Side Shots Film Blog

Suzuki’s approach adheres to Godard’s dictum that all one needs for a movie is a girl and a gun.

Critics have missed some thematic points that are worth exploring to further illustrate the worthiness of Coppola’s still-undervalued character study.

As in life, some promises are hard to keep onscreen. This is true in the case of Walter Hill’s cult pic The Warriors. The film begins with a bang, when a legion of gangs unit for a meeting that transforms street verite into fantasy. The crowd promises pure menace, with the remaining runtime its playground. [...]

The food science/health documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead makes the filmmaker-subject motif – in which the man behind the camera spends as much time in front of it – appear to be the norm.  Not long ago, it was controversy.  Back when Barbara Kopple made Harlan County, USA, about West Virginia coal miner strikes, [...]

Sadly, it’s been a while for Alexander Payne.  Aside from a writing credit for a high-profile film (which is better left unnamed) and the pilot episode of Hung, the writer-director has stayed quiet since his triumphant 2004 character piece, Sideways.  Now that he’s returned with The Descendants, The Philadephia Film Society will run a two-day [...]

John Hughes’ rise has been well documented. Before directing, he worked primarily as a screenwriter, having made his name by writing of an incident in his childhood (as “Vacation, ’56” in its original form).  After attracting the attention of National Lampoon’s, the project changed from a nostalgia-retro piece (a popular genre, with Happy Days still [...]

A Fellini moment was due for a journeyman director like Louis Malle. He began his feature work in ’58 France, right when a revolution was growing, with the giddy, clever noir piece Elevator to the Gallows, and would later leave an aesthetic mark with personal yet universal tales of youth Murmur of the Heart, Lacombe, [...]

No one would argue with calling this massive, invaluable tome “exhaustive,” though there might be a few who would squawk with using the word “definitive.” Yet even a casual reader will note how close Shade Rupe’s instant classic comes close to such praise. Dark Stars Rising: Conversations from the Outer Realms (2011, Headpress) features interviews [...]

Memory is only important to the living; preservation of art or artifice, while living, is only preparation for possible legacy. Then history begins, and is in the hands of younger strangers. Other artists perhaps don’t think of legacy; they know they will be remembered and, if not, the work was complete as much as possible, [...]

The first in a projected three DVD series, IN/FLUX is a collection of ten short films and videos from Africa. While the topics range from the personal to the political, several themes bear themselves out as you watch each piece. You come out the other side of this set with a feeling of disorientation, bewilderment, [...]

While the title of Phil Grabsky’s latest documentary may suggest a focus on the life of Ludwig van Beethoven, the focus is primarily on the music. Or, to be more precise, on snippets of the composer’s vast output.The mystery of Beethoven’s life, as glimpsed here in brief slices, was one of profound sadness – an [...]

The problem with cult movies is that the viewer is who not part of the cult following is often left confused at what the fuss is all about. I experienced this recently in watching John Waters’ 1972 “Pink Flamingos” for the very first time. The “Pink Flamingos” cult is clearly anchored in a specific time [...]

by Whitney BorupAs far as I’m concerned, 8: The Mormon Proposition has its heart in the right place. But, I’m coming from avery biased position. 8 attacks the church in ways that will be construed as manipulative and underhanded and, therefore, will end up preaching to the choir. Then again, Mormons are up to the [...]