|Chris Polley| When I was transfixed watching Michaela Coel restore an ancient, priceless painting in Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers earlier this year, I found myself strangely moved. It was cold and calculating but also incredibly caring and artful. I thought of this scene again when I heard that BBC critic Mark Kermode and… Continue reading
|Dan Howard| Over the last few decades, The Devils is a film that, ironically, is considered the ultimate holy grails for film buffs. One that audiences will snag any opportunity they can to watch even the most butchered version of, bootleg or otherwise. The first time I saw The Devils was in… Continue reading
|Nicole Rojas-Oltmanns| “Now is the time, now is the hour, ours is the magic, ours is the power.” The first lines of The Craft (1996, directed by Andrew Fleming) focus us on the goal of the film’s creators, empowerment. Instead of a cute coming-of-age drama, we get sexism, racism, classism, depression, addiction, sexual assault, and… Continue reading
|Andrew Neill| True magic is neither black nor white. It’s both because nature is both. Loving and cruel all at the same time. This line, spoken by Assumpta Serna as the enigmatic shopkeeper Lirio, may be explicitly about magic and nature, but it extends to the central focus of the movie around it… Continue reading
|Victoria Breshears| When the White House deactivated entry badges for reporters from CNN, Politico, and MS NOW this September, the administration defended the lockout through the familiar vocabulary of institutional decorum. The move cleared the room of inconvenient questions. Deactivating a press badge does what political… Continue reading
|Benjamin Desbois| He was nine feet tall and his name was Darryl. Made mostly of paper mache and chicken wire, he weighed about 40 pounds. Wood planks ran down his spine and were attached to a backpack-like harness of bike tires and wood built… Continue reading
|Lucille Hanson| “WITCH!” screams the Suspiria soundtrack every now and again, startling the viewers like it’s an accusation. With its frantic drums that feel like someone is chasing you down, the low bellows that feel like they’re coming deep from inside… Continue reading
|Abraham Teuber| Have horror movies always been so romantic? As predictable as the changing leaves, the dating app normies whip out the ol’ “Let’s cuddle and watch a horror movie” line every October. The hulking recliners in chain multiplexes have enabled the canoodling. Raisable armrests and blankets… Continue reading
|Ryan Sanderson| I’ve loved (or at least enjoyed) most of the films I’ve written about in the six years I’ve been aware of Perisphere, but every now and again, we show one of my personal favorite films. You know the ones. The select group—some film nerds have them… Continue reading
|Ben Tuthill| For a country obsessed with our colonial heritage, we’re astonishingly bad at making movies about it. Once upon a time, we put out a French and Indian War movie every other year. The practice fell out around the time of the Bicentennial, and since then … Continue reading
|Sophie Durbin| Humans have burned each other at the stake for a long time. Records dating back to the Code of Hammurabi prescribe death by burning for criminals convicted of incest or heresy. The Celts may have roasted their human sacrifices… Continue reading
|Doug Carmody| Season of the Witch plays in glorious 35mm at the Trylon Cinema on Wednesday, September 30, one night only. For tickets, showtimes, and other series information, visit trylon.org. The 1970s found George Romero in a peculiar place—Pittsburgh, not Hollywood. Despite his debut’s eventually colossal impact on horror cinema and eventually massive box office… Continue reading
|Benjamin Jarman| was watching the TV show Agatha All Along, about a group of witches in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. By this point, my mind had been trained to expect Donovan’s 1966 hit single, “Season of the Witch,” to start whenever I watch… Continue reading
|Kevin Maher| The pitch for The Blair Witch Project, the 1999 summer box office phenomenon and viral marketing sensation, is as simple as the finished movie actually turned out to be. “Student filmmakers go into the woods to make a documentary, disappear, and their footage is found,” certainly relays the basic tenants of the story… Continue reading
|Chris Ryba-Tures| Somewhere between Planet Hollywood and Hooters, on the top floor of the Mall of America, I was stopped dead in my tracks. It was 1998. I was seventeen, sporting a bleach-blonde Eminem haircut, a brand-new Marilyn Manson “Antichrist Superstar” ringer tee from Hot Topic, and black leather 8-hole Doc Marten’s that were finally getting that perfect mosh pit scuff… Continue reading
