When I picked up this “part-sequel part-remake” of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre second-hand from a video store for a couple dollars, I was fully expecting a very bad movie. And, hoo boy, it did not disappoint! This film actually warrants the description “so bad it’s good.” It loosely rips off the plot of the original,…
Essays about drug-taking are rarely compelling: they read as a kitchen list of “crazy” events that the author has experienced, undoubtedly profound when experienced but lacking resonance on paper. Hannah sets out with the express goal of trying to write such an essay, having a cocaine-fuelled night on the town with Elijah. This episode narrows…
Frontière(s) is the best horror film I’ve seen from the last decade. It’s been characterised as “torture porn” or a French ripoff of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and while neither description is completely inaccurate, they don’t capture the blistering intensity, the bone-shaking strength of the film. Frontière(s) is set after the election of an unseen…
The Driller Killer is a scabrous pustule of a film, grotesque, ugly, but transfixing despite this. It was the directorial debut of Abel Ferrara (best known for Bad Lieutenant), but there’s little to suggest future promise here, with murky, grimy cinematography and clumsy editing – plus a superfluous lesbian shower scene suggesting Ferrara’s porn pedigree.…
Today is the 25th of January, the day before Australia Day – the day when Australians proudly celebrate the anniversary of when their ancestors began to massacre the indigenous population by throwing sausages on the barbecue and slamming down some beers. More importantly, tomorrow is the day that the Triple J Hottest 100 is broadcast,…
When I first started watching Justified, it took me a while to enjoy the show. Mostly because Season 1 spent many early episodes on standalone plots, as though it were a gunfight procedural, and I always prefer some serialisation in my television. Showrunner Graham Yost seems to have found the sweet spot between standalone and…
Quentin Tarantino and the spaghetti western genre should be a perfect match. Spaghetti westerns are essentially a feature length excuse for a bunch of cool shit to happen, with the plot often obscured through half-heard snatches of dialogue and cryptic flashbacks. And Tarantino is a noted connoisseur of cool shit! The two should be incredible…
At my first Big Day Out in five years, there was plenty of good music but also plenty of opportunities for people-watching and general sightseeing. Some of the sights…
Some thoughts on bands where I either missed a great deal of their set or, frankly, didn’t have that much to say. Includes Grinspoon, Foals, The Killers and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Against Me! played on the same main stage that the Red Hot Chili Peppers would eventually close at the end of the night. But where the Chili Peppers’ sound was sketchy and inconsistent, Against Me! sounded bold and perfectly mixed, with heavy percussion, boisterous guitars and precisely mixed vocal levels.
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