tagged w/ Cult Film
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This summer I will be offering you doses of Pop Culture Therapy: A Pop Culture Junkie’s Guide. While the completed work will give you suggestions in cinematherapy, bibliotherapy and audiotherapy, this summer I will focus on cinematherapy, so get ready to go out and find some really awesome films to fill your summer nights. This week, “Serenade Yourself.” If you still want to pay homage to Michael Jackson and Lena Horne, check them out in this great cult classic.
The Wiz (1978)
Synopsis: Dorothy (portrayed by Diana Ross) is a 24-year-old school teacher from Harlem. After chasing her dog Toto through a snow storm, she finds herself transported to the magical Land of Oz. In her quest to find her way back home, she seeks the yellow brick road. Her journey leads her to three endearing characters Scarecrow (portrayed by the one and only Michael Jackson), Tinman (portrayed by Nipsey Russell) and Lion, aka Fleetwood Coupe de Ville (portrayed by Ted Ross). The foursome eases down the yellow brick road in order to find the great and powerful Oz (portrayed by Richard Pryor) so that he may get Dorothy home, give the Scarecrow a brain, give the Tinman a heart and grant Lion courage. This all-black cast version of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz features a score from Quincy Jones and the underrated composer Charlie Smalls and has become something of a cult classic over the past 30-something years. It also features Mabel King, Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter and the legendary Lena Horne as Glenda the Good. Even with the familiar plot, the music performances are what make this one a classic and well worth watching. The transformation of New York City into Oz also makes a visually stunning spectacle.
Why I Like/Recommend: This film is damn-near sacred in my family. Even my two-year-old great niece knows Michael Jackson from this film. Speaking of the King of Pop, he is the one who unites us all in why we like this film. Even my teenage nephews will sit and listen to him perform “You Can’t Win.” I think it’s his performance in general that does it for me overall in this film that I once found cheesy. However, after I revisited it during my college years, I bought both the movie and the soundtrack. I actually think the music in this film is better than that of the original. By the way, the late, great Luther Vandross wrote the joyous anthem “Brand New Day,” a testament to all the talent that went into this delightful film.This summer I will be offering you doses of Pop Culture Therapy: A Pop Culture... more
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Have no doubt, I love bad movies. I still have fond memories of the first time I stumbled onto ROBOT MONSTER, back in the days when local broadcast television had afternoon movie shows, and one could serendipitously chance upon such inspired dreadfulness as a cheesy science fiction epic — with Hamlet-like ambitions — in which the titular monster was actually some guy in a gorilla suit wearing a toy diver’s helmet (check it out if you don’t believe me). Lemme tell ya, there’s nothing quite like sitting through ninety minutes of “What the frak is THIS?!” to put a spring in your step and reinvigorate your will to live.
Problem is that, these days, fortune has dictated I be late to this particular party, getting around to the legendarily awful long after their cults have formed. Which is by way of saying that I haven’t yet seen TROLL 2, the notoriously awful non-sequel (title notwithstanding), not-really-horror film that’s at the center of the documentary BEST WORST MOVIE. Not to worry, director Michael Paul Stephenson — who two decades ago was the child star of the movie — is less about celebrating the film than he is about exploring its impact on those involved, both before and after it had attained its midnight-movie status. To that end, he tracks down many of the project’s key players, including director Claudio Fragrasso — who expresses some well-justified discomfort with being embraced by this particular group of admirers — and co-star Dr. George Hardy, a dentist whose zeal for the spotlight first found him cast as Stephenson’s father, and then embracing his notoriety with perhaps a bit too much ardor.
The film is an intriguing examination of a certain, two-edged brand of fame and how the artists involved handle its effects. I got to explore the issue with Stephenson, amongst other topics — bottom line: He seems to have survived the trauma quite handily. Click on the link to hear the interview:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-persons/emmighty-movie-podcastem_b_576306.htmlHave no doubt, I love bad movies. I still have fond memories of the first time I... more
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Cult film is being celebrated by thousands of fans in London in a festival of strange outfits and aficionado enthusiasm. But what makes a film become cult?
A fully-grown man - lawyer by day - constructs a fully-functional Predator costume for a themed party.
At another party a different fully-grown man arrives with rouged lips, stockings and suspenders in homage to Dr Frank N Furter.
This kind of behaviour usually signals when a movie has achieved cult status.
Cult film is a tricky term.
The Oxford English Dictionary informs us that cult films should have "enduring appeal to a relatively small audience", and be "non-mainstream". But search the internet, and you see the cult badge has been applied to a plethora of disparate films.
Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange is a cult classic. The director's withdrawal of the film in the UK soon after its release denied it a place in the mainstream.
But it lived on in the form of battered VHS tapes passed reverentially between teenagers, becoming a small screen rite of passage in the near three decades until it was finally rereleased.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8640334.stmCult film is being celebrated by thousands of fans in London in a festival of strange... more
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~y2010m2d12-Weird-up-romance-for-VDay-with-cult-classics-not-blockbusters
Yes, cult classics can tell stories of romance and sex...Just don't expect it to be mainstream love.~y2010m2d12-Weird-up-romance-for-VDay-with-cult-classics-not-blockbusters
Yes, cult... more
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Here is a fantastic little chart we came across today which gives us a run down of the history of films that time travel is used in. This chart points out where and when the characters in each film traveled to and from. The movies are arranged clockwise in chronological order of release date.
http://geektyrant.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/3d863a08d8ab4651_94cbbc9affc3af24_o.jpgHere is a fantastic little chart we came across today which gives us a run down of the... more
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CULT films, the critic Danny Peary wrote in his 1981 book “Cult Movies,” “are born in controversy” and elicit “a fiery passion in moviegoers that exists long after their initial releases.” By those measures David Fincher’s “Fight Club,” a movie that stirred vitriolic ire when it came out 10 years ago and today inspires obsessive, often worshipful scrutiny in both lowbrow and highbrow quarters, is surely the defining cult movie of our time.
Not only has “Fight Club” performed exceptionally well on DVD — it has sold more than six million copies on DVD and video, and is being issued in a 10th anniversary Blu-ray edition on Nov. 17 — but it has also become a kind of cultural mother lode.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/movies/homevideo/08lim.htmlCULT films, the critic Danny Peary wrote in his 1981 book “Cult Movies,”... more
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TROY DUFFY’S original Hollywood story was a fractured fairy tale. As recounted in the documentary “Overnight,” Mr. Duffy reacted to the instant success that came with a multimillion-dollar deal with Miramax for the thriller “The Boondock Saints” by abusing his friends, family and new corporate partner, doing it all on camera, and then alienating the filmmakers who had the footage. As Cinderellas go, he was the type who would smash the glass slipper and kick Princess Charming down the stairs.
Yet a decade later the glass slipper is on the other foot.TROY DUFFY’S original Hollywood story was a fractured fairy tale. As recounted... more
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Whoa, now this is some awesome news! We've heard about that Heavy Metal movie that David Fincher is spearheading, but it keeps getting stuck in development hell. Well, our friends at Film School Rejects recently caught up with TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman and asked him if he had any updates. "I've got breaking news that Fincher and James Cameron are going to be co-executive producers on the film. Fincher will direct one. Cameron will direct one. Zack Snyder is going to direct one and Gore Verbinski is going to. Mark Osborne and Jack Black from Tenacious D are going to do a comedy segment for the film."Whoa, now this is some awesome news! We've heard about that Heavy Metal movie... more
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