Sam Weisberg's guide to obscure/rare movies not available for streaming
"The Black Monk," a loose adaptation of Anton Chekhov's short story by Newark-based husband-and-wife filmmakers Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno and Jerome Bongiorno, is a beautifully shot, erudite, heartbreaking tale of misbegotten love. Set in Jerome's native Staten Island, the film is small in scale but consistently rich in themes. Chekhov's spartan 1894 work tells of a scholar …
"They Ought to Be on DVD" is a recurring Hidden Films series dedicated to movies that received a New York City theatrical run—and thus a New York Times review—but no subsequent release in ancillary markets. Through interviews with cast and crew, we attempt to answer why. "I'm the first filmmaker to make a movie about …
Continue reading They Ought to Be on DVD, Part 1: “On the Make” (1989)
I'm starting a new section on this blog called "New York Times Slights," honoring filmmakers whose movies--most of them small-scale--were unfairly given short shrift by the legendary paper. Bad reviews come and go, but vague bad reviews are another thing altogether. To date, the paper's most dismissive/snobbish reviews came from the late Vincent Canby, who …
Continue reading New York Times Slights, Part 1: Andrew Silver’s “Return” (1985)
Hi readers! This was an exciting year for several reasons (Hidden Films Twitter account up and running again, readership up, a few good profiles and reviews posted) but, as was the case last year, there was an unfortunate dearth of posts. This is something I absolutely intend to avoid in 2016. The perfectionist in me …
Continue reading Happy new year (and what to expect in 2016)!
When I read Ernest Hemingway's 1936 short story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," sent to me via email by my friend three or so years ago, I was absolutely appalled. Which I assume was Hemingway's desired emotional response even back in those heedless un-P.C. 1930s. It's crass and misogynistic, first inviting readers to …
Continue reading “The Macomber Affair” (1947) and the woes of Post-Code Hollywood
by Sam Weisberg Growths. Contusions. Gaping head wounds. Pus. Mannequins with limbs missing. Neutral masks. Decaying masks (sometimes sketched in computer ink over the frame, sometimes sculpted in clay, sometimes worn by actors). Kangaroo masks. Gorilla masks. Drawings of centaurs, gargoyles, medieval torture chambers. Nipples. Conch shells that look like nipples. A man penetrating an …
Continue reading Masks, Melanoma, Mutilation: The Haunting Films of James Fotopoulos
by Sam Weisberg A retired—but still heavily armed—right-wing Dominican general who used to strip his victims and torture them with golf clubs, now living high on the hog in Miami. A one-time foot soldier in the 1965 Dominican Civil War, now fronting a run-down Miami hotel. His search for the female Dominican sniper who saved …
Continue reading “A Snake Pit Gig”: The Making (and Undoing) of Abel Ferrara’s “Cat Chaser”
Amory (Tom Byam Shaw) is a failing screenwriter who rarely forgets the faces of his detractors--especially if the face in question is that of the strikingly beautiful, strikingly aloof Camilla (Charlotte Riley), a film exec. A year after she rejects his deeply personal script ("Just because it happened to you doesn't make it interesting," she …
I had never heard of "The Game," a political drama made by two of Spike Lee's former business partners/friends, until I stumbled upon the negative review by the notoriously dry New York Times critic Vincent Canby, from April 1990. That month, the film, which wrapped in 1987, hit New York City's Criterion Center theater, having …
Continue reading “The Game” Re-emerges 25 Years Later…in Panama
Willfully dumb entertainment is the hardest thing to critique. It's almost as hard to critique, say, a well-done movie about a very serious or jarring historical event, but such movies are, at the very least, trying to move or compel audiences, and if they leave one cold, they have more or less failed. Movies that …
Continue reading “The Invisible Kid” (1988) and the Limits of “Dumb Fun”
