In December 1957 and January 1958, nineteen-year-old Charlie Starkweather embarked on a killing spree through Nebraska and Wyoming. Most of the murders took place in just over a week, an eight-day rampage of shootings and stabbings that confounded authorities and terrorized the general public. With his even younger girlfriend in tow, Charlie killed eleven people,…
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…
This adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story “Barn Burning” is either an off-kilter serial killer thriller or merely an eccentric case of arson. Either way, a young woman has still vanished under mysterious circumstances. The metaphors get rather ominous, but the lonely, detached nature of modern life is even more dangerous for the protagonist and…
Screenplay writers hate Hollywood! It really is as simple as that. There's a good chance you would too if you had to go through all the studio bullshit (i.e., studio rewrites, budget cuts, lame-brain producers) just to see a version of your project reach theaters that barely resembles what you had in mind. Just ask…
Nocturnal Animals opens with a credits sequence that may very well go down as the most visceral and unexpected of the year. It’s a sequence that showcases obese naked women dancing and performing strange acts of jubilation, all while a dramatic orchestral score plays. It’s imagery that’s morose and comical at the same time, and…
