It’s a thing of beauty to see DC Comics and Warner finally embrace what’s so awe-inspiring about their characters. I’ve been a very vocal critic about DC’s output of live action films, and “Wonder Woman” is thankfully a remarkable jumping point for the new direction of the cinematic universe for DC and Warner. Patty Jenkins’ film presents Wonder Woman at a turning point at the very end of her own movie and is one of the most socially relevant superhero films made in the last fifteen years. “Wonder Woman” arrives in an age where worldwide, efforts are being made by various political and corrupt powers to silence women. Out of the darkness comes Diana Prince, a woman who will not be silenced or put in to the background.
The Bootleg Files: Orson Welles’ Frozen Peas
BOOTLEG FILES 593: “Orson Welles’ Frozen Peas” (1970 audio outtakes of Orson Welles’ tumultuous recording of a series of British TV advertisements).
LAST SEEN: It is on YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: Various tributes to the recordings are on a several home entertainment releases.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: These were never supposed to be publicly released.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Maybe as a special feature.
Orson Welles is revered today as one of the most innovative and daring artists to work in the cinematic arts. During his lifetime, however, Welles often struggled to gain the respect of his peers whenever he sought funding for his film projects. Having been burned on several occasions by dubious financial backers and business partners, Welles often sought to self-fund his projects. As a result, he appeared in too many film and television projects that were far beneath his talents just for the sake of getting extra money to keep his dreams alive.
Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison (2016)
Kristi Jacobson’s HBO-aired documentary goes inside the segregation units at Red Onion State Prison, a supermax facility located in rural Virginia. The convicts incarcerated here are among the most violent in the penal system – and while they initially come across as articulate and charismatic in their on-camera interviews, the insouciant manner in how they detail the carnage that landed them behind bars is more than a little unsettling.
Pickup (2016)
Jeremiah Kipp and Jessica Blank’s “Pickup” is the incredibly uncomfortable portrait of an uneasy relationship where a woman is stuck in a perpetual cycle of self-destruction that promises to become very dangerous, if she isn’t careful. Director Kipp is very wise to lead us in to a final scene that is very ambiguous and leaves the audience wondering what will happen next, and I appreciated that. “Pickup” involves a horrendous situation where once it explodes, everyone will feel the pain. And it likely involves two people that know the explosion is coming and both of them are doing everything in their power to prevent it before they have no choice but to face it.
David Cornelius: From Film Critic to Filmmaker
In this episode, we visit with David Cornelius, the highly regarded online film critic who made the transition from reviewing movies to creating them with his new sci-fi comedy feature “Inhumanwich!”
Unseen (2017) [San Francisco Documentary Film Festival 2017]
In Cleveland, a murderer and rapist is accumulating victims while people do not seem to care about the missing women. This documentary explores his victims, through surviving family members and, most importantly, through surviving victims. This is done with interviews, court footage, and information written on the screen.
Dead Man’s Shoes (2006)
Shane Meadows previously worked with Paddy Considine in the criminally underseen “A Room for Romeo Brass.” Considine is a man capable of playing many things, and someone without much of a mental balance is probably his best character yet. Paddy Considine is admittedly one of the most unorthodox choices for the lead in a very dramatic and powerful revenge thriller, but he’s a man who can lend a lot of menace and terror to someone who doesn’t quite look like someone who’d knock heads. When he first meets the men that tormented his younger brother, he lays the fear of God in to them by merely glaring at them when they attempt to crowd him. One scene even finds him rattle a power drunk thug in the middle of a crowded bar.