Before Jaws, before Jurassic Park, before Spielberg was the patron saint of summer blockbusters, he made a film that proved you don’t need a giant shark or prehistoric monsters to terrify an audience, all you need is a faceless truck, a stretch of desert highway, and the nerve to keep the camera rolling as it…
Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988) – Review
In 1988, we were treated to a gloriously absurd slice of B-movie brilliance called Hell Comes to Frogtown. This is a film that takes the post-apocalyptic action genre, sprinkles in some dystopian satire, and then throws in Rowdy Roddy Piper and an army of frog people, because why the heck not?
Belladonna of Sadness (1973) – Review
To call Belladonna of Sadness a “movie” feels like calling a cathedral a “building.” It’s a hallucination stretched across 93 minutes. It’s what happens when you paint a nightmare in watercolours and then set it on fire. And yet, despite its hypnotic beauty, this is not an easy watch, nor should it be. At its…
Cleopatra (1970) – Review
Let’s get one thing out of the way: Osamu Tezuka’s Cleopatra is not your average historical epic. It’s also not your average anime. It’s… well, it’s what happens when the “God of Manga” watches Barbarella, chugs a vat of sake, and says, “Let’s do Ben-Hur, but horny and in space-time.”
A Thousand and One Nights (1969) – Review
When most people hear the name Osamu Tezuka, they think of wide-eyed robots (Astro Boy), jungle adventures (Kimba the White Lion), or whimsical medical dramas (Black Jack). But in 1969, Tezuka — the so-called “God of Manga” — shocked audiences with something very different: a psychedelic, erotic, and adult-oriented animated film called A Thousand and…