Jul
31
This summer has been something of a bummer as far as the tent-poles are concerned (and I’m writing this scant hours after seeing CATS AND DOGS: THE REVENGE OF KITTY GALORE, a film that does nothing to brighten my general opinion of the season). Smaller, cleverer, more thoughtful films are doing pretty good, though. We’ve …
Jul
28
Following up on this week’s in-depth discussion of EYES WITHOUT A FACE, Dan Persons, Lawrence French, and Steve Biodrowski launch into an informal chat about horror, fantasy, and science fiction films of 1960, including BLACK SUNDAY (which will become the subject of a future podcast in August). Also on the menu: another look at DESPICABLE …
Jul
26
With theaters offering no new genre films this weekend, The Cinefantastique Podcast turns its all-seeing gaze back through the mists of time to a 50th anniversary examination of EYES WITHOUT A FACE, director George Franju’s moody masterpiece of art house horror. Imagine a dream of lyrical black-and-white images, of a lonely young woman, flitting through …
Jul
21
In the latest weekly installment of CFQ’s Post-Mortem Podcast, Dan Persons, Lawrence French, and Steve Biodrowski offer a free-form follow-up to this Cinefantastique Podcast, including further in-depth insights on the dreamscape of Christopher Nolan’s INCEPTION and a look at the big-budget disappointment, THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE, starring Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel, and loosely inspired by …
Jul
19
Dream a little dream with the 23rd episode of the Cinefantastique Podcast, as Dan Persons, Lawrence French, and Steve Biodrowski analyze INCEPTION, Christopher Nolan’s multi-leveled special effects extravaganza about invading other people’s dreams to steal or plant ideas. Is it the thinking person’s action-packed blockbuster? Or is this dream one in which (to paraphrase Freud) …
Jul
15
In CFQ’s Post-Mortem Podcast (or should that be Podcast Post-Mortem?), Dan Persons, Lawrence French, and Steve Biodrowski offer a free-form follow-up to the regular Cinefantastique Podcast, including further in-depth insights on the minutia of PREDATORS and a look at the week’s other big genre release, DESPICABLE ME, the hilarious 3-D animated film from Universal Pictures. Also included …
Jul
12
This week, the Cinefantastique Podcast sets its sights on PREDATORS, produced by Robert Rodriguez and directed by Nimrod Antal, from a screenplay by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch. Is this sequel to PREDATOR (1987) a brilliant pop culture mediation on the ability of the human spirit to triumph in dire circumstances, or is it merely …
Jul
08
In my discussion with director Lisa Cholodenko about her new film, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT — about a sperm donor (Mark Ruffalo) abruptly entering the lives of a lesbian couple (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) whose children were spawned from his seed — I mentioned to her that the tone felt distinctly Southern Californian. …
Jul
08
In the second Cinefantastique Post-Mortem Pocast, your trio of talented talkers (i.e., Dan Persons, Lawrence French, and Steve Biodrowski) leave the recorder running after their episode dedicated to PREDATORS, THE LAST AIRBENDER, and THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE – offering free-form observations, rants, suppositions, and confessions. Included is a discussion of the non-horror – but still frightening – hard-boiled film noir, THE …
Jul
06
It’s a double-dose of photodramatic discussion, disputation, and dissention on this week’s episode of the the Cinefantastique Podcast, as Dan Persons, Steve Biodrowski, and Lawrence French take on romantic vampires, macho werewolves, and elemental airbenders. Does THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE deliver? Can the post-production 3-D conversion process add depth to M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon’s THE LAST AIRBENDER? Plus: …
