It’s taken as long as the caravan journey in The Big Trail, but we finally have a collection of film criticism from Dave Kehr, who currently writes the essential DVD and Blu-Ray column at the NY Times.  When Movies Mattered (University of Chicago Press) gathers his work from his period at the Chicago Reader, from 1974 – 1986. For years I’ve consulted his capsule reviews to guide my viewing habits, still available at the Reader website, but his long-form pieces have long been out of circulation. So this is a cause for celebration, although the resulting party would drive other critics to drink out of jealousy rather than selflessness. His prose is patient and lucid, laying bare stylistic and thematic mechanisms with the graceful invisible style of one of his favored Hollywood auteurs.

I was able to sit down with Mr. Kehr to talk about some of his favorite directors, as well as those not given much critical attention. So we range from Raoul Walsh to Godard and from Eastwood to Paul W.S. Anderson. Something for everyone! And it should be noted that the University of Chicago Press is doing an incredible job, releasing not just Kehr’s book, but also the most recent writings of Jonathan Rosenbaum and David Bordwell & Kristin Thompson.

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While battling insomnia last week, I got involved in a late-night Facebook chat about Night of the Lepus, an eco-horror flick featuring giant killer rabbits. Some FB friends recalled being spooked by the idea of giant rabbits; others found the imagery of hundreds of bunnies hopping in slow motion unforgettable. Everyone acknowledged that the film’s premise, plot, and imagery were strange and ridiculous, but we all had vivid memories of the movie from catching it on television as kids. The Facebook chat prompted me to revisit Night of the Lepus to take a closer look–just in time for Easter!

Night of the Lepus opens with a faux news report about a rabbit infestation in the American Southwest. Hordes of domesticated bunnies have invaded the area and then multiplied. Not only has every blade of grass been eaten but acres of ranchland have been destroyed by burrow holes. Rancher Cole Hillman contacts university president Elgin Clark to help him contain the rabbit “explosion,” as the characters describe it. President Clark turns to scientists Roy and Gerry Bennett, who specialize in environmentally friendly pest control. Roy believes he can control the rabbits’ breeding cycle by injecting them with an untested serum. He injects a few rabbits in his lab, but when his daughter Amanda snatches one as a pet, the pesky “wabbit” escapes. Making like a rabbit, it quickly breeds dozens of offspring, which in turn beget hundreds and then thousands of huge, vicious, and carnivorous bunnies.

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I’m a habitual listmaker and one list I am always revising is the short list of films I long to see. Occasionally titles fall off the list as they become available on DVD, Blu-Ray or via streaming but so many continue to remain elusive on the domestic front. Netflix certainly offers some welcome options not available from local rental stores but even that outfit can’t provide access to the much sought-after and unavailable fare I’m seeking. Here is my current short list which contains a few titles that will probably NEVER be available – or only available in some horribly comprised version of the original…..but I can dream. READ MORE

With Blockbuster’s implosion, I’ve recently been plundering the wreckage of some of these dead stores, seeking bargains amongst the “everything must go” detritus.  As I shopped the other day, I overheard a couple negotiating with the owner—they had come hoping to snag a copy of A MIGHTY WIND, and were disappointed to find it sold.  The owner was trying to turn them on to THIS IS SPINAL TAP and WAITING FOR GUFFMAN—and was trying to explain why they were similar selections.  They came from the same makers, yes, but moreover they were of the same style.  And then he said the word: “mockumentary.”  I involuntarily shuddered, and choked back the urge to start arguing.  For a few years now I’ve been trying to promote an alternate term, “fictuality,” which I first coined in an article in VIDEO WATCHDOG.  It hasn’t gotten much traction, but I’m a stubborn SOB, and I’d like to spend some time this week singing the praises of the hybrid offspring of narrative fiction and documentary.

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When I was a kid, the best plastic soldier to have — after the Guy with the .45 and Binoculars and the Guy with the M3 — was the Guy with the Flamethrower (pictured above).  None of us kids knew anything about combat, mind you, so our preferences were largely based on aesthetics.  The Guy with the .45 and Binoculars just looked cool; he looked like a sergeant: tough, battle-tested, ready to drop his exhausted rifle and take down as many of the enemy as he could with his sidearm before he fell.  He was Hard Corps.  Ditto the Guy with the M3, the submachine gun you see in World War II movies that isn’t the Thompson that Bogey uses in SAHARA (1943) but the “grease gun” that Lee Marvin uses in THE DIRTY DOZEN (1968).  For the record, the worst plastic soldier was the sniper molded in the prone position, firing from his belly – he could never get up into formation with the other soldiers, so you tended to park him somewhere on the perimeter and forget about him.  Then there were the middling guys, like the Guy with the Radio, who was usually kneeling – but at least he could get in formation.  Anyway, I digress.  We’re here to talk about the Guy with the Flamethrower.  Or more to the point, the flamethrower itself. READ MORE