A Stanley Kubrick Christmas: Intense Paranoia and Masquerade Orgies

Masked group at the orgy staring ominously.

|Dan Howard| There’s certainly something about the holiday season that strikes a chord with filmmakers. Whether it’s Todd Hayne’s Carol, Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, or Shane Black’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, any film using Christmas as the backdrop for a non-holiday story sets… Continue reading

Seconds: Be Careful What You Wish For

|Bob Aulert| In 1966, Rock Hudson had been a movie star since the early 1950s—by his mere presence, he could generate the financial support to get a movie made AND then get people to buy tickets to see it. John Frankenheimer had parlayed solid network TV jobs like Playhouse 90… Continue reading

Winter Kills: If You’re Not Paranoid, You’re Not Paying Attention

Nick gets mixed up in a paramilitary exercise

|Bob Aulert| The 1970s film industry was rife with paranoia, as films like The Parallax View (1974), The Conversation(1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), and All The President’s Men (1976) played to eager audiences shocked by the revelations of Watergate and quite ready… Continue reading

Slapstick for Paranoids

|Cole Seidl| Paranoia is mainstream again. Since September 11th, 2001, the American collective unconscious has been building towards a degree of paranoiac saturation unseen since the golden age of conspiratorial thinking in the 1970s. On September 16th, 2001, Susan Sontag published Continue reading