There were many knock-offs of American International’s Beach Party, the groundbreaking surf musical starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello; but AIP’s own first knock-off (for ripping itself off was one of the things the company did best) was Muscle Beach Party, released in the spring of 1964. Of course “knock-off” isn’t the word that the […]

Every film fan will have weird little side notes to their life of cinephilia, and here’s one of mine: before finally watching it to write this review, I’ve been waiting to see Claude Lelouch’s free adaptation of Les Misérables from 1995 for longer than any other movie ever. I first heard about it during its […]

Throwback mania has been pillaging the visual style and narrative form of ’70s and ’80s movies for a while now, so I guess it was always going to be the case that we’d eventually get a ’90s throwback; though the word “throwback” suggests something a little bit more self-aware and ironic than White House Down, […]

Every week this summer, we’ll be taking an historical tour of the Hollywood blockbuster by examining an older film that is in some way a spiritual precursor to one of the weekend’s wide releases. This week: Roland Emmerich’s latest “violating the White House” picture, White House Down hinges on a wannabe Secret Service agent protecting […]