Month: September 2021

An undocumented immigrant is in her rundown apartment alone trying to call family back home. At least, she thinks she’s alone. She’s not. She’s the first on-screen victim in a long line of them in Santiago Menghini’s horror feature debut “No One Gets Out Alive.”  Ambar (Cristina Rodlo) takes the space in a dilapidated Cleveland boardinghouse … Continue reading “No One Gets Out Alive”

After months of delays, the 25th official James Bond film is finally here in “No Time to Die,” an epic (163 minutes!) action film that presents 007 with one of his toughest missions: End the era that most people agree gave new life to one of the most iconic film characters of all time. Everyone … Continue reading “No Time to Die”

Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive” is the intersection of existential samurai films and heightened crime epics, a juxtaposition of sensorial bliss with patient ritualism. Taking inspiration from the minimalist crime films of Jean-Pierre Melville—which were themselves informed by the wandering, warrior-code archetype of Japanese cinema’s Jidaigeki pictures—”Drive” paints a city of angels and demons inhabited by shifty used car salesmen and … Continue reading “Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive: Cinema’s Postmodern Samurai”

We are pleased to offer an excerpt from the September 2021 edition of the online magazine, Bright Wall/Dark Room. Their 99th issue is all about “Desert Island Movies,” and in addition to Ethan Warren’s piece below on “Almost Famous,” the issue also features new essays on “The Green Knight,” “In the Mood for Love,” “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse,” “Stop Making Sense,” “Grosse … Continue reading “Bright Wall/Dark Room September 2021: It’s All Happening by Ethan Warren”