Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Blu-ray) <small>by Francis Rizzo III</small><hr /> <style></style> In 10 Words or Less A gorgeous, heart-rending musical on love lost and found The Movie John Cameron Mitchell made his bones but foregoing subtlety on the surface, and hiding it deeper in his work. His film S...Read the entire review »

How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (Blu-ray) <small>by Stuart Galbraith IV</small><hr /> The sixth of seven AIP-produced "Beach Party" movies, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965) is more of the same, with but a few differences. If, like this reviewer, you have a fondness for these admittedly unfunny yet amusing films, Olive Films' gorgeous new Blu-ray, licensed from MGM, is for you. If you can't fathom the crude charm of these pictures, well, you likely never will. (Bosley Crowther for one: he called this one "the answer to a moron's prayer.") How to Stuff a Wild Bikini was the sixth film of what ended up as a seven-film series. It had been preceded by Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach, Pajama Party (all 1964), Beach Blanket Bingo, and Ski Party (both 1965), and was followed by Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966). Except for the last film, all starred Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, though she has only...Read the entire review »

American Horror Project: Volume 2 (Blu-ray) <small>by Ian Jane</small><hr /> The Movie: It's been over three years since the first volume of Arrow Video's American Horror Project was released a long wait, but one that's finally over now that volume two has been unleashed. Here's a look Dream No Evil: The film begins at a girls' orphanage where a well to do woman adopts cute little Grace McDonald. While this subplot seems important, it's really not, we never hear about her adopted parents again. Instead we fast forward a good ten years and find that Grace is doing the Lord's work. The Reverend Jesse Bundy (Michael Pataki) drives around the mid-west with his shirt unbuttoned towing a trailer and at night, he and Grace set up revival tent meetings. Jesse does the fire and brimstone act while Grace dons a swimsuit and leaps off of a thirty-foot-tall ladder into a fill of cushions as some sort of strange proof God's existence. Complicating...Read the entire review »

The Beach Bum (Blu-ray) <small>by Ryan Keefer</small><hr /> The Movie: Everyone talks about Matthew McConaughey's eccentricities outside of a tv or movie screen, and he's told some incredible tales about things, but I think The Beach Bum weirdly may capture what he wants to be and to a much lesser extent is. In the first five minutes, he is walking around the streets of Key West, finds a stray cat, and walks around with it while joining Jimmy Buffett and other musicians onstage. Sometimes he reads poetry he wrote, sometimes he's bongoing with a couple of half-naked women on a boat. Maybe that's what life is about, I don't know. Anyway, the film is written and directed by Harmony Korine (Spring Breakers), and McConaughey plays a guy named Moondog who drinks, smokes weed and generally enjoys life. On occasion he meets with his wife Minnie (Isla Fisher, <a href="https://...Read the entire review »

The Illusionist (MVD Marquee Release) (Blu-ray) <small>by Thomas Spurlin</small><hr /> The Film: <hr nospace> Drenched in sepia tones and flickering like a relic of Thomas Edison's first filmmaking ventures, Neil Burger's The Illusionist has the unfortunate task in competing against another turn-of-the-century magic story released in its year, Christopher Nolan's The Prestige. Nolan's film stylishly weaves through a labyrinth of dark tones and twisted motives, while planting Batman himself, Christian Bale, in a cutthroat love triangle between X-Men actor Hugh Jackman and sultry Scarlett Johansson. Aside from the late-1800s setting, however, the two films couldn't be more different; Burger's loose adaptation of Steven Millhauser's story "Eisenheim The Illusionist" relies on straightforward storytelling for its mysterious ...Read the entire review »