28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE picks up where last year’s 28 YEARS LATER left off. It also picks up with some characters that were peripheral to the last installment, but who will prove central to this one. That last film introduced us to the dangers inherent in a post-pandemic population thrown back to the… Read More »
THE DEAD DON’T DIE
THE DEAD DON’T DIE takes the tropes, idioms, and beloved foibles of low-budget zombie flicks and, with a skillful flick of its auteur’s cinematic wrist, recontextualizes them into a stylized gloss on the new normal of 2019. Certainly the “Make America White Again” ball cap sported by the most reviled citizen (Steve Buscemi) of sleepy… Read More »
Chris Butler & Sam Fell Bring PARANORMAN to Life
When I spoke with Chris Butler and Sam Fell on July 27, 2012, the conversation was a wonderful mix of whimsy and erudition as they explained the finer points of bringing a stop-motion film to life. The two shared the directing duties on PARANORMAN, working from a script by Butler. What I was most interested in,… Read More »
Anthony Lucero Serves Up EAST SIDE SUSHI
The fact that Anthony Lucero was making the behind-the-scenes documentary for the next Star Wars film was incidental to why I wanted to talk to him about his feature film directorial debut, EAST SIDE SUSHI. But, since I had him there in front of my microphone, I had to try to get some information out… Read More »
PARANORMAN
Laika Studios latest animated film, PARANORMAN, is a story with heart, soul, and a killer funny bone. The humor ranges from the broad to the subtle, and even ventures into that most dangerous of territories, the poignant, and it does so with a sure hand, backed up with an astounding feat of animation. Norman (Kodi… Read More »
George A. Romero Insures the SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD
When I talked with horror icon George A. Romero on May 13, 2010, it was hard to know where to begin, considering his first feature, 1968’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, earned a place on the Library of Congress’ film register in 1999. I decided to lead with the metaphorical aspect of his latest film, SURVIVAL OF THE… Read More »
Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright Gift Us with SHAUN OF THE DEAD
Click here to listen to the interview. Co-screenwriters Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, star and director respectively, of SHAUN OF THE DEAD were, you’ll pardon the expression, dead tired when I chatted with them on August 12, 2004. They’d been up late the night before doing a smashingly successful Q&A at a preview screening of… Read More »