In movies, the phrase “based on actual events” is always slippery. There’s a lot of distance between those actual events and the film that ultimately...
Film
Video Vault
“Swept Away” Medusa Distribuzione, 1974 Starring: Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato Director: Lina Wertmuller The plot: Raffaella (Melato), an immensely wealthy woman, is yachting with friends...
Marvel’s Daredevil
Netflix continues to keep its ever-growing number of subscribers excited and engaged with its eclectic, ready-to-binge offerings. High-caliber talent, short seasons, and genre unpredictability are...
Eight-Bit Junkyard
“Kid Niki: Radical Ninja” (Data East, 1987) The summer between third and fourth grade, I made two presumably simple follicular requests of my mother. The...
It Follows
The new horror film “It Follows” was inspired partly by one of writer/director David Robert Mitchell’s recurring dreams. In the dreams, Mitchell has said in...
Video Vault
“Salome’s Last Dance” Vestron Pictures, 1988 Starring: Stratford Johns, Imogen Millais-Scott, Nickolas Grace, Douglas Hodge, Glenda Jackson Director: Ken Russell The plot: Oscar Wilde (Grace),...
Maps to the Stars
It may not be exactly breaking news that Hollywood is caught in its own circle, damned to perennial repetition and doomed forever to walk in...
Eight-Bit Junkyard
“Blaster Master” (Sunsoft, 1988) What do you think of when you hear “Blaster Master?” Many classic video game fans heap praise upon it. They say...
Roots and views
Jerry Monkman has spent countless nights on the tops of New Hampshire’s tallest mountains, pointing his camera at the sky and capturing lingering sunsets, sparkling...
Video Vault
The best (and worst) classic flicks and cult favorites “Klute Warner Brothers, 1971 Starring: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, and Roy Scheider Director: Alan...
Eight-Bit Junkyard
“Tapper” (Bally Midway, 1983) Hello, my name is Zach. And I’m a “Tapper”-holic. I’ve been awash in a sea of digital suds for 32 years....
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” is the latest Netflix-exclusive show to premiere on the streaming service, and its first original comedy. “Schmidt,” co-created by Tina Fey and...
Video Vault
“Lovesick” The Ladd Company/Warner Brothers, 1983 Starring: Dudley Moore, Elizabeth McGovern, Alec Guinness, John Huston, and Ron Silver Director: Marshall Brickman The plot: Middle-aged married...
What We Do in the Shadows
You know what’s awesome? Surprises. You know what’s surprising? “What We Do in the Shadows.” If there’s one thing that’s more played-out than vampires, it’s...
Eight-Bit Junkyard
“A Boy and His Blob” (Absolute, 1989) For the bulk of 1982 and into the beginning of 1983, Activision’s “Pitfall!” was the bestselling game in...
Finding her voice
Greenland’s Skylar Burke stands up to bullies with her new short film, “Frenemy” By Larry Clow, photos by Alyssa Grenning It’s a Friday morning at...
Video Vault
“Way Out West” Hal Roach Studios/MGM, 1937 Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James Finlayson, Rosina Lawrence, Sharon Lynne Director: James W. Horne The plot: Stan...
Selma
It’s been 50 years since Martin Luther King Jr. led some 8,000 people on a march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. At the end of...
Eight-Bit Junkyard
Winter Game Roundup The wind threatens your breath and sanity as your bitter tears harden on your face. Your skin is cracked and brittle. In...
The Theory of Everything
The image of Stephen Hawking slouched in his motorized wheelchair has become so iconic that few people realize he once walked, spoke, laughed, and fell...
Video Vault
The best (and worst) classic flicks and cult favorites “Blood Feast” Box Office Spectaculars, 1963 Starring: Mal Arnold, William Kerwin, and Connie Mason Director: Herschell...
Jupiter Ascending
2015, Rated PG, 127 minutes Jupiter Ascending” poses one unique challenge: nearly any description of this flick invariably makes it sound way better than it...
Eight-Bit Junkyard
Rediscovering video games of the past “The Battle of Olympus” (Brøderbund, 1989) When “The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link” was released in...
Outside the gates
Neil Novello explores the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard prison in “The Castle” by Larry Clow It’s been more than a century since the prison at the...
Video Vault
Get Carter Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1971 Starring: Michael Caine, John Osborne, Ian Hendry, and Britt Ekland Director: Mike Hodges The plot: When Jack Carter’s (Caine) brother dies...