Synopsis:
Filmmaker Ira Wohl helps his aging aunt and uncle find a secure home for their retarded 52-year-old son, Philly.
Genres:
Documentary
Grown Children
Mentally Retarded
Survival
Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary notes, this “glowing documentary” — full of “many moving scenes” — is unique in that its director “openly influences the lives of the people [...]
Posted on March 31st, 2006 by admin
Filed under: Response Reviews | No Comments »
“How did you know I’d respond to you the way I have?”
Synopsis:
Elizabeth (Kim Basinger) gets involved in a steamy affair with a mysterious broker named John (Mickey Rourke), who teaches her sexual games she could never have dreamed of.
Genres:
Literature Adaptation
S&M
Sexuality
Response to Peary’s Review:
In his review of this infamous softcore sexual drama [...]
Posted on March 31st, 2006 by admin
Filed under: Response Reviews | 1 Comment »
“Something is very wrong with this town…”
Synopsis:
Six Yankee tourists (including Tom and Connie Mason) driving through the deep south are “invited” to Pleasant Valley for a centennial celebration of the town’s decimation by Union soldiers.
Genres:
Deep South
Herschel Gordon Lewis Films
Horror
Revenge
Response to Peary’s Review:
I love the opening sentence of Peary’s review [...]
Posted on March 31st, 2006 by admin
Filed under: Response Reviews | 2 Comments »
Synopsis:
Wheelchair-bound Penny (Susan Strasberg) returns to her wealthy father’s house for the first time in ten years, only to be told by his new wife Jane (Ann Todd) that he has gone away suddenly on a business trip. When she starts to see her father’s corpse appearing around the property, Penny believes she’s [...]
Posted on March 31st, 2006 by admin
Filed under: Response Reviews | 1 Comment »
Synopsis:
An American named Johnny Regan (Robert Stack) studies bullfighting in Mexico under the tutelage of famed matador Manolo Estrada (Gilbert Roland), while trying to win the heart of beautiful Anita (Joy Page).
Genres:
Budd Boetticher Films
Bullfighting
Character Arc
Cross-Cultural Romance
Mexico
Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary notes, this “largely autobiographical [...]
Posted on March 30th, 2006 by admin
Filed under: Response Reviews | No Comments »
“We don’t murder; we kill.”
Synopsis:
Veteran sergeant Lee Marvin leads four soldiers (Robert Carradine, Mark Hamill, Bobbi Di Ciccio, and Kelly Ward) through the European theatre of WWII, while death and chaos surround them.
Genres:
Sam Fuller Films
Soldiers
Survival
World War II
Response to Peary’s Review:
As noted by Peary and many other reviewers [...]
Posted on March 30th, 2006 by admin
Filed under: Response Reviews | No Comments »
Synopsis:
A beautiful scullery maid (Machiko Kyo) becomes the wife of the Emperor (Masayuki Mori) in 8th century Japan, and must sacrifice herself for the sake of his honor.
Genres:
Cross-Class Romance
Japanese Films
Mizoguchi Films
Royalty and Nobility
Response to Peary’s Review:
This “rare color film by Kenji Mizoguchi” — a Japanese Cinderella [...]
Posted on March 30th, 2006 by admin
Filed under: Response Reviews | No Comments »
“I am nothing but a spectacle of an ill-fated woman…”
Synopsis:
A lady-in-waiting (Kinuyo Tanaka) has an affair with a lower-ranking page (Toshiro Mifune), leading to the exile of her entire family. As she struggles to help make ends meet, Oharu is eventually reduced to prostitution and begging.
Genres:
Downward Spiral
Feminism and Women’s Issues
Flashback [...]
Posted on March 30th, 2006 by admin
Filed under: Response Reviews | No Comments »
“You mean more to me than any scientific truth…”
Synopsis:
When psychologist Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) is sent to space station Solaris to investigate the mysterious mental breakdowns of the men on board, he’s visited by visions of his deceased wife (Nathalya Bondarchuk), and finds himself confronting his guilt over her death.
Genres:
Guilt
Literature Adaptation
[...]
Posted on March 30th, 2006 by admin
Filed under: Response Reviews | 1 Comment »
Synopsis:
In Czechoslovakia during WWII, a shy, bumbling railroad dispatcher (Vaclav Neckar) is more concerned with losing his virginity than with spotting espionage on passing trains.
Genres:
Black Comedy
Coming-of-Age
Eastern European Films
Trains and Subways
Virginity
World War Two
Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary notes, this Oscar-winning foreign film — “one of the landmarks [...]
Posted on March 30th, 2006 by admin
Filed under: Response Reviews | 1 Comment »