Jack Hill is one of the few true auteurs of Exploitation. He’s the director of numerous classics; Spider Baby, The Big Doll House, Coffy, and Foxy Brown could each be a defining film for its genre. Switchblade Sisters, his second-to-last film and the last released under his name, is the cherry [...]
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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is the ultimate American Phantasy, but beneath its glittering skin is an abyss with no bottom. Howard Hawks directs it like a wicked National Geographic Special on human mating habits in late Capitalist society, with Monroe and Russell stalking their respective prey on a colorful veldt of [...]
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Two-Lane Blacktop is a minimalistic story of two cars. One—a ’55 Chevy—is piloted by two practically silent characters dubbed The Driver and The Mechanic who have no existence outside of their pursuit of the “shut-down.” They’re terse, cold, and focused. The other is a 1970 Pontiac driven by a fop [...]
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There’s no specific term for what Martin Scorsese does with music. His alignment of sound and image is one of the four greatest I know—Kubrick, Lynch, and Tarantino are the few who can claim a similar mastery. Since around the time of Raging Bull he’s had Robbie Robertson (The Band) as “Music Consultant”. Basically, [...]
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In J.D.’s Revenge Issac (Glynn Turman) is a quiet young taxi driver going to law school in New Orleans. One night, while out on a double date with his best friend, he’s possessed by the spirit of J.D. Walker, a street thug who was murdered with his sister in the early forties. J.D. is [...]
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