scarlet Diva (2000, directed by Asia Argento, 91 minutes, Italy) Rape (1969, directed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, 79 minutes, U.K.) Blonde Ice (1948. directed by Jack Bernhard, 74 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Expanding the definition of what makes a “chick flick,” Andrew’s Video Vault brings to the big screen of The Rotunda a trio of women who are profane, murderous and just plain creepy. First up is Asia Argento’s directorial debut, 2000’s Scarlet Diva. A guaranteed audience divider (its Rotten Tomatoes rating currently at an even 50%) the actress/director stars in a thinly-veiled autobiographical opus […]

CINEMA: ONCE/DAYWATCH

ONCE (2007, directed by Joe Carney, 85 minutes, Ireland) DAYWATCH (2006, directed by Timur Bekmambetov, 132 minutes, Russia) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC As a viewer who has successfully defended himself against many cloying romantic comedies, I was pleased and surprised that I found myself defenseless against the acclaimed Irish musical romance saddled with the forgettable title Once. It’s no shock that audiences have been swooning for this Sundance award-winner, as it evokes the experience of frustrated love with a dreamy directness while throwing in a bunch of heartfelt musical performances from an empathetic cast. Any film that hits this […]

CINEMA: SPEED KILLS DEAD

BUG (2006, directed by William Friedkin, 102 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC With monster sequels from blockbuster franchises gobbling up the majority of megaplex screens at the kick-off of the summer season, Lionsgate is doing some crazy counter-programming by attempting to pass off William Friedkin’s adaption of the Tracy Lett’s stage hit Bug as a Saw-like horror film for the blood-drunk masses. While this slow-building, claustrophobic psychological thriller ultimately ascends to a climax as gruesomely horrific as Requiem For A Dream’s, Bug would have likely found a more accepting audience in the art-house circuit rather than being booked […]

THIS YOU MUST SEE: El Topo + Holy Mountain

[Artwork by JENNIFER LUI] BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Years ago I went to a party where esteemed film critic David Thomson was scheduled to attend. Before his arrival the host announced “He’s a fascinating guy, but he doesn’t want to talk to anyone about film.” “Send him home,” I remember thinking to myself. It’s like attending a party with Red Barber and not being about to bring up the subject of baseball. Since I’ve been writing about film for a few years now I see his point. Being introduced as a film critics is a conversation starter that doesn’t […]

TONITE: Secret Cinema Under The Stars

On Tuesday, May 22, the Secret Cinema will present the historic drama Magnificent Doll at a very historic site — the cobblestone and ivy courtyard of the Morris House Hotel, built in 1787 as the luxury home of one of the Revolutionary era’s most celebrated families. This very special event will include dinner and a movie, and proceeds benefit The Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia. The film to be shown is a little-seen biopic from Hollywood’s golden age, Magnificent Doll, starring Ginger Rogers as feisty first lady (and latter-day ice cream icon) Dolly Madison. Co-starring are David Niven and Burgess […]

CINEMA: Silencer Of The Lambs

KILLER OF SHEEP (1977, directed by Charles Burnett, 83 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITC We take it for granted that most films that play theatrically will follow an orderly path to DVD but my troubled subconscious does contain a list of films that I worry may never again be seen. Will we ever again got the chance to ogle Jenny Agutter in Monte Hellman’s 1978 sex-driven western China 9 Liberty 37? Will the world ever get a chance to gasp at Joel DeMott’s documentary Seventeen, an unspeakably perverse journey into the world of good-for-nothing dope smoking teens in […]

REVIEW: The Wind That Shakes The Barley/28 Weeks

THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY (2006, directed by Ken Loach, 127 minutes, U.K.) 28 WEEKS LATER (2007, directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 99 minutes, U.K.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC I was about 14 years old when I finally stopped going down to the newsstand to pick up my weekly batch of superhero comics, and aside from a few exceptions for work by Frank Miller or Alan Moore, I’ve never looked back. I’m told there is still some imaginative writing still going on in comics, and I’m not saying my fantasies today are any more mature, but the dream […]

CINEMA: Exhumed Films

BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC It struck me during the first five minutes of the recent Tarentino/Rodriguez collaboration that the Weinsteins spent 50 million dollars to conjure the magic that Exhumed Films brings to Philly every month. The insane trailers, worn film prints, seventies-era lava lamp-like Coming Attractions announcements and of course the perverse genre films that Grindhouse professed to celebrate, have all been the stock-in-trade of the Exhumed Films collective which has exhibiting genre film favorites and oddities for nearly ten years now. Tarentino and Rodriguez can labor mightily to capture the off-handed weirdness of independently-shot films from the […]

Saving Private Lynch

This is pretty fascinating — not just for the rescue but for how completely and, given the circumstances, cinematically it was documented. Where Psy-Ops ends and P.R. begins, or vice versa. Either way, she was just a broken pawn in a shady game. And lucky for her, all the king’s horsemen and all the king’s men could put Private Lynch back together again.