Damn Fine TV/Film
David Lynch is notoriously a fan of the epic TV drama Mad Men, and it is no surprise why. Yes, because of the brilliant characters and his love for the 1950's and 60's, but also because he is such a creative Ad Man himself. As Lynch told Chris Rodley in Lynch on Lynch, he thinks of commercials as …
Continue reading "Lynch Night: All the Mad Men – The Commercials by David Lynch"
"On-Screen, Off-Screen" is our monthly film series created to showcase a more personal retrospective about some of our favourite filmmakers. Each month, one 25YL staffer will choose one of their own favourite filmmakers - be it a director or performer or writer or composer or production designer, etc - and will analyse what it is …
Continue reading "On-Screen, Off-Screen: Richard Lester and His Mad, Mod World"
“But a terror of this nature, as it occupies and expands the mind, and elevates it to high expectation, is purely sublime, and leads us, by a kind of fascination, to seek even the object, from which we appear to shrink” - Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) [1] Most people are aware of …
Continue reading "The Art of Literary Misinterpretation in Alien: Covenant"
Fans of old can give a knowing nod, whispering “Joseph,” as the red rubber ball bounces back out of the dusty attic and onto a special limited edition Blu-ray of Peter Medak’s The Changeling by Severin Films. I specify the director to help distinguish from Clint Eastwood’s 2008 film Changeling starring Angelina Jolie. This is …
Writer-director Matt Palmer received the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival for his feature-length debut, Calibre. This film takes place in the beautiful, albeit eerie Scottish Highlands, a place that I myself have always dreamed of visiting. As an avid watcher of the Outlander TV series, I’ve always …
As much as he'll be remembered for his impossibly uncanny live-action portrayal of Shaggy Rogers, Matthew Lillard has carved out a pretty successful career elsewhere, appearing in everything from cult classics like Hackers and SLC Punk! to Alexander Payne's Academy Award-winning drama, The Descendants. Welcome back to "As Seen on Twin Peaks" and this time …
Continue reading "As Seen on Twin Peaks: Matthew Lillard in Scream"
Sex is a timeless influence that both confounds and enthralls the human condition. In the 1960s, its power loomed large over society’s changing attitudes. There was an intoxicating collective brew that was bubbling to the surface and hitting an inescapable fever pitch. Females roared with a desire to be heard and appreciated. Free love attempted …
Have you ever examined a spool of thread? You follow the thread around its bobbin, line after line, turn after turn, gazing at its perfect uniformity. The slightest disturbance, perhaps a speck of dust, disrupts the flow of the thread. Each line of the condensed cotton, systematically following the other with machine-like precision, each strand …
Continue reading "The Haunting Brilliance of Phantom Thread"
“I feel most free onstage,” admitted Kim Gordon, member of the band Sonic Youth, “The audience, it’s an abstraction. You don’t really see anyone out there, but you feel the audience inside you.” [1] (emphasis mine) When David Lynch called Bob, the demonic presence that had begun to permeate my nightmares since early in Twin …
"I've always been fascinated by the nature of good and evil. And the possibility of demonic possession. But the opportunity for me to witness and film an actual exorcism, came about 45 years after I had made [The Exorcist] the film. And completely by accident. Or was it providence?" - William Friedkin. 45 years after …