With a new latter-day sequel trudging across cinema screens, we are provided with a great opportunity to review the iconic cyberpunk noir masterpiece Blade Runner. Established now with a pristine reputation, the film was initially released to critical derision and ...
Read More »Damnation by Peter McLean: You’re about as deep as a puddle of piss
Peter McLean is back with another instalment of his entertaining Don Drake series. The rough-around-the-edges diabolist-for-hire continues to pine for his guardian angel, make stupid decisions, get himself into trouble, and generally fuck up whenever he possibly could. Three books ...
Read More »Nostalgic Impulse: Double Indemnity
Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity is a recognized noir classic, preserved by the National Film Registry for being deemed ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant’. Perhaps you will focus on the venetian blind lighting style that became a staple of the noir ...
Read More »Sexually charged feminine villainy in SFF
From witches to succubi to super-powered femme fatales, female villains in SFF have long been defined by their sexuality. With skimpy outfits and powers derived from their sexuality or used to enhance their sexual attractiveness, these villainous women seem incapable ...
Read More »Nostalgic Impulse: Sunset Boulevard (1950)
They don’t make films like this anymore. I realise Sunset Boulevard is well before my time and that I’m a tad young to be so nostalgic for the past, but I defy anyone to watch this classic without feeling this ...
Read More »LIMBO: An elegy for the mixtape
The premise for this comic miniseries reminds me of some kinds of modern art: throw a bunch of paint at a canvas and see what sticks. In the case of Limbo, the brainchild of Caspar Wijngaard and Dan Watters, has ...
Read More »The Nice Guys: You’re the world’s worst detectives
It occurred to me as I was leaving the cinema, what a sorry state the buddy movie has been in these last few years. Trying to remember some gems, I had to think back a good many years to come ...
Read More »Nostalgic Impulse: The Lost Weekend
Five shocking days in the life of an alcoholic While Wilder’s 1945 Oscar winner, The Lost Weekend, was not the first big-screen look at alcoholism, it was one of the earliest to take such an honest and unrelenting approach. Though ...
Read More »Made to Kill by Adam Christopher
From the blurb, Made to Kill sounded like it was 100% made for me. A science fiction noir with robots? Sign me up! My love affair of the noir genre began in childhood after discovering Humphrey Bogart in The Big ...
Read More »A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar
Tidhar’s most recent novel, A Man Lies Dreaming (Hodder) is a strange beast. I’m not sure what I expected, but what I read wasn’t it. His prose is musical, brilliant to read. And the story? Odd. I had heard of ...
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