Of all the mondo movies released in the wake of Faces of Death, this is probably the best. It’s more in your face than Faces of Death, but it somehow feels less exploitative, if that makes any sense (probably because none of the sequences are fakes). There’s an unapologetic cynicism that runs throughout the picture that is unrelenting. You’ll ( Read more... )

We lost Herschell Gordon Lewis last year and it was a terrible blow to the exploitation world. In Frank (Frankenhooker) Henenlotter’s documentary, you can see how truly funny and self-deprecating he was. What’s great about the film is that you can now see how that personality carried over to his films. He knew the movies he was making weren’t ( Read more... )

Ole’ Ole’ Ole’: A Trip Across Latin America documented The Rolling Stones' Latin America tour that culminated in the band playing their historical concert in Havana, Cuba. That flick more or less acts like a prequel (or perhaps an extended DVD supplement) to this awesome concert film. This one gives you some background on the events leading up ( Read more... )

The Rolling Stones are for my money the greatest band of all time. Because they have been together for so long, their only real competition is themselves. Since there have been many terrific documentaries and concert films made about them over the years, this one (about their recent tour through Latin America) feels a bit slight in comparison. ( Read more... )

In the ‘60s, French New Wave filmmaker Francois Truffaut extensively interviewed Alfred Hitchcock and wrote the definitive book on The Master. The book went on to become a valuable text for up-and-coming filmmakers, many of which are interviewed (among them, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson, and David Fincher). This documentary focuses on the ( Read more... )

There are a lot of words to describe Frank Zappa. Genius. Madman. Anarchist. None of those labels really do him justice. He was a man of enormous talent, and as this documentary points out; many contradictions ( Read more... )

Smokey and the Bandit. Burt Reynolds. Hal Needham. A documentary on any one of these subjects would have been fascinating. The filmmakers of The Bandit try to cover all three in the course eighty-four minutes. It’s a daunting task ( Read more... )

After sitting through Larry Buchanan’s The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, I was intrigued to see what he would do to the story of Bonnie and Clyde in The Other Side of Bonnie and Clyde. As it turns out, the film is more or less a standard documentary. It’s actually a lot like a true crime show you’d see nowadays on TV with talking head interviews ( Read more... )

Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this review in no way endorses a belief in the occult ( Read more... )

After Porn Ends is a no-frills, but entertaining documentary that chronicles several former porn stars as they try to find themselves after leaving a life of pornography behind. Some adjust better than others. While people like Richard Pacheco make a clean break from the industry, others like Raylene quickly return after announcing their ( Read more... )