‘Big John’: A 75-Minute Precious Exploration of John Carpenter’s Life, Work and Ways
By Sven Mikulec In France, I’m an auteur; in Germany, a filmmaker; in Britain, a genre film director; and…
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Francis Ford Coppola and Brian De Palma: ‘The Conversation’ Between Two Great Filmmakers
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“It Ain’t Like It Used to Be. But It’ll Do:” How Sam Peckinpah’s ‘The Wild Bunch’ Became Both a Eulogy for a Mythic Past and a Template for a New Kind of Action
By Tim Pelan We wanted to show violence in real terms. Dying is not fun and games. Movies make…
‘Network’: Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky’s Gruesome Prophecy Turned Reality
By Koraljka Suton Once it opened, everybody kept saying, ‘Oh, what a brilliant satire.’ But Paddy and I always…
Appetite for Destruction: Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Phantom Thread’ and the Fall of the House of Woodcock
By Tim Pelan Not unlike James Cameron and his flop sweat fever dream of a chrome skeleton-framed torso, dragging…
Rats In the Attic: William Friedkin’s ‘The Exorcist’
By Tim Pelan Forty-five years after its powerful debut, and with all the attendant publicity, analysis and second-hand knowledge,…
‘Walk the Line’: How James Mangold Uncovered the Emotional History of Johnny Cash
By Koraljka Suton He had to find the range of his own creativity, and learn how to control this…
A 1971 Interview With Alejandro Jodorowsky on ‘El Topo,’ the Psychedelic, Genre-Bending Midnight Movie
By Sven Mikulec Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo just might be the weirdest, most bizarre, genre-bending film we’ve ever seen….
‘Magnolia’: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Absorbing Mosaic of Compassion, Humanity and the Importance of Forgiveness
By Sven Mikulec In 1997, an ambitious 26-year-old called Paul Thomas Anderson made Boogie Nights, his sophomore directing effort…
And Unto Dust We Shall Return: On Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’
By Theo Zenou This review contains spoilers. The Irishman, Martin Scorsese’s hyped return to the gangster genre, is not…
“I’ll Be Bond”: Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron’s Everything or Nothing Shot at the James Bond Title
By Tim Pelan James Cameron’s spy thriller/comedy True Lies (1994) came along at a time when the James Bond…
How ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ Became Sergio Leone’s Butchered Swan Song
By Koraljka Suton I am not fascinated, as you say, by the myth of the West, or by the…
Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’: The Unrelenting Male Gaze that Blurs the Lines Between Possession and Obsession
By Koraljka Suton It is no secret that the late Alfred Hitchcock was—and still is—not only one of the…
‘Point Blank’: John Boorman’s Amalgamation of American, British and French Filmmaking Styles
By Koraljka Suton British filmmaker John Boorman started out by making documentaries for the BBC before getting a chance…
Paradise Lost: How Martin Scorsese’s ‘Casino’ Charts the Rise and Fall of a Criminal Empire
By Tim Pelan Casino in some respects is director Martin Scorsese dialing Goodfellas up to 11. Oh, you want…
Cleansing of the Soul for a Clean Slate: Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Devil’s Backbone’
By Sven Mikulec Three decades ago, the now-renowned Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro was at the beginning of his…
Jean-Pierre Melville: Life and Work of a Groundbreaking Filmmaking Poet
By Sven Mikulec One of the very few filmmakers we deeply cherish above almost all others and whose work…
How Robert Altman’s Anti-Western Classic ‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller’ Aged Like Fine Wine
By Koraljka Suton The legendary director Robert Altman was given an Academy Honorary Award in 2006, “in recognition of a…
‘Miller’s Crossing’: A Lamentation of Losers by the Coen Brothers
By Tim Pelan After the success of Raising Arizona, Joel and Ethan Coen were given the chance to do…
‘The Conversation’: Francis Ford Coppola’s Paranoia-Ridden Tale of Surveillance, Guilt and Isolation
By Koraljka Suton Between his masterpiece The Godfather (1972) and its 1974 sequel, esteemed filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola decided…
Run Through the Jungian: Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Full Metal Jacket’, a Phenomenological Treatise on War
By Tim Pelan “It’s not pro-war or anti-war. It’s just the way things are,” Stanley Kubrick said of Full…
Carol Reed’s ‘The Third Man’: How Orson Welles Stole a Show He Was Barely In
By Koraljka Suton Filmmaker Carol Reed, hailed as one of the greatest U.K. directors, became famous in the late…
‘Kundun’: Martin Scorsese’s Serene Meditation on the Transient Nature of Life
By Koraljka Suton It is no secret that Martin Scorsese is a devoutly religious man. His life-long quest to…
‘In the Mouth of Madness’: John Carpenter’s Love Letter to H.P. Lovecraft and the Subgenre of Cosmic Horror
By Koraljka Suton Director John Carpenter was always one to surprise, frighten and delight his audiences. After making Dark…
The Risk Always Lives: Words to Live by On the Set of James Cameron’s ‘Aliens’
By Tim Pelan “My mommy always said there were no monsters—no real ones—but there are,” Carrie Henn’s hardened child…
Once Upon a Time… In the Philippines: Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’ Is a Three-Time Prime Cut of Film-Making Largesse
By Tim Pelan According to its director Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now was “a Los Angeles dream of war.”…
Moonbase Alpha, Moonbase Beta: Sam Rockwell Is the Secret VFX at the Heart of Duncan Jones’ ‘Moon’
By Tim Pelan Ten years ago Duncan Jones’ Moon (2009) became the little science fiction film that could, an…
‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ As a Testament to and an Exploration of Scorsese’s Own Faith
By Koraljka Suton Ever since he was a little boy, director Martin Scorsese wanted to make a movie about…
Eros and Thanatos Collide in David Cronenberg’s Id-Driven Adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s ‘Crash’
By Koraljka Suton As a young upstart filmmaker I felt that you were not a real filmmaker if you…
A Carpenter of Death and His Four Horsemen: Samuel Fuller’s ‘The Big Red One’
By Tim Pelan In Hollywood, personal films can often become bloated vanity projects. With Samuel Fuller’s semi-autobiographical WWII memoir,…
We Blew It? Douglas Trumbull’s ‘Silent Running’ Took the Counter-Culture Legacy of ‘Easy Rider’ As a Paean to the Planet
By Tim Pelan On this first day of a new century we humbly beg forgiveness and dedicate these last…
How John Schlesinger’s Homeless and Lonesome ‘Midnight Cowboy’ Rode His Way to the Top and Became the First and Only X-rated Movie to Win a Best Picture Oscar
By Koraljka Suton A friend of mine, an American painter living in London, had read the book and suggested…
Rev, Rev, Against the Dying of the Light: The Fading Feudal Code of John Frankenheimer’s ‘Ronin’
By Tim Pelan I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, burned a lot of bridges, and reached…
Play for Play: How The Color of Money’s ‘One For Them’ Assignment Reignited Martin Scorsese’s Hunger for the Work
By Tim Pelan After ‘The Last Temptation’ was cancelled in ’83, I had to get myself back in shape….
Fixed Images of Eternity: Time, Perception, & Grief in ‘Don’t Look Now’
By Jasun Horsley The speaker is Death: There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market…
How Francis Ford Coppola Breathed New Life into ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’
By Koraljka Suton It could be deemed rather poetic that the origins of two of the most iconic and…
Reclaiming the Lost Art of Melodrama in Sidney Lumet’s Unsung Masterpiece: ‘Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead’
By Parrish Stikeleather I sent the script first to Philip, one of the finest actors in the country, and…
Kael Kael Bang Bang: The Pauline Kael/Clint Eastwood Secret Wars
By Jasun Horsley An alternate and more autobiographical version of this essay first appeared in Seen & Not Seen:…
Getting Lost at the Movies with Pauline Kael
By Jasun Horsley A longer and more autobiographical version of this essay first appeared in Seen & Not Seen:…
“We Translate Every Experience into the Same Old Codes”: In Michelangelo Antonioni’s ‘The Passenger,’ Jack Nicholson Attempts a Transference of Self
By Tim Pelan Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1975 film The Passenger is a languid thriller in which not much seems to…
‘The Past, Present and Future of Humanity’: John Boorman’s ‘Excalibur’
By Tim Pelan John Boorman’s 1981 fantastical retelling of Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur is, to quote Nicol Williamson’s…
‘Sunset Boulevard’: Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett’s Sobering Exposure of the Dark Side of Hollywood
You will not find in my pictures any phony camera moves or fancy setups to prove that I am…
‘Batman’ (1989): How Tim Burton’s Version of the Caped Crusader Put the Dark in Dark Knight and Gave Wings to the Superhero Movie Genre
By Koraljka Suton Exactly 30 years ago, in the summer of 1989, the world was swept off its feet…
‘And the Sea Will Grant Each Man New Hope, As Sleep Brings Dreams of Home’: John McTiernan’s ‘The Hunt for Red October’
By Tim Pelan There is a long and noble history in Hollywood of submarine war films. The two most…
“If You’re Going to Sell Your Soul to The Devil, the Consequences Are There for You to Suffer”: Ridley Scott and Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Counselor’
By Tim Pelan Not much of a one for describing his work, author Cormac McCarthy bluntly describes The Counselor,…
From Facebook to ‘Fuck-You Flip-Flops’: How Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher Made ‘The Social Network’ a Fiery Word-Off
By Adam Buffery I’ve been Mark Zuckerberg—there are times in my life where I’ve acted that way. There are…
‘DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A SICK MAN TO YOU?’: The Horror of Identity and the Identity of Horror in David Cronenberg’s ‘The Fly’
By Travis Woods TELEPOD 1: STATHIS He watches Her, trembling and nerve-twitched, eyes darting, lips pulled back over protruding…
“No One Is Just Anything”: In William Friedkin’s ‘Sorcerer’, Four Reduced Men Must Gamble with Life to Give It Value
By Tim Pelan The film became an obsession. It was to be my magnum opus, the one on which…
40 Years of Hurt, Face-Hugging Dreams of Breathing: Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’
By Tim Pelan Ripley’s words to the Xenomorph in Alien 3 sum up how we all feel: “You’ve been…
‘JFK’: Oliver Stone’s Emotionally Accurate and Masterfully Crafted Trip Down the Rabbit Hole
By Koraljka Suton “I think I was always controversial, provocative. But I can’t help it. I have to go…
Noir Cut to Look of the Period, Not About the Period: The Sunny, Seedy ’50’s Underbelly of Curtis Hanson’s ‘L.A. Confidential’
By Tim Pelan I came to it because of Ellroy. When I read ‘L.A. Confidential,’ I just got hooked…
‘Frankenstein’: James Whale’s Macabre Take on One of the Most Sympathetic Characters Ever Created in the World of English Letters
By Koraljka Suton Look! It’s moving. It’s alive. It’s alive… It’s alive, it’s moving, it’s alive, it’s alive, it’s…
In Search of Our Better Selves: The Rebirth, Redemption and Road Warriors of George Miller’s ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
By Tim Pelan I just watched ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ again last week, and I tell you I couldn’t…
You’re Gonna Be Redeemed: The Jersey Noir and Western Fable of James Mangold’s ‘Cop Land’
By Travis Woods A rotating wire bookrack stands in a shaded corner of the used bookshop, its metal sleeves packed…
The Greater the Truth, the Greater the Damage: ‘The Insider’, Michael Mann’s White-Collar Thrill Ride of Corporate Malfeasance
By Tim Pelan Few filmmakers can take a whistle-blowing dramatization of real life potentially dusty legal shenanigans and news…
The Matrix Revelation: How the Wachowskis Opened Our Eyes to a New Kind of Action Cinema
By Tim Pelan Few films permeate the gestalt consciousness like Star Wars (“I am your father”, “Use the Force”…
Slaughterhouse Twelve: Robert Aldrich’s ‘The Dirty Dozen’
By Tim Pelan In the mid-1960s, director Robert Aldrich was coming up for air after the thick stew melodramas…
An Agency of Chaos: Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’
By Tim Pelan In October 2005, shortly after his groundbreaking and seemingly stand-alone Batman Begins was completed, writer/director/producer Christopher…
Scorsese On the Ropes: The ‘Kamikaze’ Film-Making of ‘Raging Bull’
By Tim Pelan Scorsese’s Raging Bull is not your dad’s boxing movie. It’s certainly not a story of conventional…
Gang Wars, the Prohibition Menace: Brian De Palma’s ‘The Untouchables’
By Tim Pelan Screenwriter David Mamet came up with a Stanislavski quote to describe The Untouchables: “Tragedy is just…
‘Atlantic City’: Malle’s Nostalgic Juxtaposition of Deterioration and Renewal
By Koraljka Suton When acclaimed French New Wave director Louis Malle was approached by producer Alexandre Mnouchkine with the…
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Attention, filmmakers
Submit Your Short Films
Filmmakers to Watch
‘The Devil Needs a Fix’: Ian Ebright’s Sophomore Film Proves His Debut Was No Coincidence
A struggling reporter sits in a diner with an open notepad, nervously jotting down a potential title for his next…
‘The Line’: Luke Wallace’s Gripping Crime Drama With a Terrific Cast
A cold, wet, sinister-looking abandoned factory, two serious men with automatic rifles staring out the window, obviously expecting a visitor…
‘Cool Hair’: William Orozco-Cubbon’s Bonnie-and-Clyde-Like Thriller that Leaves Us Wanting More
The short film Cool Hair, directed by debutant and production manager William Orozco-Cubbon, was screened at the 2017 Zero Film…
‘Hi-Glow Retro’: Alex Morsanutto’s Bullet-Proof Ticket to Feature Filmmaking
From the very first scene, dominated by a cool voiceover accompanied by fragments of the crucial penultimate sequence that we’ll…
‘Time and Again’: The Importance of Family in Aidan Largey’s Nostalgic Time Travel Flick
As we meet Brian and Lucen, two small-town kids trying to build a time machine when they’re not butting heads…
‘Remote’: Marc Roussel’s Highly Suspenseful Mixture of Time Travel and Home Invasion
Do you remember Gregory Hoblit’s 2000 science fiction thriller called Frequency, where a present-day son (Jim Caviezel) manages to connect…
‘Happy Birthday, Barbara’: A Wonderfully Restrained Piece of Fine Visual Storytelling
A woman stands in a hotel hallway, switching her stare from a wrinkled little piece of paper in her glove-protected…
‘Telephone Me’: A Story of Revenge with Frenetic Energy and Honest Performances
It’s delightful to see short films of this kind of frenetic energy. Michael Demetriou’s somewhat bizarre take on a story…
Jordan Rossi’s ‘Shakespeare on Death’: A Brave, Captivating Effort at Honoring William Shakespeare
Through the years we’ve witnessed countless screen adaptations of the work of William Shakespeare. It was to our surprise when…
Thyrone Tommy’s ‘Avalanche’: How Easy It Is to Become What You Despise
A young boy and a talented archer, who takes his hobby very seriously and passionately, has a strained relationship with…
Rajendra Thakurathi’s The Dishwasher: The Price of the American Dream
Rajendra Thakurathi’s The Dishwasher is an important short film on several different layers. First of all, it should be said…
Kheaven Lewandowski, Director of ‘River’: ‘Making Films For a Living Is a Privilege’
Excited by his inspired and visually captivating short film River, we decided to have a little chat with Kheaven Lewandowski,…