Somewhere in a remote part of Japan, a film crew is shooting a low-budget zombie movie in an abandoned World War II facility. The two leads are teen heartthrobs, and the director is of the megalomaniac variety. He can’t get … Continue reading ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (カメラを止めるな!)
When writer Paddy Chayefsky penned the script for Network, he stumbled onto something special. When director Sidney Lumet and actors Faye Dunaway and William Holden joined, it became mythical. Released in 1976, Network is a landmark of American cinema. For some, it’s an … Continue reading NETWORK
One of my favorite TCM discoveries of 2018 was a 10-minute short Warner Bros. and Vitaphone production: So You Want to Be a Detective. Starring George O’Hanlon (who would go on to voice George Jetson), and created by Richard L. … Continue reading (So You Want) Joe McDoakes Comedies…
On this week’s edition of After Image, I sit down with Metro Arts’ producer Veronica Straight-Lingo to discuss the new sci-fi epic, Ad Astra, and a documentary about the epic abilities of mushrooms, Fantastic Fungi. Listen to After Image, Fridays at 3:00 p.m., on … Continue reading
Ad Astra, from filmmaker par excellence James Gray, opens with a shot of the cosmos, vast and terrifying. As the camera pans across the twinkling dots of a thousand suns, a lens flare catches the frame and briefly illuminates the … Continue reading AD ASTRA
For Paul Stamets, it begins and ends with mushrooms. From death, they create life. From fractures, they create connections. And from sickness, they create health. “Mushrooms represent rebirth. Rejuvenation. Regeneration,” Stamets says. Fantastic Fungi, directed by Louie Schwartzberg and edited by … Continue reading FANTASTIC FUNGI
Life at the bottom isn’t easy. Near the bottom ain’t any easier, and that’s where Kasie (Tiffany Chu) resides. Her mother left when she was a child, her father (James Kang) is a bed-ridden invalid in his final days, and … Continue reading MS. PURPLE
Mexico City, the mid-1980s: Carlos is 17, sexually curious, slightly confused about what to do with his life, and lacking ambition. His friend takes him to a nightclub, a gay nightclub, and he sees his friend’s older sister, Rita performing … Continue reading THIS IS NOT BERLIN
For his first five films, writer/director James Gray set his stories in New York City. Makes sense, considering Gray is a born and raised New Yorker, but with his two most recent films, Gray looks far beyond the Burroughs. Releasing … Continue reading THE LOST CITY OF Z
Michael J. Cinema 
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