Like many people, I was not expecting to wake up and find that one of the greatest creative forces in the world of film has passed. Sadly, Italian composer Ennio Morricone has leftus at age 91. And while most people will point to the masterful music penned for the work ofSergio Leone or for blockbustersContinue reading “An Offbeat Marquee Tribute – Ennio Morricone”
Author Archives: Jacob Calta
This Is It (2009): Here We Stand, Over A Decade Later
Writer Jacob Calta revisits the record-shattering 2009 documentary-concert film, and the man at its center, the late, great Michael Jackson.
In Search of Darkness (2019): Epic in Scope, But Not Quite in Depth
Jacob Calta shares his thoughts on the mammoth horror documentary devoted to one of the genre’s finest decades.
The New York Ripper (1982): All Vice, No Virtue
“The New York Ripper” takes two of my favorite niche styles of crime cinema and fuses them into one superb display of vice and violence. On one hand, you have a superbly stylized 80s giallo. On the other hand, it has the attitude & grime of a 70s urban crime flick.
The Tell Tale Heart (2020): An Inventive Take on a Classic Story
The Tell Tale Heart is a fresh take on Poe’s tale told with a psychotronic flair that is as in debt to Roger Corman’s beloved Poe pictures of the 60s as it is to the surreal stylings of Dario Argento, and even a hint of Cronenberg thrown into the mix.
The War of the Gargantuas (1966): Hell Hath No Fury Like a Frankenstein Monster
If there was ever a niche genre of film that I could simply watch whenever I want, without needing to be in a certain mood, it would have to be the iconic Japanese genre of daikaijū eiga.
The Offbeat Marquee #6: MJ’s Marquee
This sixth installment explores chapters in the legacy of one of the world’s most renowned entertainers, Michael Joseph Jackson. For over four decades, Jackson sang and danced his way into the radios, stereo systems, television screens, and indeed into the theaters of the world. Today, Calta takes a look at some of the many audiovisual landmarks in the King of Pop’s filmography.
The Offbeat Marquee #5: “The Radiation Wave of Cinema”
This time around, Calta digs into a subject that has long fascinated him. The 1980s, for all its neon-lit, synth-heavy glory, was a time for serious reflection on the state of the world in terms of nuclear power and warfare. Filmmakers had the power to illustrate the serious effects of things going wrong. Here, he tries to explain the under-sung explosion nuke-centric ground level motion pictures in the final decade of the Cold War.
American Pop (1981) – “One Family, Four Generations”
“Ralph Bakshi is an artist who I have grown to adore and respect when it comes to the medium of animation. His blend of stylish character designs, inventive use of both painted and live-action backgrounds, and a wicked sense of humor has made his films both definers of eras in which they are made and simultaneously timeless. Of all the films he has made, the one picture that sticks out in my mind the most has to be his 1981 effort, American Pop.”
The Offbeat Marquee #4: “Down and Out in New York City”
The Offbeat Marquee is the theater that will show just about anything. Columnist Jacob Calta unearths everything from forgotten Hollywood dramas to underground animation to the many oddball genre films from around the world. This fourth installment is not a matter of obscure cinema, but of an obscure idea about cinema, the hypnosis that certain images can instill. Places locked in a certain time and place that captivate time and time again and carry with them a certain aura. For Jacob, that time and place is New York City in the 1970s and 1980s.
A Fistful of Film 