Archive Authors

Leland Orser is an actor. You’ve seen his face a lot over the years playing deranged or demented or despondent characters. He is married to Jeanne Tripplehorn, who is probably better known from the HBO series Big Love and movies like Basic Instinct and Waterworld. Orser decided to write and direct his first movie and have his wife play his wife in the movie. It is an intense character study that includes other top actors like Laura Linney, Eliot Gould, Kyle Chandler, Jason Ritter and Julie White. Everyone in the movie seems to be in support of Jeanne Tripplehorn, who has been given quite a character to play.
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Dave Foley is something of a celebrity, not to overstate the fact. He starred in a famous skit comedy show (Kids in the Hall) and sitcom (News Radio).  He’s not like super-huge famous, but he has a strong cult following. He also looks like the sweetest and least objectionable person in the world. I say he looks like that. He may be the sweetest person in the world, but he is definitely not the least objectionable person in the world. His standup DVD clearly tries to dispel the notion that he doesn’t hold a lot of objectionable views. This DVD is definitely not for everyone. If you’re a very religious and conservative person, this DVD is not for you.
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It’s funny. It’s a funny show. That’s kind of a big thing for a sitcom. It’s good at comedy. You wouldn’t think that would need to be said, but it does. I’ve seen many sitcoms which were like death. They were boring, uncomfortable and unfunny. I’ve seen many sitcoms that are a joyless exercise executed by unfunny people who have no clue on how to make a funny show. It actually isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do unless you have the knack for it. You kind of have to be able to loosen up and kind of go for it. You kind of have to get real and go crazy. New Girl is that kind of show.
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Earlier this year, I reviewed Enlightened Season One and said about Laura Dern’s character that she “has so many outrageous outbursts of issues great and small that most people have dismissed her as crazy and just wish she would go away.” Now we are back with Season Two, and all of the potential craziness of Season One is ready to spill and overflow in an uncontrollable fashion. Originally conceived with a three-season arc, it is my sad duty to report that it is unlikely we will ever see the promised Season Three.
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The Bronte Sisters is a very historical film in many ways. It is the most accurate film we have depicting the real lives of some very famous writers. It is also an old film from 1979 being reissued that stars three great actresses who are very well known now. It has an excellent commentary that addresses both of these  points by film scholar Wade Major and Bronte scholar Sue Lonoff de Cuevas done in 2013. It also includes a 2012 Bronte documentary by Dominique Maillet called the Ghosts of Hapworth. The Bronte Sisters was directed by respected French director, Andre Techine’.
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“Treading through the dreadful darkness of the land, I dipped the pith of a rush into the tallow, and soon the rushlights guided me down the somberness, the gloomy flames unveiling this unfamiliar soil.”

B.J. Smith 1714-1775

These words preface the movie Rushlights, giving it an aura of mystery, history and literary pedigree. What is delivered is a modern film noir that stretches from Los Angeles to Tremo, Texas.
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Cartoons are for kids. Most of the time. Then there is Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. Adult Swim plays during the late night hours and is under much looser federal regulation. Much, much looser, I would say. In fact, it may be possible that the definition of the term loose has been stomped and squashed into a giant red stain on the sidewalk. I have not spent a lot of time watching Adult Swim, but I was not ready for the content of Superjail: Season 3. I think it would be hard to imagine something more offensive and shocking, but I’m sure it exists.
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When a documentary is made about a subject and interviews are presented with a wide variety of individuals talking about a single thing, most of the time no one will question such a presentation. In this case, people are likely to question the intentions and ultimate content of the project. The film is directed by noted photographer Deborah Anderson, who has taken photographs of many famous celebrities like Elton John and George Clooney. She is the daughter of rock singer Jon Anderson from Yes. Aroused is about celebrities of a sort. The film includes extensive interviews with porn stars and their agent during the course of an extensive photo shoot.
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Has there ever been anyone like Frank Zappa? He had a rare combination of incredible professionalism and steadfast sobriety mixed with zany insanity and freakish detours on offbeat paths. He is the freak of all freaks of the sixties yet had an unwavering distaste for the rampant drug use of the time. His music couldn’t be more jarring or unconventional, yet he liked stately classical compositions to relax. A Token of His Extreme was a passion project for Zappa that he paid for with his own money back in 1974. It was produced with the intention of being an American Network Television special, but it never saw the light of day in the US.
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Oscilloscope Laboratories distributes unusual films. Unusual and special. They have packaged two documentaries together: Only the Young/Tchoupitoulas. The first is about kids wandering around a suburban wasteland in desert California. The second is about kids wandering the streets of New Orleans. They are very different experiences, but they are both about the flow of real life. They both have voices that are real and at times inspired. They are about avoiding dramatic structure and explaining and just revealing.
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I should start by saying I just re-watched the 1939 version of Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon on Turner Classic Movies, and I fell in love all over again. Olivier was never more magnetic, naturalistic and appealing than he was as Heathcliff. I have watched it many times and Wuthering Heights has been done many times. There have been recent versions with Ralph Fiennes and Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises, Inception). This is not one of those versions.
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You need to imagine you are back in 1969. Many of you will have no idea what a different world it was back then. So many things did not exist, like computers and the internet and cable television. So much is available now that people could only fantasize about then. Now any unsupervised 10-year-old can see just about anything they want. It’s hard to imagine how big a difference that is. Hiding Playboy magazines under the mattress was about as bad as it got back then. There was a huge unfulfilled demand for adult entertainment when adults couldn’t find much that excited or titillated them.
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Many small unheralded horror films are produced, and they easily slip through the cracks. The Frankenstein Theory is one. It has an interesting premise, though. In 2012, Professor Jonathan Venkenheim takes a film crew to the Arctic to document the attempt to prove that Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein was a true story based on his great, great, great grandfather’s letters. Venkenheim is a highly educated, nervous, and nerdy academic who is obsessed with this possibility. The documentary crew and Venkenheim’s own girlfriend think his obsession is driving him a little mad, but they want the job, and Venkenheim will not be deterred.
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The Real Vikings is a DVD collection put out by the History channel and is comprised of three separately-produced programs about the reign of the Vikings.

The last one is the best and is part of the Warriors series hosted by Green Beret Terry Schappert.  Schappert delves into some of the key battles of the early Viking invasions and the methods that made them such effective warriors. In the late 8^th century A.D. the Viking state is disorganized, and the easiest route to fame and glory is through conquest. Conquests then would lead to a rallying behind a leader. In 793 A.D.
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