Monthly Archives: November 2009

PLANET 51

By Elias Savada | November 2009

Perhaps the Spanish-based animated feature “Planet 51” should have added a dash of Pedro Almodovar to spice up a rather ordinary revisitation of “ET.”

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PLANET 51

The Spanish-based animated feature "Planet 51," the first from Madrid's Ilion Animation Studios, is as American as Apple Pie. The Iberian peninsula is not...

Reviews

SHUTDOWN: THE RISE AND FALL OF “DIRECT ACTION TO STOP THE WAR”

“Shutdown” is a documentary about Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW), which effectively closed San Francisco at the start of the Iraq war. It is...

FINDING “PALLADIN” – AND SUBSTANCE: INTERVIEW WITH FILMMAKER A

The other day I perused my local video store looking for a good drama. Not so much a tear-jerker, but, as my grandma would always say, “Something with a...

MOONSTRUCK: EXPLORING THE UNSTOPPABLE VAMPIRE VIRUS OF “NEW MOON”

The Cinerama is a massive, sprawling theater, stretching half a block across downtown Seattle. Its dark, dome-shaped ceiling is punctured by pinprick-sized...

Reviews

CLAUDIA AND PAUL

"Claudia and Paul" is the newest DVD out on the Innova label by composer and video artist Henry Gwiazda, and it contains three new substantial video works...

Bootleg Files Features

THE BOOTLEG FILES: THE HINDENBURG DISASTER NEWSREEL

BOOTLEG FILES 310: “The Hindenburg Disaster Newsreel” (1937 footage of the fiery zeppelin crash). LAST SEEN: Available on numerous online video...

Reviews

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

I haven’t seen the Harvey Keitel “Bad Lieutenant” from 1992 so I can’t really speak to whether Werner Herzog’s new film is a remake, a...

Reviews

TINTO BRASS’ THE HOWL (L’URLO) (DVD)

American critics tend to equate Venetian filmmaker Giovanni (Tinto) Brass with his infamous film, "Caligula" (1979). While Brass’ filmmaking defies...

Reviews

PROMETHEUS TRIUMPHANT: A FUGUE IN THE KEY OF FLESH

Life was rough for citizens of the economically depressed Weimar Germany, but the Expressionist works they watched must have shocked the worry right out of...

Reviews

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Full disclosure: I haven’t read the books. I only recently watched the first movie in the name of informed journalism because I knew that would be...

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