Bad Girls We Love: Bridget Gregory in The Last Seduction

Who's a girl gotta suck around here to get a drink? Thirty years ago this fall, raven-haired beauty Linda Fiorentino gifted us with one of the great femme fatales of all time in John Dahl’s excellent neo-noir The Last Seduction (1994). Bridget Gregory is iconic, a deliciously manipulative grifter with a sardonic streak. She’s cold … Continue reading Bad Girls We Love: Bridget Gregory in The Last Seduction

Hot Shots of the Week: Thou Shalt Not

[A.L. “Whitey”] Schafer decided to create a novelty shot to satirically slap at the Production Code, the censorship standards of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Assn. His satirical image, entitled, “Thou Shalt Not,” displayed the top 10 faux-pas disallowed by industry censors, who approved every photographic image shot by studios before they could be … Continue reading Hot Shots of the Week: Thou Shalt Not

Meet Me at Vallenari’s

Of the three sensational films Michelle Pfeiffer’s made in 1988, Robert Towne’s California crime drama Tequila Sunrise (1988) has really grown on me. The other two, Married to the Mob and Dangerous Liaisons, felt like instant classics for me., but Tequila Sunrise took a little time to work it’s slow charms on me—not too long, … Continue reading Meet Me at Vallenari’s

Bad Girls We Love: Mona Demarkov from Romeo is Bleeding

Some cinematic performances are so highly charged, so astonishingly assured, that we can still feel the reverberations years, even decades later. Lena Olin scorching the earth as Mona Demarkov in the excellent neo-noir classic Romeo is Bleeding (1993) is one such performance. Is Mona the most sexually uninhibited and ruthless femme fatale in movie history? … Continue reading Bad Girls We Love: Mona Demarkov from Romeo is Bleeding

Lost and Found: This Girl for Hire

I don’t know what the future of streaming media looks like, but I do know that we’re living in the golden age of choice when it comes to old movies and television. I’m always going to be a proponent of physical media (my bursting, buckling media shelves can attest to this), but sometimes you either … Continue reading Lost and Found: This Girl for Hire

A Sampling of Movies with Big Anniversaries This Year

As always, a new year brings with it new, milestone anniversaries. For instance, 2023 is the twentieth anniversary of Lost in Translation (2003), the thirtieth anniversary of Dazed and Confused (1993), and the fortieth anniversary of Scarface (1983). It’s also the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Last Days of Disco (1998), the thirty-fifth anniversary of two … Continue reading A Sampling of Movies with Big Anniversaries This Year