Fantastic Fest 2023!
Hey, it’s the Fantastic Fest 2023 line-up. Take a gander at all the films here. And Drafthouse has more here.
“Crime is like a Magic Box: Black Lizard (1968)”
Friend of the Gutter Michelle Kisner on Kinji Fukasaku’s 1968 film, Black Lizard! “Villains can be alluring and enchanting and, if executed correctly, can hold the audience in the palm of their hands. Kinji Fukasaku’s film Black Lizard (1968) has one such outlaw, Mrs. Midorikawa (Akihiro Miwa), AKA […]
Summer Fun Time Reading ’23
Summer isn’t quite here, but it’s been hot and a chunk of North America is already on fire, so I thought I’d go straight ahead with my Summer Fun Time Reading recommendations. There’s Gilded Age tomfoolery, science fiction, horror, mysterious figures with antlers, UFOs, ghosts, cats with skulls […]
Dashiell Hammett’s The Main Death
The Library of America shares Dashiell Hammett’s short story, “The Main Death,” and adds some context. “On its surface, “The Main Death” seems to be a straightforward puzzle mystery: an abundance of seemingly contradictory clues perplex the cops and detectives (and the reader), the Continental Op hunts down […]
“It’s Not Easy Hating Evil”: The Bad Sleep Well
For this year’s Switcheroo Month, I decided to write about a lesser known film by one of the most reputable directors around—Akira Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well (1960). Set in then contemporary mid-Twentieth Century Japan, The Bad Sleep Well is the story of Koichi Nishi (Toshiro Mifune) seeking […]
“The Movie Industry’s Confused ‘Eat the Rich’ Fantasy”
At Vulture, Sam Adler-Bell considers recent ‘Eat the Rich ‘ movies including The Menu (2022), Triangle of Sadness (2022), Glass Onion (2022), and Parasite (2019). “The true villains of our time are ensconced in cocoons of comfort, immune to accountability. They enjoy their lives; they are not burdened […]
The Cultural Gutter 