|
Past Cinema Slop Programs (for historical purposes): |
| Cinema Slop is no more... Regretfully, Cinema Slop at the Dinkytowner has come to an end. The August 7th program has been cancelled (it turns out there's an employee party that night--surprise!) and there will be no future shows. Perhaps the series will re-surface at another venue, but that's it for now. Hearty thanks to the Dinkytowner for their support over the past five and a half years! (7/27/2007) |
| 8/7/2007 - Dixie Cannonball! You'll be up to your eyeballs in "Southern Heritage" as you watch the satirical "alternate history" of 2004's C.S.A. - The Confederate States Of America, followed by Disney's redheaded stepchild, the seldom-screened 1946 classic, Song Of The South! CANCELLED |
| 7/3/2007 - Geek Out! Nerdlingers rejoice, for July brings a full evening of egghead entertainment: the unsuccessful pilots for Super Nerds (starring Brian Posehn and Patton Oswalt) and Welcome To Eltingville; followed by Mattel's glorified toy commercial TV special, Computer Warriors; then a couple of representative episodes of the video-game game show, Starcade; and finally the video game movie to end all video game movies, 1989's The Wizard. Huzzah! |
| 6/5/2007 - Warhol '65! Another Andy Warhol mini-festival, this time featuring three films from 1965: Poor Little Rich Girl, Beauty #2, and Vinyl. Sigh over the lovely Edie Sedgwick, who's in all three...and see for yourself that anyone who repeats the standard trope that "Warhol's Vinyl is the best adaptation of A Clockwork Orange ever made" is a pretentious dork who's never actually seen the damn thing. Generous amounts of caffeine recommended! |
| 5/1/2007 - Cinema Slop Presents The Comic Strip Presents! Three episodes of The Comic Strip Presents, the hilarious early-80s British ensemble series, starring familiar faces from The Young Ones and Absolutely Fabulous: Five Go Mad In Dorset, Bad News Tour, and Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door, plus their feature-length potboiler, The Supergrass. |
| 4/3/2007 - Easter/Shakespeare's Birthday! First celebrate the season with A Claymation Easter and It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, and then get your mind blown by Prospero's Books, Peter Greenaway's spectacular 1991 adaptation of The Tempest. |
| 3/13/2007 - Faithless! I'll be fasting for Lent, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy all three episodes of physician/actor/writer Jonathan Miller's 2004 BBC miniseries, Atheism - A Rough History Of Disbelief: "Shadows Of Doubt", "Noughts And Crosses", and "The Final Hour". *PLUS* Richard Dawkins' two-part series, The Root of All Evil?: "The God Delusion", and "The Virus of Faith." |
| 2/6/2007 - New Wave Musicals! Explore the ups and the downs of the music industry with two fine features from the crazy Eighties: the charming Australian show-biz tale, Starstruck (1982), and a harrowing story of runaway ambition, Breaking Glass (1980). Come celebrate Cinema Slop's FIFTH anniversary! |
| 1/2/2007 - Auld Lang Syne! Get your festivities on with 1983's Party Party, a fairly lousy UK teen house party comedy...and then go nuts with Chuck Mangione, the Village People, and a spandex-clad Tanya Tucker on Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year 1979, hosted by Erik Estrada and Lauren Tewes--complete with vintage commercials! |
| 12/5/2006 - Holiday Hysteria! Celebrate the giving season with a compendium of wrong-headed, ill-conceived, and downright disturbing Christmas specials and short films. Curl up with a heartwarming holiday animated short from Nazi Germany (Der Schneemann)! Enjoy sentimental WWII- and Cold War-era anti-war cartoons (Peace On Earth and Good Will To Men)! Cower from terrifying dancing Christmas marionettes (The Christmas Dream)! Check out Santa's groovy California bungalow-style living room (A Visit To Santa)! And geek out with long-lost holiday specials starring Pac-Man, He-Man, Fat Albert, and the Smurfs! Lots of other surprises will be sprinkled in between, so don't miss a moment! |
| 11/7/2006 - Election night hiatus... |
| 10/3/2006 - Halloween Hijinx! October laffs-a-plenty from Beavis and Butthead's Cornholio - Lord of the Harvest, Nelvana's charmingly dated The Devil and Daniel Mouse, and the mindbending Claymation Comedy of Horrors, followed by Roman Polanski's lovely and hilarious The Fearless Vampire Killers. Come early and watch Cosmos episode 9, "Lives of the Stars" at 8! |
| 9/12/2006 - It's Such A Fine Line Between Stupid And Clever! Enjoy the classic rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap--then watch it again with the ultra-rare Criterion Edition commentary track, featuring Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer, not in character (like on the readily available "Special Edition" DVD) but as themselves! And between screenings, enjoy the short film, Spinal Tap: The Final Tour, that Rob Reiner filmed to get financing for the feature. Start your evening off at 8 with Cosmos episode 8, "Travels In Space And Time." |
| 8/8/2006 - Cool Britannia! Two rare late-60s UK features that you'll be hard-pressed to see anywhere else: Ken Loach's tremendous adaptation of Nell Dunn's Poor Cow (with extremely rare Donovan soundtrack), and Work Is A Four-Letter Word, starring David Warner and Cilla Black. The evening begins at 8 with Cosmos episode 7, "The Backbone Of Night." |
| 7/11/2006 - Happy Birthday To Me! I turn 40 on July 2nd, so I'm going to indulge myself by showing two of my favorite films, the original 1967 Peter Cook/Dudley Moore Bedazzled (letterboxed!) and the beautiful Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Preceded by Cosmos episode 6, "Travellers' Tales." |
| 6/13/2006 - Wake Up! All three episodes of the powerful 2004 British documentary series, The Power Of Nightmares: The Rise Of The Politics Of Fear, "Baby It's Cold Outside," "The Phantom Victory," and "The Shadow In The Cave." Never aired in the US--I wonder why? Cosmos episode 5, "Blues For A Red Planet", starts the evening off at 8. |
| 5/9/2006 - Spring Has Sprung! Usher in a new season of growth and renewal with the still-shocking British horror classic, The Wicker Man, followed by Cornel Wilde's rarely-seen eco-disaster downer, No Blade Of Grass. Come at 8 to catch Cosmos episode 4, "Heaven And Hell". |
| 4/10/2006 - God Stuff! Religion, and lots of it! A collection of good-hearted short films from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, including the classic Cipher In The Snow, The Trophy Case, The Drop Card, and In One Blinding Moment; followed by two horrifying fundamentalist films from the Ormond Organization, If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? and The Grim Reaper. Cosmos episode 3, "Harmony Of The Worlds", starts the evening off. |
| 3/14/2006 - Disturbing Sexuality! Two pieces of sexploitation that transcend their humble genre and achieve a certain kind of head-scratching profundity. Radley Metzger's ur-Mulholland Drive, The Lickerish Quartet, and Joe Sarno's haunting masterpiece of role-playing, ritualistic perversity, Young Playthings. There will be lots of naked people on screen, so be forewarned. Preceded by Cosmos episode 2, "One Voice In The Cosmic Fugue." |
| 2/14/2006 - Cinema Slop's Anniversary! Celebrate Valentine's Day--and four years of Cinema Slop--by watching two of the most-loved films from the past four years: The Apple and Wild Zero! Omnia vincit amor! Before the features, enjoy the first episode of Cosmos, "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean". |
| 1/10/2006 - Filling In The Gaps! OK, film geeks--here are three films that, for whatever reason, were left out of recent box sets or film festivals (or perhaps just haven't been restored properly yet): The Trial Of Joan Of Arc, left out of Oak Street Cinema's recent Robert Bresson retrospective; Mondo Candido, Prosperi & Jacopetti's wildly unsuccessful adaptation of Voltaire's "Candide", which was left out of the "Mondo Box"; and, finally, The Pied Piper, a Jacques Demy film that may yet get restored and rereleased (like "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg", "Les Demoiselles de Rochefort", and "Peu d'Ane"), but is likely several years away at the very earliest. |
| 12/13/2005 - The Power of Pop! Two idiotic films from 1970 featuring made-up rock bands on wacky adventures: Olivia Newton-John gets kidnapped by aliens in Toomorrow, and a counter-counter-cultural, Monkees-esque group assembled by the U.S. government goes on a spy mission to Albania in The Phynx. I'm serious. Short subjects before the features! |
| 11/8/2005 - "Well, at least it looks nice..." - An increasing number of films produced recently have taken CGI effects to an extreme, with the directors shooting human actors against green screens and filling in their surroundings later using computers. While the results are often incredibly imaginative and gorgeous to look at, the sheer unreality of what's happening on screen can have an oddly alienating effect on the viewer. This program presents a couple of those lovely, technically superb films that nevertheless fall flat dramatically and emotionally: fashion photographer Kazuaki Kiriya's "live action anime" disaster Casshern (2004), followed by comic artist Enki Bilal's disappointing film treatment of some of his best-known graphic works, Immortel: Ad Vitam (also 2004). |
| 10/11/2005 - Made-For-TV Minor Masterpieces II: The Horror...The Horror! More features made for television, this time scary ones, in honor of Halloween! The Saturday morning classic Gargoyles (1972), starring Cornel Wilde, Jennifer Salt...and Bernie Casey in a wild rubber suit, along with Bad Ronald (1974), considered by many to be the creepiest made-for-TV film of all time! |
| 9/13/2005 - Incendiary Documentaries! Two films by Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi (of Mondo Cane fame) that caused major international stinks upon their release: Africa Addio (1966), a horrifying eyewitness document of the collapse of European colonialism in Africa in the early 60's, followed by the directors' overblown "screw you" response to the charges of racism and murder that resulted, Addio Zio Tom (1971), a dramatized historical "documentary" of slavery in the American South. Not for the faint of heart or the easily offended! |
| 8/9/2005 - Films By Andy Warhol! Rare films directed by Warhol himself: Kiss, Blow Job, and all three-plus hours of Chelsea Girls in full dual-screen majesty! This program starts at 8pm. |
| 7/12/2005 - Made-For-TV Minor Masterpieces! The first installment in a series dedicated to the Made-For-TV Movie, a staple of prime time programming for over two decades. Most of these films have been completely lost to the sands of time! This program features Ron Howard's 1978 high-school-band potboiler Cotton Candy (complete with commercials from a 1981 broadcast!), followed by 1973's The Girl Most Likely To..., starring Stockard Channing. Look for another round close to Halloween! |
| 6/14/2005 - Situationist Cinema! Three incredibly rare films from the original culture-jamming movement! Guy Debord's seminal La Societe du spectacle (The Society of the Spectacle), a blizzard of found footage and philosophical harangues, along with Rene Vienet's La Dialectique peut-elle casser des briques? (Can Dialectics Break Bricks?), a hilarious detournement of a crappy sixties kung fu movie, replacing the dialog with a running critique of state-based socialism, and Les Filles de Kamare (The Girls of Kamare), a somewhat more half-assed execution of the same idea, using a couple of super-violent early 70's Japanese porn films as source material. NOTE: This program starts at 8pm. |
| 5/10/2005 - Crazy Eighties! A couple of hyper-stylish mindblowers: Forbidden Zone, directed by Richard Elfman (and featuring his brother's band, the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo), followed by Liquid Sky, Russian emigre Slava Tsukerman's loving paean to New York's early 80's New Wave/No Wave subbaculture. Come early for a lesson in self-respect from Mr. T! |
| 4/12/2005 - (Bad) Old Hollywood! The seedy underbelly of the Dream Factory's golden age! The Day Of The Locust, John Schlesinger's harrowing tale of Hollywood dreams gone bad, followed by the extremely rare uncut original version of Inserts, starring Richard Dreyfuss as a washed-up silent film director reduced to filming porn in his living room, and Jessica Harper as an aspiring "actress". Rough stuff! 21+ only, please! |
| 3/8/2005 - The Afterworld! Orphee, Jean Cocteau's gorgeous surrealist take on the Orpheus legend, along with After Life, Hirozaku Kore-Eda's sweet and sentimental look at a waystation in the netherworld where the recently deceased get to choose one memory from their lives to take with them into eternity. |
| 2/8/2005 - Happy Valentine's Day! Wings Of Desire, followed by Punch-Drunk Love. Two of Joel's favorite films, both of them dizzyingly romantic and head-scratchingly thoughtful. Laugh! Cry! |
| 1/11/2005 - Happy Birthday, Ma! Seance On A Wet Afternoon, followed by The Collector. Two of Joel's mom's favorite films, both of which are mid-60s British dramas that coincidentally feature disastrous kidnappings. Chilling, gripping, dreadful--perfect entertainment for the homebound winter months! |
| 12/14/2004 - Vampire Hijinx! The Yianni Stamis Entertainment Company, a hysterically megalomaniacal coke-fueled demo reel for a guy who once interned for Roman Coppola and wants people to give him money so he can screw around on film. With appearances by an uncomfortable-looking Nicolas Cage! Followed by the three-hour-plus original miniseries version of Stephen King's Salem's Lot, directed by Tobe Hooper and starring David Soul and Lance Kerwin. Legitimately good, and legitimately scary! |
| 11/9/2004 - All-Girl Hong Kong Action! Heroic Trio, followed by its seldom-screened sequel, Executioners. Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, and the late Anita Mui kick ass, whether it be of demons and cannibals in the sewer system, or fascists controlling the water supply of a post-apocalyptic community. |
| 10/12/2004 - Scared Stupid! Night Train To Terror (1985): On a speeding train, God and Satan sit in a private compartment and spout philosophical mumbo-jumbo about the true nature of mankind. They then present three vignettes, supposedly illustrating "moral choices" or some such crapola, and argue about the fate of the protagonists in each. It's like a mid-period Paul McCartney song, where incomplete fragments of several different ideas get jammed together to make an uncomfortable "whole". Between "vignettes", a fish-faced idiot (the screenwriter's brother, it turns out), surrounded by half-hearted and unattractive young adults attempting to impersonate Deney Terio and Motion, lip-syncs to an insipid dance song, the taunting lyrics of which cut to the very heart of anyone who's decided to sit through this stupifying film: "Everybody's got something to do--everybody but YOU!" Followed by Incubus (1965): The only feature film with dialog entirely in Esperanto! A creepy story about demons from the underworld rising up to torment the living, starring William Shatner! Bizarre! |
| 9/14/2004 - Creeping Fascism! It Happened Here (1966), a supremely creepy "alternate history" that explores what may have happened (from the perspective of the average citizen) had the Nazis invaded and occupied Britain during WWII. Immediate Action! Followed by an encore presentation of Privilege (1967), a stark Swinging Sixties tale of a popstar being used as a government tool to mollify the nation's youth. Along with a short instructional film about the danger signs of Despotism (1946)... |
| 8/10/2004 - Harry Nilsson film fest! Three features starring, written by, or otherwise containing a giant dose of Nilsson (shoulda done this in January, the tenth anniversary of his death): Skidoo (1968), Otto Preminger's screwball comedy disaster (music, bit acting part); The Point (1971), the classic made-for-TV animated fable (music, story); and finally Son Of Dracula (1974), impossibly rare (and really quite stupid) vanity project for Nilsson, Ringo Starr, and a bunch of their drunk superstar friends (starring role, music)! Just over four hours of solid entertainment! |
| 7/13/2004 - Ronald Reagan Memorial Cold War Tribute! Red Dawn (1984), a hysterical paean to the 2nd Amendment, starring some of the biggest stars of mid-80s young Hollywood! Followed by Letters From A Dead Man (1986), a hard-to-find Russian postapocalyptic nuclear winter drama that's pretty much the anti-Red Dawn. |
| 6/8/2004 - Popstars to the rescue! Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the film that sank the Bee Gees, Peter Frampton, and RSO Records! Followed by Wild Zero, the film that made international cult superstars of Japanese rock combo Guitar Wolf! |
| 5/11/2004 - First Features! Dark Star, John Carpenter's full-length directorial debut, followed by Cronos, the debut feature from Guillermo del Toro. |
| 4/13/2004 - Religious fever--catch it! Celebrate Easter with a couple of films about the Patron Saint of France, the Maid of Orleans, Jeanne la Pucelle: Carl Theodor Dreyer's impressionistic 1928 masterpiece, The Passion of Joan of Arc, followed by Luc Besson's controversial, poorly-received--and underrated--1999 spectacular, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. |
| 3/9/2004 - Summer means fun! Summer Camp Nightmare (a.k.a. The Butterfly Revolution) followed by Wet, Hot American Summer! |
| 2/10/2004 - Kinji Fukasaku double-feature! Two mindblowing masterpieces by the late Japanese pulp film director: the 1968 secret agent/transvestite classic Black Lizard, followed by the banned, ultraviolent 2000 worldwide cult favorite Battle Royale! |
| 1/13/2004 - (Belated) Holiday Hijinx! The ridiculously rare--and mostly just plain ridiculous--Star Wars Holiday Special, complete with commercials! Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca (and his family), plus Harvey Korman, Art Carney, Bea Arthur, Jefferson Starship, and...oh, god, it's too horrible to even contemplate. A piece of Star Wars-iana that even George Lucas can't bring himself to sell! Followed by the overwrought Millennial thriller, The Omega Code! The end times are truly upon us! |
| 12/9/2003 - Birthday Party! It's Eric O's birthday, so we'll be enjoying a screening of Wes Anderson's debut feature, the lovable Bottle Rocket. Afterward, rock out to a live performance by So Fox! |
| 11/11/2003 - Psychedelic Shenanigans! Frank Zappa's 200 Motels (1971), followed by the Monkees' surprisingly groovy feature-film disaster, Head (1968). |
| 10/14/2003 - Halloween Heat! Daughters of Darkness, stylish 1971 "lesbian" vampire cult classic! Followed by the sexy, psychedelic 1970 Eurotrash freakfest Vampyros Lesbos, directed by Jess Franco! |
| 9/9/2003 - Glam Rock fever! In honor of Radio K and KFAI's week-long radio Glam-Fest: 1978 made-for-TV monstrosity Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park, plus more fun stuff to be announced...including another bonus CD! |
| 8/12/2003 - Morbid curiosities! The evening starts off with a rare LETTERBOXED print of The Loved One, Tony Richardson's 1965 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's sardonic satire of Hollywood and its funeral business. "The Motion Picture With Something To Offend Everyone"! Too true, but that was years before the evening's second feature, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970), Russ Meyer's ill-fated attempt at mainstream cinema. Script by Roger Ebert! |
| 7/9/2003 - Magick Lantern Cycle, the complete works of Kenneth Anger (featuring Fireworks, Puce Moment, Rabbit's Moon, Eaux d'Artifice, Inauguration Of The Pleasure Dome, Scorpio Rising, Kustom Kar Kommandos, Invocation Of My Demon Brother, and Lucifer Rising), plus, by popular demand, Xanadu! |
| 6/10/2003 - Pride Month super-spectacular! The groundbreaking 1970 feature The Boys in the Band, followed by the horrendous Village People autobiography, Can't Stop The Music! |
| 5/13/2003 - Aieeeeeee! The Apple! Golan/Globus 1980 futuristic ersatz-Eurovision musical disaster! Even the undoubtably arousing presence of Catherine Mary Stewart's swiveling silver-spandex-clad tuchus can't save this trainwreck of a film. |
| 4/8/2003 - Glam Rock Volume 2 and Walter Hill's 1979 "Gangs of New York" opus, The Warriors! |
| 3/11/2003 - "Musicals"! Starting with Marat/Sade, Peter Brook's 1966 film production of Peter Weiss' revolutionary, hyper-political theater-of-cruelty stage piece. During the Terror in post-revolutionary France, the inmates of Charenton asylum perform a play about the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat written and directed by a fellow inmate, the Marquis de Sade; where does the play end, and reality begin? Followed by The Phantom of the Paradise, Brian DePalma's first major feature (1974), a horror comedy musical that takes on "The Phantom of the Opera", classic MGM musicals, and the corrupt, satanic music biz! Outstanding, sarcastic soundtrack by Paul Williams! |
| 2/11/2003 - Weimar cinema at its best: all 4 hours of Fritz Lang's 1922 pulp masterpiece Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler! A criminal mastermind is gaming the stock market, controlling Berlin's underworld, and laughing all the way to the bank. Who can stop him? A fascinating period piece from the old, sleazy pre-Nazi Berlin, a.k.a. Sodom on the Spree! |
| 1/14/2003 - Fun for the whole family! The evening kicks off with Heat Vision and Jack, the legendary comedy-action show pilot produced and directed by Ben Stiller, and starring Jack Black and Owen Wilson. Renegade astronaut Jack Austin, mutated by the sun's rays into the world's smartest man, travels the country fighting crime with his sidekick Heat Vision (a talking motorcycle), while avoiding Ron Silver, deadly NASA enforcer. Afterward, Rolling Stones fans can get their rocks off with Cocksucker Blues, the rare, suppressed Exile-era tour documentary, featuring awesome on-stage performances by the Stones, and seedy back-stage performances by roadies and groupies! |
| 12/10/2002 - William Klein mini film-fest! Why this guy's films aren't better-known in the U.S. is beyond me. A fashion photographer, a documentarist of note, and a sometime director of incredibly stylish and witty features, American expatriate Klein deserves a much wider audience! I'll be showing Qui etes-vous Polly Magoo? (a.k.a. Who Are You, Polly Magoo?), a hilarious 1966 send-up of pop-mod fashion culture, Vogue magazine in particular (presented in French only, so bring your Francais-English translation dictionaries, or a bilingual pal), followed by Klein's 1969 tour-de-force--a mind-blowing anti-imperialist masterpiece of agitprop Situationisme called Mr. Freedom (English-language version, and a really nice print to boot). Believe me, you must see this film...now more than ever. |
| 11/12/2002 - DV Cinema DVD release party! I'm teaming up with Brian from DV Cinema to celebrate the release of a big ol' DVD of independent digitally-produced cinema projects. Almost an hour and a half of shorts by digital filmmakers, a live-DJ-vs.-live-video-mixing cutup session by DJ Booka V and VJ Pixleflex, and then my contribution to the evening, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (dir. Todd Haynes), the story of the pop duo The Carpenters told using Barbie dolls! Rare, suppressed by the Carpenter estate due to "music licensing issues"! $5 cover |
| 10/8/2002 - Glam Spectacular! Velvet Goldmine, followed by Glam Rock, an hour of Top of the Pops lip-sync performances by T. Rex, the Sweet, Gary Glitter and others, capped off with a sampling of rare and fabulous glitter rock tunes! Five lucky patrons get a special Bonus CD! |
| 9/10/2002 - The Lathe Of Heaven. One of PBS' all-time most-requested programs, this 1980 adaptation of Ursula K. LeGuin's novel was out of print and unavailable for twenty years! Followed by another commercially-unavailable gem: the original, "expanded" for home video, complete-with-voiceovers Blade Runner! |
| 8/13/2002 - Michael Nesmith's award-winning 1981 video album, Elephant Parts, and extremely rare 1980 feature film The Gong Show Movie! |
| 7/9/2002 - Japanarama: four solid hours of insane highlights and lowlights from Japanese television! |
| 6/11/2002 - The Man In The Glass Booth! Incredibly rare 1975 feature! Preceded by censored Warner Brothers cartoons--racist stereotypes galore! (I hope nobody decides to riot...) |
| 5/14/2002 - Punk Rock Spectacular! The Buzzcocks: Auf Wiedersehen, Sid Vicious/Nancy Spungen/Stiv Bators New York public-access TV phone-in show appearance from 1978, and The Great Rock & Roll Swindle! |
| 4/9/2002 - Insane Variety Specials! Raquel!, The London Bridge Special, and Movin' With Nancy |
| 3/12/2002 - Rare British Comedy! Three hours of The Goodies |
| 2/12/2002 - Swinging London! Tonite Let's All Make Love In London and Privilege |
