GHOST ACTRESS details the odd doings at a movie studio in Japan. Unlike the usual make-them-jump-and-scream approach to telling this story, writer/ director Hideo Nakata, who wrote and directed the Japanese film, THE RING, on which the current American release is based, has opted for creating a mood of gradually increasing unease tempered with the… Read More »
KILLER CONDOM (KONDOM DES GRAUENS)
Martin Walz’s KILLER CONDOM, based on the graphic novel by Ralf König, is a bizarre, touching, provocative, and funny piece of work. It’s the story of Luigi Mackeroni, a hard-boiled New York detective torn between his transvestite ex-partner and a street hustler with a heart of gold. If there is a hot-button issue that this… Read More »
LILIES
Some films are dreck, some films are popcorn, some films are art, and some films are pure poetry. LILIES falls into the poetry category. It’s a mystery set simultaneously in the golden past and the gray walls of a maximum-security prison. It takes poetry and filmmaker John Greyson to make that work. The story of madness,… Read More »
KISSED
KISSED is a film about necrophilia. But the odd thing is that it’s not what you’d expect. Not by a long shot. I disliked the subject matter, intensely, but I admired the expertise of the filmmaker, Lynn Stopkewich, in allowing us to see this phenomenon from the necrophiliac’s point of view. It’s an enormously brave film. And yes, because I know you’re wondering… Read More »