A human woman falls in love with an Amazonian amphibian man in Guillermo del Toro‘s fairytale The Shape of Water (2017), winner of the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Directing. While the creature character appears to be modeled from precursors such as the Gill Man from Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954), and Abe Sapien from del Toro’s own Hellboy (2004), and Hellboy II: the Golden Army (2008), the Director made him attractive and soulful, and believable as a romantic lead. Continue reading Eye On Design: Amphibian Man Suit from The Shape of Water→
Canoe Lake (1997–98) is based on a still photograph that artist Peter Doig took from the 1980 horror film Friday the 13th, and he has made several paintings referencing this film. Always using photographic images as a compositional starting point, Doig’s paintings often have a strong sense of atmosphere or hidden presence. There is a tension between the potential for sublime beauty and the horror of death, decay and obliteration.
Don’t let anyone make the excuse that this is a kids’ camera, because this Hello Kitty face with a lens sticking out of it is a big fucking hunk of camera that is much too unwieldy for tiny child-sized hands. But, whatever; this is a film (not digital) camera manufactured by Fujifilm and you can buy it online at Amazon right now for about $80!
I don’t pretend to be an authority on the subject, but I’d guess that there’s no modern-era film more closely-associated with the locale of Coney Island, Brooklyn than Walter Hill’s 1979 adventure/ drama, The Warriors. If you haven’t seen the film, I recommend it. Two thumbs up! My point being that it’s completely appropriate that this year’s Coney Art Walls installation includes an underwater-themed, mermaid fantasy mural by British street art collective, The London Police that includes an homage to this now classic, cinematic favorite. Continue reading Warriors Mural By London Police at Coney Art Walls→
A film critic whose intolerance for cliché-ridden, formulaic Hollywood romances has earned him a reputation as a merciless film curmudgeon experiences a kind of existential crisis when he falls hard for beautiful, mercurial woman in Writer/Director Hernán Gerschuny’s Argentinian comedy The Film Critic (El Critico). This fast paced, sharply written and well-acted film will entertain anyone who loves movies but also enjoys a hilarious, insider jab at the filmmaking industry.
