A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Italian and Italian-language Films
Lucio Fulci, “Don’t Torture a Duckling / Non si sevizia un paperino” (1973) Fret not, no ducklings, nor indeed any animals, were harmed in the making…
Robin Hardy “The Wicker Man” (1973) In spite of a small budget and the set-backs it suffered during filming and the post-production process, this short movie…
British Films, North American Films
Sidney Lumet, “Equus” (1977) He never won an individual Academy Award for Best Movie or Best Director but surely Sidney Lumet is one of the greatest…
Australian and New Zealand Films
Colin Eggleston, “Innocent Prey” (1983) Maybe the problem is her southern Texan drawl or the overly bouffant permed hair but Cathy (P J Soles) does seem…
Australian and New Zealand Films
James Bogle, “Kadaicha” (1988) From the early 1970s to the late 1980s, thanks to increased Federal government investment in the Australian film industry, there was truly…
Takashi Miike, “Over Your Dead Body” (2014) From the incredibly prolific director Takashi Miike, who never met a film genre he couldn’t make an insanely extreme…
Kaneto Shindo, “Kuroneko” (1968) A companion piece to his earlier classic “Onibaba”, Shindo’s “Kuroneko” explores vengeance and human desires for love in the setting of a…
Harvey Cashore, “Brainwashed: The Secret CIA Experiments in Canada” (The Fifth Estate, December 2017) As The Fifth Estate’s website post on this documentary says, the scenario…
Val Guest, “The Quatermass Xperiment” (1955) Filmed well over 60 years ago (at this time of writing), this film of alien-human possession remains a timeless inspiration…
Robert Wise, “The Andromeda Strain” (1971) Although made over 45 years ago, this science fiction film about a team of scientists battling to identify and contain…