The Last Detail (’73), director Hal Ashby’s follow-up to Harold & Maude, is a mysteriously compelling little movie. There’s not a dull moment in it, yet nothing happens. Ashby and […]
Speaking of directors with unbroken strings of great movies, does anyone top Hal Ashby in the ’70s? In order, he made Harold & Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Bound For […]
In 1938 John W. Campbell wrote a creepy as all hell science fiction story titled Who Goes There?, about a team in the arctic who discovers a spaceship they estimate […]
I know what you’re thinking, regarding the title of this post, and it is “no.” You’re thinking maybe I’ve never heard of Raging Bull or Taxi Driver or Goodfellas. You […]
Your dedicated Stand By For Mind Control editors had the chance to see Don Coscarelli’s new movie John Dies At The End a few months back (he of Phantasm and […]
Not so crazy about digital projection? Feeling put out by post-converted 3D crap? Having trouble watching action films without falling into some sort of strobe-induced seizure? What you need is […]
When I first saw the trailer for Children of Men in late ’06, I thought it looked like yet another standard issue end of the world action flick. I had […]
Heeeeeeyyyy, sexy ladies! oomp. oomp-oomp. oop. oop. Oppa Gangnam style! Unless you live in a hole or with Ted Kaczynski or something, you’ve seen the K-Pop video that’s gone super-meme: […]
When Risky Business ended at the Castro Theater tonight, those I watched it with started talking about how Joel—Tom Cruise’s character—was a lousy person. Everyone in the film, they said, […]
Nuclear devastation was big in the ‘80s. What with that son of a bitch Reagan in the White House daily taunting the Soviets, everyone pretty much assumed we’d be vaporized […]
Last week Sight & Sound Magazine released their list of top 50 films as determined by a poll of fancy-pants critics. The big news is that Vertigo has dethroned Citizen Kane. But when I say “big […]
Many people say to me in my imagination, “Hey Evil One. How come you’re so serious and cranky and only talk about things you hate which is every thing?” Well, […]
Last week, the Supreme Being was kind enough to share some thoughts on the films which remapped his neurons. Since we heard his confession, I’ve been trying to ensnare the […]
Bad movies get a bad rap. It’s said they’re incompetent, meaningless, embarassing, written in a day by a lone monkey on a single typewriter, directed by escaped mental patients, acted […]