Starring in His Own Nightmare: Joe Begos on Jimmy and Stiggs

By Anela Henley. I never thought I’d be starring in a movie that I made, but just by nature of the circumstances I had to. I think that elevated me as a filmmaker….” Writer-director Joe Begos broke into the indie film scene in 2019 with his third feature Bliss, incorporating doom […]

What is Left Unsaid: Alexandra Simpson’s No Sleep Till

By William Blick. Despite some tedium, well worth viewing as a quiet study in both resignation and defiance.” More of a visual essay or poem, Alexandra Simpson’s independent film, No Sleep Till (2024) which was made on a shoestring, dazzles with crisp shots of lightning and brilliantly colorful night skies […]

Satirizing Horror and Spellbinding the Social Contract: Weapons (2025)

By David Ryan. As a follow-up to Zach Cregger’s horror drama Barbarian (2022), Weapons explores the recursive relationship between personal antagonisms and the erosion of civic trust, staging what Robin Wood identifies as horror’s central tension—the destabilization of the social order….” With Weapons (2025), writer-director Zach Cregger leans on the […]

When Jaws Premiered; or, the Hottest and Coolest Weekend on Record

By Gary D. Rhodes. The great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open.” — Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851) Friday, June 20, 1975. Newspapers report the assassination of mob boss Sam “Momo” Giancana. Gerald Ford authorized his campaign to start fundraising for his presidential bid. Postal workers picketed in Washington, D.C. The House […]

Hardened Idols: Hollywood Boozers, Brawlers and Hard-Luck Cases

A Book Review by Maysaa H. Jaber. Adds a human, sometimes tragic face to those at the heart of moviemaking during the Golden Age.” Laura Wagner’s Hollywood Boozers, Brawlers and Hard-Luck Cases: Fifteen Ill-Fated Actors of the Golden Age (McFarland, 2025) takes readers on a journey of rediscovering the life […]

Preview: Shadows in the Sunlight – On the Noir Western

By Anees Aref. Often described as “psychological westerns”, these films eschewed the conventional heroes of the old west for more complicated protagonists, flawed and motivated by darker impulses….” The “Noir-Western” sounds like a contradiction in terms. One associates the western with the 19th century American frontier, wide open vistas, horses, cowboys […]