100 Great Avant-garde Films!

Adynata (Leslie Thornton 1983)
Aelf-scin (Joseph Bernard 1979)
Aleph (Wallace Berman 1955-66?)
Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy (Martin Arnold 1998)
Amerikanos (Christos Dimas 1999)
Anémic Cinéma (Marcel Duchamp 1926)
L'Arrivée (Peter Tscherkassky 1997-1998)
Autumn Fire (Herman Weinberg 1930-33)
Ballet Mécanique (Fernand Léger and Dudley Murphy 1924)
Berlin Horse (Malcolm Le Grice 1970)
Blow Job (Andy Warhol 1963)
Boston Fire (Peter Hutton 1979)
La Cartomancienne (The Fortune Teller) (Jerome Hill 1932)
Un chant d'amour (Jean Genet 1950)
Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel 1929)
Chronic (Jennifer Reeves 1997)
Chumlum (Ron Rice 1964)
La cicatrice intérieure (Philippe Garrel 1972)
Clouds (Peter Gidal 1969)
Cobra Mist (Emily Richardson 2008)
The Color of Pomegranates (Sergei Paradjanov 1968)
Colour Flight (Len Lye 1937)
Combat de boxe (Charles Dekeukeleire 1929)
Cul en l'air (Pierre Yves Clouin 1998)
Cybelle (Donald Richie 1968)
Decodings (Michael Wallin 1988)
Dirty (Stephen Dwoskin 1971)
Ecce Homo (Jerry Tartaglia 1989)
11 x 14 (James Benning)
A Family Finds Entertainment (Ryan Trecartin 2005)
Family Tyranny (Modelling and Molding) (Paul McCarthy and Mike
Kelley 1987)
Film Ist (Gustav Deutsch 1998-2004)
Filmpiece for Sunshine (John Luther Schofill, Jr. 1966-1968)
Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith 1963)
The Flicker (Tony Conrad 1966)
Fly Away Homo (Andrew HIller 1998)
La fórmula secreta (Rubén Gámez 1965)
From the Notebook of… (Robert Beavers 1971/1998)
Fuses (Carolee Schneemann 1967)
The Girl Chewing Gum (John Smith 1976)
Handsworth Songs (John Akomfrah 1986)
The Hart of London (Jack Chambers 1969-1970)
Images d'Ostende (Henri Storck 1929)
It Wasn't Love (Sadie Benning 1992)
Jack’s Dream (Joseph Cornell c. 1930-1970)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman 1975)
Klipperty Klopp (Andrew Kotting, 1984, 12m)
Kunst Life (Roger Jacoby 1975)
Kustom Kar Kommandos (Kenneth Anger 1965)
Light Rhythms (Francis Bruguière & Oswell Blakeston 1931)
Lost Book Found (Jem Cohen 1996)
Luke (Bruce Conner 1967)
Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren and Alexander Hamid 1943)
Mirrors Facing Mirrors (Adam Cooley 2010)
Mosaik im Vertrauen (Peter Kubelka, 1955)
Motion Painting No. 1 (Oskar Fischinger 1947)
My Parents Read Dreams I’ve Had About Them (Neil Goldberg 1998)
Near the Big Chakra (Anne Severson 1971)
Nightcats (Stan Brakhage 1956)
Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy (Tracey Moffatt 1989)
(nostalgia) (Hollis Frampton 1971)
Notch (Diane Kitchen 2000)
Notes of an Early Fall (Saul Levine 1976-77)
1126 Dewey Avenue, Apt. 207 (John C. Hecker 1939)
Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa 1926)
The Passing (Bill Viola 1991)
Pensao Globo (Matthias Müller 1997)
Peyote Queen (Storm De Hirsch 1965)
Pink Narcissus (James Bidgood 1971)
pornfilm (Stephanie Barber 1999)
A Portrait of Ga (Margaret Tait 1952)
Pu Pu (Motoharu Jonouchi 1960)
Race d'Ep (Lionel Soukaz 1979)
Reflections of Evil (Damon Packard 2002)
La région centrale (Michael Snow 1967)
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (Jonas Mekas 1972)
Roof (Betsy Kalin 1998)
Schuss! (Nicolas Rey 2005)
She Puppet (Peggy Ahwesh 2001)
Side/Walk/Shuttle (Ernie Gehr 1991)
Sissy Boy Slap Party (Guy Maddin 1995)
6/64 Mama Und Papa (Kurt Kren 1964)
Sodom (Luther Price 1989)
Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert (Marguerite Duras 1976)
Sorrows (Gregory J. Markopoulos 1969)
Le souriante Madame Beudet (Germaine Dulac 1922)
"Sredni Vashtar" by Saki (David Bradley 1940-43)
Standard Gauge (Morgan Fisher 1984)
Stuffing (Animal Charm 1998)
Submit To Me Now (Richard Kern 1987)
Symphony for a Sinner (George Kuchar 1979)
Le Tempestaire (Jean Epstein 1947)
Thanatopsis (Ed Emshwiller 1963)
The End (Christopher Maclaine 1953)
This Is It (James Broughton 1971)
Thundercrack! (Curt McDowell 1975)
Tomatos Another Day (James Sibley Watson and Alec Wilder 1930/1933) (pictured below)
Tríptico Elemental de España (José Val del Omar, 1960)
The Vyrotonin Decision (Matt McCormick 1999)
Wet One (Ian MacTilstra 2008)
Whitney: Mama’s Little Baby (Lawrence Elbert 2000)
Wind Vane (Chris Welsby 1972)

Favorite films between 35 - 70 minutes

My favorite film of this ilk is Illusions (Julie Dash 1982). But it's one minute short of 35 mins. However, these fit: 

Apart From You (Mikio Naruse 1933)
The Argyle Secrets (Cy Endfield 1948)
Avalanche (Mikio Naruse 1937)
Beauty #2 (Andy Warhol 1965)
The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer 1934)
Blood Money (Rowland Brown 1933)
California Frontier (Elmer G. Clifton 1938)
Call Me Madame (Francoise Romand 1986)
Camp (Andy Warhol 1965)
La cicatrice intérieure (Philippe Garrel 1972)
The Circle (Frank Borzage 1925) (pictured below)
Cowards Bend the Knee (Guy Maddin 2003)
Crimes at the Dark House (George King 1940)
The Curse of the Cat People (Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise 1944)
The Deadman (Peggy Ahwesh and Keith Sanborn 1989)
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (Thom Andersen 1974)
Eat (Andy Warhol 1963)
Exterior Night (Mark Rappaport 1993)
A Family Finds Entertainment (Ryan Trecartin 2005)
Film Ist (Gustav Deutsch (1998-2004) 
Final Flesh  (Vernon Chatman 2009)
Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith 1963)
Flunky, Work Hard! (Mikio Naruse 1931)
From the Notebook of... (Robert Beavers 1971/1998)
The Girl From Chicago (Oscar Micheaux 1932)
The Girl in the Rumor (Mikio Naruse 1935)
Guru, the Mad Monk (Andy Milligan 1970)
La glace à trois faces (Jean Epstein)
Handsworth Songs (John Akomfrah/Black Audio Film Collective 1986)
Hedy (Andy Warhol 1966)
Hell's Highway (Rowland Brown 1932)
Hideko The Bus Conductress (Mikio Naruse 1941)
Horse Feathers (Norman Z. McLeod 1932)
The Hours and Times (Christopher Munch 1991)
The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (Raul Ruiz 1979)
Inside A.M.G.: The Athletic Model Guild (probably Bob Mizer 1970)
Kunst Life (Roger Jacoby 1975)
The Life of Juanita Castro (Andy Warhol 1965)
Lonesome (Paul Fejos 1928)
Lost Book Found (Jem Cohen 1996)
Lost In The Thinking (Damon Packard 2005)
Mammame (Raul Ruiz 1987)
Mirrors Facing Mirrors (Adam Cooley 2010)
Mix-Up (Francoise Romand 1985)
(nostalgia) (Hollis Frampton 1971)
Notes of an Early Fall (Saul Levine 1976-77)
One Way Boogie Woogie (James Benning 1977)
The Oyster Princess (Ernst Lubitsch)
Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa 1926)
The Passing (Bill Viola 1991)
Pink Narcissus (James Bidgood 1971)
Pointed Heels (A. Edward Sutherland 1929)
Radio Ranch (aka Men With Steel Faces) (Otto Brower & B. Reeves Eason 1940)
Rock Hudson's Home Movies (Mark Rappaport 1992)
Sally in Our Alley (Maurice Elvey 1931)
The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson 1943) - One minute over but deal - a masterpiece of concision anyway.
Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton 1924)
Side/Walk/Shuttle (Ernie Gehr 1991)
Sluts & Goddesses Video Workshop (Annie Sprinkle and Maria Beatty 1992)
The Song of Home (Kenji Mizoguchi 1925)
SpaceDisco One (Damon Packard 2007)
Standard Gauge (Morgan Fisher 1984)
The Star Witness (William A. Wellman 1931)
Symphony for a Sinner (George Kuchar 1979) 
Take An Easy Ride  (Kenneth Rowles (1976)
Tales of The Valley of The Wind (Damon Packard 2009)
The Target Shoots First (Chris Wilcha 1998)
Tearoom (William Jones 2007)
That Night's Wife (Yasujiro Ozu 1930)
The End (Christopher Maclaine 1953)
A Time for Dying (Budd Boetticher 1969)
Twice A Man (Gregory J. Markopoulos 1964)
Valley of Hunted Men (John English 1942)
Vinyl (Andy Warhol 1965)
Water and Power (Pat O'Neill 1989)
Wild Boys of the Road (William A. Wellman 1933)
The Wishing Ring (Maurice Tourneur 1914)
Young America (Frank Borzage 1932)

The Last of Sheila (Herbert Ross, 1973)

Honest, I always hope to fall in love with murder-mystery behemoths like Evil Under the Sun (or Death on the Nile or Murder on the Orient Express) or The Last of Sheila - undeniably stellar casts, exotic locales, zingy one-liners, queerness at the edges. And this one was written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins (albeit directed by the workaday Herbert Ross). But always I'm done in by the obsessive architecture of the mystery itself. These films are even more drearily narrative-focused than the geekiest sci-fi and fantasy. It's the "well, she put her left shoe on her right foot so she must be the killer" school of storytelling and an hour in, my eyes started to glass over. Also, is it too woke of me to bristle at the fact that as late as 1973, two gay men are equating "homosexual" with "ex-convict," "informant," "hit-and-run killer," and 'little child molester"? Some great one-liners, though: "There's nothing worse than a hustler with bad timing." 
Grade: C

Fantasy Island (Jeff Wadlow, 2020)

For a good 3/4 of its running time, Fantasy Island wasn't thaaaaaaat bad, certainly not worthy of the drubbing it's received from critics who pump far more venal franchise fodder. It's a dopey, lightly humorous attempt to inject horror into the original television series (a Saturday night staple following The Love Boat and Dance Fever), avoiding the lugubrious feel of far too many reboots. But in its last quarter, it goes off the rails with doppelgangers and reality/virtual reality games and I got either confused or angry. Or was it sleepy? I can no longer recall which. Maybe dopey? In any event, a good film to throw popcorn at with a group of friends.

Still, it seems to have turned a profit according to Box Office Mojo largely because the budget was a minuscule $7 million (although that may not include advertising costs). And we'll never know how much COVID-19 cut into its take. So expect a sequel. Yay!

Grade: C

Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse (Bob Persichetti and Peter Ramsey AND Rodney Rothman, 2018)

As with the incestuous interplay of their properties in The Lego Movie (2014), and The Lego Batman Movie (2017) and The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017 too), writer-producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller create an implosive universe sucking our cash deeper and ever deeper into this particular Marvel strain. Yes, the animation is jaw-dropping. Sure, it's life-affirming to have a blatino hero. You bet, I laughed out loud several times. But the overall message is buy buy buy.

Miles Morales/Spider-Man's (Shameik Moore) makes the moral clear in his closing monologue: "Anyone can wear the mask. You could wear the mask. If you didn't know that before, I hope you do now. 'Cause I'm Spider-Man. And I'm not the only one. Not by a long shot." An earlier scene literalizes this when Miles purchases a mask at a store and Stan Lee (actually Stan Lee playing himself), the creator of Spider-Man, sells it to him right before Miles joins a crowd of New Yorkers wearing the mask. Indeed, you could wear the mask too. But the one option you don't have is not to buy it in the first place. Nothing exists outside this suffocating universe.

The most oppressive moments in this feature-length commercial were the endless replays of Spider-Man's origin story (visualized in comic book form to remind you to buy the comic books too), culminating in a scene where Miles meets Spider-Mans from different universes. There's Spider-Man Noir, a brooding black-and-white figure fighting Nazis in the 1930s, and Peni Parker/SP//dr [sic], an anime variant from the year 3145, both ensuring that we'll have Spider-Man products to purchase for the next century-plus at least. A truly depressing spectacle.

And before you ask, I watched it on pan-and-scan VHS so, yeah yeah, I didn't get the authentic experience.
Grade: C-plus

Twenty songs I will murder at karaoke when Rona dies

Based on the theory that no establishment will have an instrumental of the New York Dolls' “Puss ’n’ Boots” and that Black Sabbath's "Hole in the Sky" would murder me by song's end, here are twenty hits with which I intend to captivate inebriated audiences once Rona dies (I am categorically opposed to private karaoke booths). I gravitate toward a. women b. songs way out of my bassy range c. wordy, complicated things I hope to mangle e. Robert Plant and his myriad progeny f. duets (and quartets - "Afternoon Delight" is one of my staples). Come sing with me.


1. Jermaine Stewart: "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off"
2. Motley Crue: “Looks That Kill”
3. Guns N’ Roses: “Welcome to the Jungle”
4. Led Zeppelin: “Misty Mountain Hop”
5. Plastic Bertrand: "Ça Plane Pour Moi"
6. “Not Getting Married Today” from Company
7. Pat Benatar: “Invincible”
8. Roxy Music: “Virginia Plain”
9. Alphabeat: “Fascination”
10. Bow Wow Wow: “Louis Quatorze”
11. Cher: "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves"
12. Pointer Sisters: "Automatic"
13. Beyoncé: "Single Ladies"
14. Dave Edmunds: "Girls Talk" (but I’m changing it to “Boys Talk”)
15. Lizzo: “Juice”
16. Adam and the Ants: “Antmusic”
17. The Sweet: “Teenage Rampage”
18. Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer: "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)"
19. Paula Abdul: "Cold Hearted"
20. Siouxsie and the Banshees: Once Upon a Time - The Singles (the whole damn album! “Cities in Dust” too!)