Author: Jeff Mitchell

Cronenberg returns to his past in ‘Crimes of the Future’

Jeff Mitchell

“Crimes of the Future” (2022) – “Long live the new flesh.” – Max Renn (James Woods) in “Videodrome” (1983) The aforementioned quote is from David Cronenberg’s trippy, sicko story about a renegade cable television station.  Its president, Renn, falls into real-life channels of depravity and inexplicable, fantastical carnage, including an adversary inserting a VHS video tape into the man’s abdomen.  The year was 1983, and VHSs fast-forwarded into millions of American homes, and “Videodrome” played off that pop culture phenomenon.  Cronenberg, the king of body horror films, is back and…

‘Fire Island’ is a welcoming and boisterous vacation

Jeff Mitchell

“Fire Island” (2022) – “Vacation, all I ever wanted.  Vacation, had to get away.” – “Vacation” (1982) by The Go-Go’s The next lyric in The Go-Go’s 80s classic is “Vacation, meant to be alone,” however, that is not Noah’s (Joel Kim Booster), Howie’s (Bowen Yang), Keegan’s (Tomas Matos), Luke’s (Matt Rogers), and Max’s (Torian Miller) collective intention.  It’s summertime, and these five 30-somethings – friends for years – travel on the South Bay Clipper to Fire Island for a week of drinking, dancing, finding drugs, meeting guys, hooking up, and…

Movie of the Week: ‘The Gauntlet’

Jeff Mitchell

“The Gauntlet” (1977) – “Never saw a cop feeling sorry for himself before.  Mind if I watch.” – Augustina Mally (Sandra Locke) Sandwiched between Dirty Harry’s third and fourth movies, Eastwood plays Ben Shockley, an invisible Phoenix Police officer in “The Gauntlet”.  Despite several years on the force, Ben hasn’t broken a big case yet, and he longs for a wife and kids.  Unfortunately, he’s been married to alcoholism for far too long. On a beautiful Downtown Phoenix morning, his commanding officer (William Prince) hands him a routine assignment to…