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Brian Greene

Page-to-Screen: Malcolm Braly’s On the Yard

By Brian Greene

July 29, 2022

Background They say write what you know. Malcolm Braly (1925-80) knew prisons. Orphaned as a teenager, the Oregon native spent the majority of his years aged approximately 17-40 behind bars. A career burglar and multiple parole violator, he was in a reform school at 17 and in the facility at San Quentin for the crux…

Book Review: The Next Time I Die by Jason Starr

By Brian Greene

June 27, 2022

Part of why Philip K. Dick’s novels are so effective is how the daring, game-changing sci-fi author juxtaposed the extraordinary with the relatable. Take his 1970 novel A Maze of Death, for instance. The main thrust of that story involves fourteen humans who come to inhabit a mysterious space colony which proves to be treacherous…

Book Review: The Day He Left by Frederick Weisel

By Brian Greene

February 7, 2022

Frederick Weisel’s new book The Day He Left is a suspenseful crime novel that shows how lots of lives can be impacted by one fateful incident, while also exposing the dangers of keeping secrets. It’s the second volume in Weisel’s Violent Crime Investigations Team Mystery series. Paul Behrens is a 47-year old middle school English…

Pickup on South Street: A Cold War Thriller… Or Not

By Brian Greene

April 23, 2021

If someone who’s seen Samuel Fuller’s 1953 film Pickup on South Street was asked to describe it using just a few words, they might say it’s “a Cold War spy thriller.” On the surface, that way of characterizing the movie is apt enough. The story does involve a ring of traitorous Americans who steal their…

Page to Screen: The Parallax View

By Brian Greene

January 21, 2021

The early-to-mid 1970s was a time when Americans’ distrust in our politicians was at a peak. The country still had not gotten over the 1960s assassinations of beloved young leaders John F. and Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Many still wondered whether the individuals held responsible for their killings acted alone, or were…

Page to Screen: Hammett (1982)

By Brian Greene

September 2, 2020

Think of the career of acclaimed film director Wim Wenders (1945-) and what’s the first title of his that comes to your mind? Paris, Texas (1984)? Wings of Desire (1987)? Maybe Buena Vista Social Club (1999)? The cinematic work of his I personally treasure the most is Alice in the Cities (1974). I bet you…

Bringing It All Back Home: Bruce Lee on Screen

By Brian Greene

June 22, 2020

When I watched Be Water, ESPN’s new 30 for 30 documentary on the life of legendary martial arts master and actor Bruce Lee (1940-73), I kept waiting for the topic of Quentin Tarantino’s portrayal of Lee in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to come up. I figured it might get mentioned by Bruce’s daughter…

Book Review: Red Border by Jason Starr (writer) and Will Conrad (artist)

By Brian Greene

April 10, 2020

“Be careful what you wish for” is an adage that often holds a lot of truth. Eduardo and Karina, the young, middle-class Mexican couple who are the main characters of Jason Starr’s new graphic novel Red Border, didn’t exactly ask for what happens to them in this story. But being saved by a vigilante when…

A Bollywood Icon in Action: Zeenat Aman in Crime and Suspense Films

By Brian Greene

February 5, 2020

If you’re like me, you’ve long had an interest in Bollywood movies, but haven’t explored this corner of cinematic history much. The problem is, where do you start in trying to learn about such a vast pool of films that haven’t been part of your cultural life? Well, in a situation like this, sometimes the…

Revisiting 1971’s Cult Classic Horror Film Let’s Scare Jessica to Death

By Brian Greene

January 9, 2020

Many of us film watchers rely on critical reviews of movies to help us decide whether a particular title is worth our time, whether it’s a new release we’re thinking of seeing in a theater or an old one we’re considering checking out through various means. But what to do when a certain movie has…

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