Director and Writer Tito Guillen’s short fan film for Miles Morales has a lot of feature film potential. It’s sad that it took so long for Miles Morales to garner his own animated film, but when it comes to feature films I think he could be an icon. That’s proven in “Miles Behind,” Tito Guillen’s tribute to Spider-Man that touches upon very socially relevant topics.
BAD MOVIE MONDAY: HARD TICKET TO HAWAII (1987)
Around the time that I started having BAD MOVIE MONDAY three years ago, my wife invented the term “Gratuititties” in order to describe the often gratuitous but always welcome presence of uncovered female breasts in a trashy movie. I’ve used it in as many reviews as I can, mostly because I think it’s a funny word. However, never has it been more appropriate to use than in this movie’s review. It only takes a little over one minute and thirty seconds before we see the first “gratuititties” in the film. Don’t worry though because they’ll be back again and again, and I felt like that boy at the end of ANIMAL HOUSE when a pretty girl crashes through his bedroom window onto his lap and he goes “THANK YOU GOD!” except I was thanking all the women in this movie pretty much throughout the entire movie.
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1980 in Film
1980 was a remarkable year for movies: “Ordinary People” and “Raging Bull” slugged it out for the awards, comedy cult classics “The Blues Brothers,” “Caddyshack” and “Airplane!” left audiences in hysterics, “The Empire Strikes Back” rewrote the “Star Wars” saga, “Heaven’s Gate” nearly destroyed United Artists and an obscure Soviet film trumped great works by Kurosawa and Truffaut for the Foreign Film Oscar.
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Infinity Pool (2023)
Writer/Director Brandon Cronenberg’s horror film promises to be one of the most polarizing, if not the most polarizing, film of the year. It’s a grotesque, beautiful, nauseating depiction of sickening hedonism and amorality in its seductive and repelling. It’s a kaleidoscopic orgy of sex and violence and pure blood thirst that, as art often does, comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable. “Infinity Pool” is the very definition of body horror, a movie that both celebrates and abhors everything about the body.
The Bootleg Files: The River
BOOTLEG FILES 826: “The River” (1937 documentary produced by FDR’s Farm Security Administration).
LAST SEEN: On various Internet sites.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: In collections of public domain documentaries.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A lapsed copyright.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: A 4K restored version would be wonderful.
In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies brought forth the Resettlement Administration, a federal agency designed to assist the nation’s financially struggling rural communities. By this point in the Roosevelt presidency, there were a growing number of critics who argued the New Deal programs were using taxpayer funds to finance lofty socialist endeavors.
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Puppet Master: Doktor Death (2022)
Dave Parker’s sequel/spin off from the “Puppet Master” movie series is probably one of the most undercooked movies to come from the “Puppet Master” movie series, to date. In a time where Full Moon seems to be celebrating the flagship series, it’s sad to see movies like “Doktor Death” simply come out of the gates not trying to tell a story at all, or even respect the mythology of its predecessors.
Charlie and the Hunt (2022) [Slamdance 2023]
UNSTOPPABLE SHORTS BLOCK 2
If you’re looking for a break from the heavier and political fare at “Slamdance,” Jenn Shaw’s “Charlie and the Hunt” is the perfect antidote. It’s rare that there are such wholesome shorts featured and it’s nice to see something a lot more about whimsy and the relationships that we hold near and dear to our hearts.
Diomysus (2022) [Slamdance 2023]
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS BLOCK
Emily Morus-Jones’ documentary short is an absurdist and colorful look at a subset of society that is often misunderstood and demonized by the public. She emphasizes the inherent prejudice of said subset by exploring their world through mice. Mice are some of the more misunderstood animals and through great puppetry, we learn about the lifestyles of the polyamorous.