FT Top 100 Films
67: DON’T TELL MOM THE BABYSITTER’S DEAD
Now there is a title to conjure with. Put your best foot forward, sock them with an audacious title and maybe they will come back for me. And in the most part the film does fulfill[…]

Notes towards a working definition of Film-Rockism — 1 [reg req’d, I think]
‘People employed to write about film are like cinema punters in one respect: in a time of deluge they will cling to anything buoyant that passes their way. […]

SIDEBAR ADDITION: to Television Without Pity, formerly Mighty Big TV, formerly Dawson’s Wraps. It hosts such brilliantly bitchy and excruciatingly funny Dawsons Creek recaps that quite frankly, one doesn’t even NEED to read the show, and […]

Interesting piece from comics writer Steven Grant in the wake of Spider-Man 2 about the supposed dumbing down of cinema. It meanders a touch but soon gets to the interesting thesis that cinema, as a social lubricant, is all about getting people into […]

Corny Pastiche
Shrek 2 is a giant patchwork of film pastiches, and even this list of related trivia on IMDB doesn’t catch them all. (Contains a ‘spoiler’ right at the end). I’m pretty sure there was a subtle Matrix reference, […]

FT Top 100 Films
68: THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE
So you’ve made a low budget horror movie, received well, regarding the fears of a woman Irena (Simone Simon) who believes she turns into a cat when aroused. Despite this she enters into a relatio[…]

Tough Love
‘Pialat may well have provided the source code for the elliptical realism that’s become de rigueur for an entire subsequent generation (Desplechin, Denis, Assayas, Breillat, Cantet, Dumont, etc.).’
Cedric Kahn, director […]

FT Top 100 Films
69: JOAN OF ARC: THE MESSENGERmark sinker says:
This is in the 100 because GOD’S ANGELS spoke to me. If you disagree then I shall raise THE FIGHTING MANHOOD OF ALL FRANCE and drive you from our blog. IT IS STYLISH AND FUNNY an[…]

BEFORE PARKING BEHIND THAT DUMP TRUCK, MAKE SURE THAT DUMP TRUCK DRIVER ISN’T A DUMB TRUCK DRIVER! Ah yes. We saw that there Harry Potter film last night, it was alright, I suppose, even though Harry is about as scary as Dave Gorman wielding a […]

The last ten minutes of The Return are very uneasy for the viewer. Up to this point the film has had one intention, ratchet up the suspense and tell the very simple story. Two brothers return home to find in place the father they never knew. He then […]