Writing Roundup: Two Cult Classics for Halloween

Now would be a good time to turn around, followed by a better time to run.

Before October 31st comes and goes, I might as well share a couple of recent cult classic reviews I wrote for The After Movie Diner. I recently rewatched and thoroughly enjoyed both The Return of the Living Dead and The Slumber Party Massacre. Both are highly recommended from this cult classicist. Enjoy them tonight in between handing out candy to the scary little monsters at your door.

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Desperate for Divinyls: Introduction

This is the introductory post in a series where I'll focus on songs from one band or musical artist, typically featuring one song per post. First band up? Australian rock royalty, Divinyls . The essays might vary in style and length, some might even focus on some aspect of the band and not just a song, but the plan is to simply get at the heart of why Divinyls' were a truly great band. Divinyls were the first Aussie band to sign their initial deal with an American record company right out of the gate. Their career spanned nearly two decades and five studio albums and contained countless Australian hit singles and several international ones as well. Still, while the band is rightly revered in Australia, they're not nearly as popular in the U.S., where a lot of people know them mostly for the international mega-hit, "I Touch Myself." I've already written about when that song was ubiquitous on early 1990s radio and MTV as a way to explore generational confli...

Double Feature: Michelle Pfieffer and Al Pacino

Revisiting—or in a few cases, watching for the first time—and celebrating the work of Michelle Pfeiffer, the best actress of my lifetime.* If you've been paying attention around here lately , you know that I adore Michelle Pfeiffer. She's likely my favorite actor, hands down. Al Pacino, however, also sits right there at the top of my personal pantheon. So it's no surprise that their two film collaborations are extremely special to me. They first starred together in Scarface (1983), Brian De Palma's wildly ambitious and searing critique of power, avarice, and the American Dream, as told through the rise and fall of a drug kingpin. That film belongs to Pacino, with Pfeiffer in a smaller, yet crucially important role. Eight years later, they shared the screen again in Frankie and Johnny (1991), Garry Marshall's warm, tender, and honest look at two damaged people falling in love. This time, Michelle's Frankie is the film's real focal point, with Al'...

Party Girl: Sylvia Miles, 1924–2019

“It would be immodest to say I’m terrific fun, but I am — I have a good time.” ***** Sylvia Miles passed away recently at 94, after a good, long life full of movies and parties. She was the epitome of New York cool, the #1 Partygoer in Manhattan . She was synonymous with the sort of decadent mid to late century New York City social scene that only lives on today in photos, and of course the memories and stories of those who lived it. She was so effortlessly cool in Midnight Cowboy , while also masterfully revealing her character's sadness and insecurities. Her Oscar-nominated supporting performance in the only X-rated film to ever win an Academy Award, Midnight Cowboy (1969), is so extraordinarily memorable, especially when you consider she only had somewhere around ten minutes of screen time to make such a lasting impression. Seeing that film when I did, as a young college student becoming more obsessed with cinema by the day, was a seminal moment, and Mil...

It Came From the '90s: Kelly Bundy and the Alternative Family Ideal

This series looks back at the 1990s and its influence on the generation of people who came of age during the decade. Very few television series in the 1990s were as polarizing as Married...with Children . People either loved it or they loathed it. TV critics and good upstanding Catholic families like mine fell into the latter category. Soon after it debuted during my first year of junior high in 1987 (not quite the '90s, but on the brink), my parents made it clear that we would not be watching. I believe the words they used were "vulgar," "unfunny," and, one of their perennial favorites, "risque." Of course, this meant it immediately took on a prurient appeal for me. Parents can never win, honestly. Kelly Bundy—the talented Christina Applegate, who never gets enough credit for elevating the blonde airhead trope into an art form—only further piqued my interest. She was like the girls in school with the absurdly voluminous hair and ridiculously sh...

Blowing in the Wind: Marilyn Monroe and That Iconic White Dress

This month marks sixty-five years since one of the most iconic moments in twentieth-century popular culture: Marilyn Monroe’s angelic white dress being blown sky high by wind rushing up from a subway grate beneath her feet in the film The Seven Year Itch . Billy Wilder shot multiple takes, while Sam Shaw snapped photo after photo for what had to be the biggest publicity stunt ever staged at the time. Marilyn wore two pairs of underwear for the shot, yet, as noted in Lois Banner's critical biography Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox (2012), "a dark blotch of pubic hair" remained visible to the 100 male photographers and over 1,500 male spectators, all of whom crowded eagerly around the set to gawk and drool. Due to strict 1950s movie censorship laws, photos had to be doctored to white out the offending blotch, but those in attendance saw it, over and over, shot after shot. Marilyn's husband at the time, the extremely old fashioned Joe DiMaggio, stormed off th...

All I Want For Christmas: Phoebe Cates's Monologue in Gremlins

Joe Dante's 1980s classic Gremlins will always be a subversive Christmas favorite. From Spike exploding in the microwave to Mrs. Daigle's "stairlift to hell", the movie is packed with deliciously transgressive moments that turn the holly jolly season right on its ear. None are more memorable, though, than Phoebe Cates delivering her legendary "worst thing that ever happened to me on Christmas" monologue. It's a jaw-dropping, tour-de-force moment, a truly horrific story that's also one of the most darkly comic moments in Christmas movie history. Cates really shines during this scene. There's no denying just how seminal that scene of hers in Fast Times at Ridgemont High was for a generation of young people, but her speech in Gremlins is equally important and a wonderful showcase for her serious and comedic acting skills. Here's the speech, in its entirety. No Christmas season is complete without at least one viewing ...

Misspent Youth: Tanya Roberts

Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen-Xer's gloriously misspent youth. Some actors slide in and out of our periphery, costarring in one film or series after another, each of which briefly crossed our radars at some point. Bronx-born actress Tanya Roberts was one such performer for me. She knew how to wear a strategically placed loincloth better than most. I grew up on a steady diet of Charlie's Angels reruns, and no offense meant to Shelley Hack, but when Roberts took over for Hack in the fifth and final season, I definitely took notice. Not to focus on her looks, but geez, her gorgeous feathered hair and sultry bedroom eyes were impossible to ignore. Tanya Roberts had a look, and even all these years later, it basically defines the 1970s/early 1980s for me. Friend to monkeys everywhere, expert falconer, and, once again, strategically placed loincloth wearer extraordinaire. From The Love Boat to Fantasy Island to Silk Stalkings , she ...

Nicole Kidman: The Paperboy

Selections from Nicole Kidman's filmography that demonstrate her extraordinary talent and risk-taking commitment. I'm often asked if there are other actors I might be interested in giving the Michelle Pfeiffer treatment—a series of reviews offering a thorough career retrospective. The short answer? No. But, if I'm being honest, yes, there are a few performers whose careers I'd like to explore in a similar series of posts. Although I have no desire to do an entire run through anyone else's filmography—mostly because I'm only that obsessively interested in Pfeiffer's career, but also because I just don't have the time to do it for another actor—certain actors do leap to mind. Vera Farmiga. Al Pacino. Winona Ryder. Michael Keaton. Gina Gershon. One legend stands out in my mind as particularly deserving of special attention, so much that I could imagine doing closer to a dozen or more reviews of her work: the inimitable Nicole Kidman . ...

Catwomen: Michelle Pfeiffer

Ranking my top five Catwoman performances in film and television. Click here for the previous entry in the Catwomen rankings. 1. Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns (1992) As a young girl, I was completely obsessed with Catwoman. When I heard that Tim was making the film and Catwoman had already been cast, I was devastated," says Pfeiffer. “At the time, it was Annette Bening. Then she became pregnant. The rest is history. I remember telling Tim halfway through the script that I'd do the film, that's how excited I was. That's Michelle Pfeiffer, discussing her momentous turn as Catwoman in Tim Burton's Batman Returns (1992), from a 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. It's important to remember, we were this close to never having Michelle’s transcendent performance . Annette Benning was cast and about to begin filming when she found out she was pregnant. After she dropped out, Pfeiffer squeezed into the black latex and the ...

Still Howling: Ten Years of Shakira's "She Wolf"

" The image of the she wolf just came to my head, and when I least expected it I was howling and panting." — Shakira "You don't think for one note that she's trying to speak to any issue other than her libido, and she creates a world where not only is this acceptable, but it makes perfect sense." — Consequence of Sound "And for as sexy as Shakira is—crucially, her music is sexy too—what really gives She Wolf its bite is her inspired nuttiness." — Billboard "I know what I'm doing even when I'm wearing a pencil skirt." — Shakira ***** Werewolves have been on my mind a lot lately, or, even more so than usual. It is Halloween, after all. I recently revisited the movie Silver Bullet —it's even better than I remembered!—followed immediately by a first-time watch of the total stinker Bad Moon . To cleanse myself of that film's lingering disappointment, I started ruminating (as I do often) about anothe...

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