At the Criterion blog, Imogen Sara Smith writes about Noir Westerns. “Westerns cover a lot of territory. Dramatizing the most romantic of American myths, they also give form to the darkest inversions of those myths. The genre that celebrated rugged pioneer values and civilization’s conquest of the wilderness […]
The Gutter’s own Carol Borden has some thoughts about Sharksploitation (USA, 2023), Stephen Scarlata’s new documentary about sharksploitation! “I was one of those kids that was scarred by Jaws (1975). I worried about sharks in the bathtub.* I was scared in the pool. And getting me to swim […]
At Bright Wall / Dark Room, Lauren Wilford writes about how Vertigo changes when you watch it from Judy’s point of view. “From Judy’s perspective, the second half of Vertigo constantly threatens to become a slasher movie.” Read more here. And if you have trouble with the link opening, […]
The Library of America features Ray Bradbury’s short story, “The Emissary.” “Bradbury originally wrote “The Emissary” for his first book, Dark Carnival (1947) and then revised it in 1951 for publication in the short-lived literary journal New-Story. He then rewrote it extensively for inclusion in The October Country […]
The Gutter’s own Beth Watkins and Pitu Sultan talk about the Indian Golden Age Superstar Madhubala on the Filmi Ladies podcast! “What can we say? She’s so talented, so funny, so beautiful, so lush! We deliberately chose some less-discussed movies from her filmography: yes, we do Mahal (1949), […]
I’ve been thinking about what “disreputable art” means in a time when nerds, fans, and geeks have won a kind of cultural hegemony. It was different when the Cultural Gutter was founded in 2003, before Iron Man (2008) launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Force awakened, and the […]