The Stacks

This week, Shana and j. finally return to our regular Stacks after our accidental hiatus and Halloween celebration. First up, we conclude our coverage of Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy with the 1966 all-time classic Italian western The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (0:00-1:19:26), followed with discussion of two deranged 80s action exploitation flicks, Rene Cardona Jr.'s 1980 heist / thriller grab-ba...

This week, we move back toward our regularly scheduled programming after Halloween. First up is the 1991 Christopher Walken peak action war on drugs film McBain (directed by James Glickenhaus, running to 1:10:43), then we head over to Eastern Europe for a double bill of Piotr Szulkin's dystopian sci-fi O-Bi O-Ba: The End of Civilization (1985) and Karel Zeman's whimsical children's adventure Journ...

This week, Shana and j. conclude our bonus week of rigorous exploration of The Spooky Stacks, concluding with another quadruple bill. First up is PG: Psycho Goreman, a 2020 Canadian horror-comedy directed by Stephen Kostanski, with the second part (1:02:37-2:31:03) comprising discussion of George Romero's shelved 1975 elder abuse PSA The Amusement Park, James Bryan's 1981 first wave slasher / vide...

This week, Shana and j. close out this year's spooky season with three all-time classics of the horror genre - Alfred Hitchcock's landmark 1960 crime drama / OG slasher Psycho (0:00-1:13:01), followed by the first two Universal Horror pictures, Tod Browning's Dracula and James Whale's Frankenstein (both from 1931, discussion continuing 1:13:01-2:26:45), and concluding as always with capsule discus...

This week, Shana and j. continue celebration of the spooky season with discussion of 2001's Takashi Miike yakuza splatter epic Ichi the Killer (0:00-1:26:16) as well as William Friedkin's monolith of Satanic horror, 1973's The Exorcist (continuing to 2:35:21), followed as always by additional discussion of all the other movies we've watched in the past week, and choose our movies for next week. A...

The Spooky Stacks continue with our October horror crawl in a quadruple bill! In part one (0:00-2:08:43) we discuss both Friday the 13th 3D (1982, directed by Steve Miner) and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984, directed by Joseph Zito) and in part two, we talk about Mandy (2018, directed by Panos Cosmatos, continuing to 2:55:10) and Final Destination 3 (2006, directed by James Wong, running...

After an unexpectedly long absence, Shana and j. are back to open The Spooky Stacks for this October. This week, we cover key slasher canon with Friday the 13th Pt II (directed by Steve Miner, 1981, discussion running 0:00-1:31:30), followed by some arthouse surrealism with Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy (2010, running 1:31:30-3:04:34, also featuring shorter discussion of 3 Park Chan-Wook films...

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are in the midst of a two week break, once Shana's internet access is properly back up and running, so too will we be <3 -j.

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. are talking some religion and politics (and aliens!), starting with Luis Buñuel's 1969 surrealist treatise on heresies and anathema, The Milky Way (running 0:00-1:25:35), followed by Piotr Szulkin's 1981 political satire War of the Worlds: The Next Century (1:25:36-2:27:50) and a little bit on John Coats' eerie 1977 UFO drama Foes (2:27:50-2:46:36), concluding...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. are discussing the 1957 French noir Speaking of Murder (directed by Gilles Grangier, running 0:00-1:05:43), followed by some loose conversation about the next four films in the From Hollywood to Heaven box set of films by the Ormond family, encompassing Forty Acre Feud, The Girl From Tobacco Row, The Exotic Ones, and If Footmen Tire You What Will Horses Do (al...

This week, Shana and j. continue our coverage of the Battles Without Honor and Humanity / Yakuza Papers saga with part two, Hiroshima Death Match (aka Deadly Fight in Hiroshima, 1973, directed by Kinji Fukasaku, running 0:00-1:21:02), followed by the 2019 Lao time travel / psychological horror film The Long Walk (directed by Mattie Do, 1:21:02-2:31:39). As usual, we conclude with discussion of all...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. discuss the thorny 1957 Budd Boetticher / Randolph Scott western Decision at Sundown (0:00-1:09:37) as well as two exceptional 1924 Buster Keaton silent features, Sherlock Jr and The Navigator (1:09:38-2:11:53), concluding as always with some mini-reviews of the other physical media we've watched in the past week, and decide what we're going to cover next. The...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. continue coverage of the films of Andy Sidaris with his James Bond-riffing 1988 action / spy / sexploitation flick Picasso Trigger (0:00-1:13:31), then a major change of pace for our second feature, Piotr Szulkin's 1980 Polish dystopian / existential sci-fi Golem (1:13:32-2:27:10), finally concluding in part 3 with a whole bunch of capsule reviews and decision...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. cover the first entry in the Stray Cat Rock series of Japanese youth violence gang movies, 1970's Delinquent Girl Boss (0:00-1:06:02), followed by Rene Cardona Jr's 1985 post-Indiana Jones exploitation jungle adventure Treasure of the Amazon (1:06:03-2:01:59), concluding as usual with some mini-reviews of all the other physical media we've watched in the previ...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. conclude our coverage of the Female Prisoner Scorpion series with its off-model fourth entry, Female Prisoner Scorpion #701's Grudge Song (1973, directed by Yasuharu Hasebe, discussion running to 1:09:55), then we take a deep dive into the first disc of Indicator's From Hollywood to Heaven: The Lost and Saved Films of the Ormonds box set, covering Untamed Mist...

This week it's a folk horror double feature, with the first ever Soviet horror film, 1967's Viy (directed by Konstantin Ershov and Georgy Kropachyov, running 0:00-1:07:56) followed by the 1970 Spanish true crime-themed folk horror Forest of the Wolf (aka The Ancines Woods, directed by Pedro Olea, running 1:07:56-2:11:10), and as always we conclude with discussion of other physical media we've watc...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. continue covering the Zatoichi series with the fourth entry, 1963's Zatoichi the Fugitive (directed by Tokuzo Tanaka, running to 1:15:17), followed by Bo Widerberg's 1976 police procedural The Man on the Roof (1:15:17-2:06:50), concluding as always with discussion of the other physical media we've watched in the past week and decisions on what to cover next we...

This week, Shana and j. start off the third year of The Stacks with an in-depth look at a fundamental modern classic, the 1999 David Fincher action satire Fight Club (0:00-2:03:35), followed by discussion of Al Adamson's 1964-1971 feature(s) Psycho A-Go-Go / Fiend With the Electronic Brain / Blood of Ghastly Horror (2:03:35-3:00:21), concluding as always with discussion of other physical media we'...

This week, we celebrate 100 episodes of The Stacks with Brian De Palma's 1996 blockbuster Mission: Impossible (0:00-1:16:40) and the 1988 Albert Pyun / Cannon Films fairytale Alien From L.A. (1:16:41-2:23:22), concluding with a look back on the 100ish movies we've watched in the past year, in the Stacks Awards. The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

This week on The Stacks, we dig into some truly brain-fried regional horror  with Tim Ritter's 1987 16mm slasher satire Killing Spree (0:00-1:19:02), followed by the Tulsi & Shyam Ramsey 1988 Bollywood horror blast Veerana (1:19:02-2:32:35), concluding as usual with discussion of all the other physical media we've watched in the past week and deciding what to cover next week. The live list of The...

This week on The Stacks, we're talking about John McNaughton's 1998 beer ad noir Wild Things (0:00-1:25:25) and Michael J. Murphy's strange no-budget 1985ish meta-slasher Bloodstream (1:25:26-2:23:45), followed by discussion of all the other physical media we've watched since last time. The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

This week on The Stacks, in a bit of a change of pace, we're covering a collection of short films for our first part, the Mondo Macabro / Altered Innocence joint release Apocalypse After, collecting surrealist shorts from Bertand Mandico (discussion running 0:00-2:27:31), followed by Joe Swanberg's 2011 mumblecore drama Silver Bullets (2:27:31-3:24:19), concluding as usual with capsule reviews of...

This week on The Stacks, we're returning to Arrow's Shawscope Volume 1 with Lau Kar-leung's great 1978 kung fu comedy Dirty Ho (0:00-1:12:48), followed by the 1967 James Bond feature You Only Live Twice, directed by Lewis Gilbert (1:12:49-3:02:20), concluding as usual with discussion of the various other physical media we've watched this week and choosing our picks for next week. The live list of...

This week on The Stacks we're watching a couple deep vibes blue-tinted films involving erotic longing and mortality. First, we continue with our ongoing coverage of the films of Shinya Tsukamoto with 2002's blue pink film A Snake of June (and fill in a gap with a brief discussion of his early short film The Adventure of Denchu-kozo) (0:00-1:29:41), followed by our first venture into the moody roma...

This week on The Stacks, we're delving into some wild 70s crime cinema, beginning with the 1970 Roger Corman "true crime" self-examining exploitation film Bloody Mama (0:00-1:16:23), followed by Stelvio Massi's dense, bloody 1978 poliziotteschi Convoy Busters (1:16:24-2:22:16), and concluding as always with discussion of all the other physical media we've watched this week and our picks for next w...