Tag Archive

I Come With the Rain

By Adam Lippe

It’s been said, by a much wiser man than I, that Charles Bronson looked like Mr. Potato Head. This was especially true in his later years in front of the camera, mailing it in while working with J. Lee Thompson and Michael Winner and Cannon Films in the 1980s on such sleazy and workmanlike films […]

Case 39

By Adam Lippe

In baseball terminology, the shift refers to when a left-handed power hitter who tends to pull the ball (in other words, hits the ball to right field, the shift is almost never used against right-handed batters) comes to the plate (such as Ryan Howard, David Ortiz, Adam Dunn, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, etc.) the infielders […]

A Podcast with Henrik Ruben Genz, the Director of Terribly Happy

By Adam Lippe

Below is an interview with the director of the Danish dark comedy Terribly Happy, Henrik Ruben Genz. We discuss the connections between his film and Blood Simple, the satirical underpinnings of Terribly Happy and how that relates to political refugees in Denmark, the inherent humor within the arrogance of Dogme ’95 and how Lars Von […]

On art and commerce: An audio interview with Fissure director Russ Pond

By Adam Lippe

Below you’ll find an interview with the director of Fissure, Russ Pond (the review can be read here), that I conducted recently. The interview is about 17 minutes long and I’ve broken it up into three parts. The first two parts discuss the movie itself, so if you want to avoid spoilers, I’d be cautious […]

Fissure

By Adam Lippe

When a movie disorients you for 2/3 of its running time, making you feel like you can follow it, but never quite get a handle on it, without ever getting too confused, the eventual explanation is almost always going to be a let down. This is often a consequence of being ambitious, and carrying out […]

The Merry Gentleman

By Adam Lippe

In the pantheon of films about depressed hitmen either on their last job or on the verge of suicide, The Merry Gentleman stands tall, in the middle of the pack. Not as insightful, moving, nor funny as the William H. Macy starring Panic* or as wonderfully awful as Nicholas Cage’s foray in the remake of […]

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Roadracers

By Adam Lippe

Whenever there’s a genre parody or ode to a specific era of films, such as Black Dynamite’s mocking of Blaxploitation films or Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, the second half of Grindhouse, the danger is that the film might fall into the trap of either being condescending without any particular insight, or so faithful that it becomes the very flawed thing it is emulating.

Black Dynamite has nothing new to say about Blaxploitation films, it just does a decent job of copying what an inept [...]

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Featured Quote (written by me)

On Cold Fish:

Though the 16 year old me described the 1994 weepie Angie, starring Geena Davis as a Brooklyn mother raising her new baby alone, as “maudlin and melodramatic,” Roger Ebert, during his TV review, referring to the multitude of soap-operaish problems piling up on the titular character, suggested that it was only in Hollywood where Angie would get a happy ending. “If they made this movie in France, Angie would have shot herself.”

Well Cold Fish was made in Japan, where Angie would have shot herself and that would have been the happy ending.