BRONSON

**** A volcanic blitzkrieg of sight and sound, director Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bronson lashes out onto its audience like an unleashed hound from hell; ferocious, uncompromising, violent, and loud, it is the single most audacious and stylish depiction of violence since Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange - and the comparisons don’t stop there. The recipient of the ...
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INTERVIEW: TERRY F. SMITH, “SEDUCING CINDY”

Leave it to a Mondo Celluloid contributor to end up on a reality television show… Terry F. Smith, who used to work at The Art Theatre of Long Beach (where we host our midnight series) and who contributed a few articles to the site last year, surprised us with news that his recent disappearance was due ...
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LEGION (2010)

** Though not a complete disaster, director Scott Stewart’s Legion nevertheless suggests a new drinking game: let’s take a shot every time a film recalls another - and, superior - film. In the case of Legion, the first chug goes to the movie it most immediately echoes: 1995’s underrated The Prophecy. Witness descriptions found on ...
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ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS

***1/2 A pulpy noir masterpiece with a surprising number of twists and surprises for an 88 minute film, Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows has been given the Criterion Collection treatment with a pristine restored high-definition digital transfer, as well as a new and improved English subtitle translation, new interviews, and several other great special features. ...
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CHRISTMAS EVIL

**** You can keep your Silent Nights, your Deadly Nights, and your Black Christmas’s; Santa Clause can visit those Martians until the cows come home, and the Governator can jingle all the damn way for all I care; because when the yuletide season rolls around there is only one perennial favorite I want stuffing my ...
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The Pee Wee Herman Show - Live on Stage

It’s been almost twenty years since the fantastically subversive Pee Wee’s Playhouse closed its shiny candy-apple red doors; this year also marks the 25th anniversary of Pee Wee’s big screen debut in Tim Burton’s Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Of course, some legends never die - the advent of DVD resurrected the television show and ...
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CELLAR DWELLER

**1/2 When a dose of disposable income comes my way I consistently find myself grappling with the same dilemma. Should I piggy bank those few extra cents? Should I don my pragmatist’s hat and work on those pesky student loans? Do I feed my caffeine and alcohol addictions? Should I branch out ...
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DAYBREAKERS

***1/2 It’s so rare that any movie - particularly a horror movie - lives up to the promise of a great trailer, so what a thrill it was to start 2010 with the Spierig Brothers’ fantastic futuristic vampire film Daybreakers.   The benchmark has been set incredibly high for this year’s slate of horror films. Elegantly paced at ...
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