Words Seem Out Of Place

It's been a while, so I'm overdue for another odds 'n' sods post, rounding up stuff I've written elsewhere in the great beyond we call the internet. Some of these go back several months, into last year even, and others are more recent, but all of them are about one of my favorite topics: cult classic films. And for me there's no doubt the films discussed in these articles and reviews are absolute cult movie solid gold. At times Nurse 3D  plays a b-movie Single White Female on acid. From wisecracking, half-naked interstellar space babes to erotically charged nurses behaving badly, from several different women on brutally single-minded revenge missions to one of the great movie urban legends of all time, these pieces run the exploitation gamut. If memory serves, the great Rhonda Shear hosted a few of these movies on USA Up All Night . For lovers of all things cult cinema—my fellow disciples of Rhonda Shear and USA Up All Night and all yo...

In the rabid movie-loving corner of Twitter known as #filmtwitter, June has become synonymous with "Junesploitation," a month-long celebration of all things exploitation cinema— trashy slashers , blaxploitation , Andy Sideris's bullets and babes flicks , silly space opera , teensploitation , and so many more, including  nunsploitation  of all things. For a lot of us, every month is a celebration of exploitation cinema, of course. Between falling down the rabbit hole that is Tubi's enormous selection of trash cinema , and Joe Bob Briggs's recent season of The Last Drive-In on Shudder, my viewing habits of late are all about trash. Which is just how I like it. Fittingly then, my first "Writing Roundup" of the year consists entirely of reviews of cult films plus a heartfelt appreciation for a woman who played a big role in igniting my love for B-movies in the first place. It's been a long time since I've done one of these roundups, so here a...

As I'm wont to do, I wrote some things for some websites and you can find them scattered across the vast expanse of the Interwebs. Just be careful out there. After all, the Internet kind of sucks these days. ***** Margot Kidder passed away on May 13. She was only 69 years old. She'll always be my Lois Lane. She'd been mostly out of the spotlight for decades, yet many fans were shattered by news of her death. That shows just what a powerful effect her peak work had on our lives. It's difficult to put into words just how integral she was in my young life, when Superman  (1978) and Superman II (1980) were basically tied with the original Star Wars trilogy as my favorite movies, but I tried to do exactly that in a tribute I wrote for Horror Geek Life . Not sure if the article managers to fully express why Kidder was so important to me back then, but I think I gave it a good whirl. Just like she gave me one helluva whirl back in the day. As Lois Lane, she...

I've had three articles published at different sites recently, focusing on three very different actresses: Michelle Pfeiffer, Megan Fox, and Jennifer Lopez. In fact, this might be the only time the three have ever shared a sentence together. You could say I love the films of Michelle Pfeiffer. You might even say I'm one of her biggest (p)fans. I've been engaged in a thorough revisiting of every one of her films recently, writing about some here when I have a chance , so you'd think putting together her top ten performances would be easy for me, right? Sort of, but not quite. While my top five Pfeiffer is fairly locked down, the ordering could easily be rearranged. I agonized over work that I left out of the top ten, and if you checked back with me tomorrow I might include one or two of them at the expense of one or two that I did include. That's how strong her filmography is. She's the best, that's it. And let's not forget, her peak years—roug...

Over The Edge (1979) Summer is almost over, and I'm ready for fall. I'm not ready for winter though, and I will miss summer, but fall is my favorite time of year , for many reasons . We're having unusually comfortable weather in the Northeast for this time of year, with temps in the 70s and nice cool overnight lows this week. All of which makes it feel even more like fall is already here. How about a nice pumpkin ale? Yes, please. Still, I have no doubt we'll see a return to hot and humid weather before summer's officially done. But those days will become fewer and farther between as we move into September. So, get outside, enjoy the last days of summer while you can. Speaking of summer, I contributed some articles, reviews, and interviews at other sites this summer. Here are some links, for your perusal and enjoyment. Feel free to comment here with your thoughts on any and all of these pieces. Tim Hanley on The Many Lives of Catwoman "What I do is...

I reviewed  Christine (2016)  recently for The After Movie Diner. Wow. A few weeks since seeing it and I'm still processing my feelings. Even though I knew what was coming , it was still a gut-punch of epic proportions. That's because everything leading up to Christine's on-air suicide is so thoughtfully portrayed. It's a compassionately crafted film centered around one absolutely transcendent performance by Rebcecca Hall. In nearly every scene of the film, Hall is riveting, unforgettable, and heartbreaking. I haven't seen a better performance in years . John Carpenter's classic Escape from New York is my latest Cult Classics Review at the Diner, and you can check that out here . Writing that review made me realize there are at least five Carpenter films that could each make my list of all-time top five films: Escape , Assault on Precinct 13 , Halloween , The Thing , and Big Trouble in Little China . Very few filmmakers have ever equaled that quality. I...

If I never do anything else worthwhile with my life, at least I can say I invented the Unified Theory of Jessica Alba. Put that on my gravestone, please. I don't know where or how the idea struck, but it hit like a lightning bolt while reviewing the average but mostly forgettable  Fantastic Four (2005) for The After Movie Diner.  Before I knew it, I'd formulated the entire theory. Based on an extensive use of the scientific method (i.e., watching movies), it maintains that there are five factors, or aspects, of any Jessica Alba performance that, inexplicably, combine to form something something...well, something. I won't spoil the rest for you; go read the review and find out. And then read my latest review of another film that also happens to star Alba, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For . I really enjoyed the first Sin City and I thought the sequel was a worthy followup. It's not as good as the first, but together they're a fun blast of comic book neo-noi...

Olivia Hussey, the original Final Girl, in Black Christmas (1974). How do you celebrate the holiday season? If you answer with anything other than, "Why, watch Black Christmas , of course!" then you need to reconsider your priorities. Okay, I understand we all have family obligations this time of year. Still, I implore you to take some time out and watch this 1974 cult classic, considered by many to be the birth of the slasher film genre. I wrote about it for The After Movie Diner this week, but the long and the short of it is this: I've seen an awful lot of slasher movies in my lifetime (I'm a child of the 1970s and 1980s, after all), and while several have been as good as Black Christmas , none have been better. I've long held John Carpenter's Halloween as the gold standard for horror/slasher movies, but now I'd slot Black Christmas in right alongside it. Amazingly I hadn't seen the film before this year. Oh I'd been hearing about an...

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.

My series of cult film reviews continues over at The After Movie Diner , a site that truly celebrates film in all its forms. First I looked at Ms. 45 , Abel Ferrera's 1981 exploitation classic that I argue is also an overlooked feminist classic. The film has haunted me for years, as have most of Ferrara's work. Like Ferrara's other early career films, Ms. 45 is an unsettling look at life in New York City at a time before the Disneyification of midtown. The film features the late Zoe Tamerlis's star-making performance in the title role. She's unforgettable in it, which only makes me sadder that she died so young and never fully realized the promise of this movie. She did write Bad Lieutenant , though, and that's another Ferrara masterpiece. Still, she left far too soon. I also took a lighter look at another cult classic, Halloween III: Season of the Witch . I don't want to spoil my take on it, but suffice it to say this film has seen an about-face in it...