John Waters, that loveable scamp and master of camp, brings his own twist and shout to the 50s greaser meets preppy girl who wants to be bad meets musical doo-wop gore. Can true love succeed? Is it weird to drink
Strange Days – The Virtue of Dwelling on Violence
A psycho-action tech noir thriller about a device that can record one’s experiences and feelings, a dream hustler and the killer in need of an audience, and an end of the millennium party primed to blow out into a full
Spirited Away – Disarming Consumerism through Detail and Patience
‘The Problem’ with Popcorn Roulette is that when I ask guests to come on the show, they tend to recommend one of their favorite movies. And if my guest loves a movie, I probably think that movie is great too. Which
Birdman – The Need to Feel Beloved On This Earth
Michael Keaton is a type-cast actor who’s desperate to be taken seriously. Edward Norton is a method actor who’s notorious for demanding too much from those around him. I mean, that’s who they are in real life. They also play
Drive – Can You Outrun Your Nature
Refn’s Drive is a master course in how to layer a movie. It’s a frame perfect examination of a modern day Shane who’s been wrong so long, he can’t stop from doing more wrong, for all the right reasons. But
Mad Max: Fury Road – What Do You Cling To When There’s Nothing Out There?
When I first watched Mad Max: Fury Road, I was afraid there would only be one action scene… because the action would never stop. I needn’t have worried. Mastermind George Miller knows how to flood a flick with a glut
Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World: Humor So Wet, You Could Build an Aquarium
Here’s how far off the rails the Mad, Mad train is driven: Larry, Moe, and Curly of the Three Stooges are marched in, dressed as firefighters, and theirs is the most sedate scene in the movie. If you were alive
The Hunger: We All Own an Attic/Crypt of Past Lovers, Right?
Tony Scott’s directorial debut must have coincided with a buy-one-get-two-free curtain sale. This melodrama is sensuous, moody, and broiling while steeped in an early 80s post-punk, pre-pop goth aesthetic. But Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, and Susan Sarandon resurrect such excellent
Ready to Rumble – The WCW Harbinger of Doom
During the Attitude Era, two major wrestling federations declared war on each other in a desperate bid for relevancy and ratings. Amid this chaotic struggle of one-upsmanship, a terd of a movie was born. Ready to Rumble was bad. So
Network – Things Have to Change. But First, You Gotta Get Mad!
Received in 1976 as a parody of network news, Chayevsky’s pessimistic morality play, about reality television and how the news could be big entertainment, proved prophetic. It’s a story about Howard Beale, a man who raged about his individuality, and