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Swiss Model Airplane Glue will never replace Famo Hair Remover

A rite of passage for male chowderheads worldwide

A cinematic counterpart to word association, this trio of films came to mind spontaneously and without reflection while watching The Garden Store trilogy. Cookoo Cavaliers (1940) Hey, Jan Hřebejk — steal from the Stooges and ...

South Bay physical media pull with Kurt Russell, Scorsese’s Rolling Stones, and a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western

Mined from We Lend More Inc., Roberto’s Jewelry and Pawn, and Express Pawn

Things your ever-diligent physical media hound sleuthed out while making the rounds of the South Bay region. Dark Blue (2002) We Lend More Inc. had a copy with my name on it. In the days ...

The Mae West test

She was five feet high and built like a gyrating, well-upholstered wingback

According to Mae West, she was the first liberated woman. “No guy was going to get the best of me,” she purred. “That’s what I wrote all my scripts about.” And what other actress can ...

X-rated documentaries from Russ Meyer, Allen Funt, and a mocumentary from Jeanne and Alan Abel

This definitely qualifies as your grandparent’s kind of porn

A trio of X-rated documentaries that definitely qualify as your grandparent’s kind of porn. You’re going to have to work to find copies, but they’re worth it. Mondo Topless (1966) “Situated on precipitous peaks above ...

Will Gluck’s story of suburban teen life, Yael Hersonski’s spellbinding Nazi documentary, and Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman’s debut feature on the horrors of social media

2010: a film odyssey

Here are three from 2010. It was a very good year. Stream them all on Amazon. Easy A (2010) There is no such thing as an authority figure in a John Hughes film, only buffoons ...

Tod Browning’s rehearsal for Freaks, music mockumentary geeks, and the Chipmunks’ squeaks

Chaney has both arms amputated in the name of love. Alas, the joke’s on him.

This week, we’ve got something old, something new, and something that squeaks in the dark. The Unknown (1927) A crook on the lam (Lon Chaney) finds refuge as a circus novelty act, binding his limbs ...

Border and torture from a Lucky Charms Cheesecake and two John Alton noirs

As tasty as a gulp of watered-down wheat paste

While on the lookout for three films that dealt with the importance of borders (or lack thereof), I was sidetracked by other forms of torture. Dodge City (1939) The indolent Mookie tossed a trash can ...

Jazz on film: bops, blues, and Bernstein

All jazzed up

This week’s three-course buffet comes with a cartoon, a short, and a feature guaranteed to get the viewer all jazzed up. — Scott Marks Three Little Bops (1957) Composer and trumpeter Shorty Rogers provides the ...

Playing catch-up

Three new releases that didn't make deadline

This week, I’m playing catch-up with a string of recent and new releases that didn’t make deadline. — Scott Marks The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) It’s any portmanteau in a storm when Joel and ...

Dysfunction on display: political and personal

Unreviewed...until now

This week’s selections share two commonalities: all were lounging on my hard drive and none were ever reviewed in these pages. Offside (2006) After the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran, women were not ...

Stay-at-home remedies

The spoonful of sugar needed to sweep away the stagnation

For those too cheap to buy a ticket, but eager to learn about an umbrella-powered nanny, radioactive spider bites, and how to make money by illegally transporting drugs across state lines, we offer these three ...