UP! (1976)

After the refreshing journey of self-discovery that was 1975’s Supervixens, Up!, Russ Meyer’s follow up from the following year, is hostile and mean-spirited at times and curiously sexy and experimental in others. While the previous picture felt vigorous and refreshing, Up! began a slight downward trajectory for Meyer as the humor began to feel old-hat […]

SUPERVIXENS (1975)

With its audacious, astonishing, Christy Hartburg-emblazoned one-sheet that reminded audiences that Russ Meyer loved boobs as much as flamboyance, 1975’s Supervixens roared into theaters specifically designed to make the money that had eluded him with The Seven Minutes and Black Snake. But aside from its return to home base to generate some much-needed commercial appeal, […]

BLACK SNAKE (1973)

Taken separately, 1971’s The Seven Minutes and 1973’s Black Snake feel like curious outliers in the world of filmmaker Russ Meyer. Taken together, they show the work of an artist who was trying to vie for some kind of recognition outside the realm of sexploitation; strong examples of Meyer: The Artist. The frustration felt by […]

THE SEVEN MINUTES (1971)

The movie kicks off like any other Russ Meyer film with a briskly cut burst of vivacity as a striking and buxom woman (Mora Gray) walks her German shepherd (or as is really case, is being walked by her German shepherd). However, the film quickly settles into the car of two vice cops who ogle […]

SPIDER BABY (1967)

While the reputation for Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre damn near drowns in its tangential relation to real-life serial killer Ed Gein, there is rarely a peep of recognition for Spider Baby, Jack Hill’s incredible film from 1967 which feels like more of a direct influence on the film than the legend of […]

WATER POWER (1976)

“The film you are about to see is based on a true story. The names of places and persons have been changed to protect the innocent. But it could have happened anywhere or to anyone, even to you.” So says the text that opens Water Power, hardcore pioneer Sean Costello’s notorious shocker 1976. And, in […]

DEMENTIA 13 (1963)

At this point in his life, Francis Ford Coppola is all about legacy. An octogenarian, he’s practical enough to know that time is fleeting and that there are some films in his oeuvre that simply aren’t going to re-frame themselves. The legacy of work from the 1970’s is definitely secure and needs no extra effort […]

CHERRY, HARRY, & RAQUEL! (1969)

In Russ Meyer’s Cherry, Harry & Raquel!, released in 1969 as the filmmaker inched closer to Hollywood, the cock of Erica Gavin’s eyebrow causes the soul of Vixen to discorporate and it finds itself inhabiting the shell of Uschi Digard, herself trapped in a lunar landscape of desert nothingness where man’s determination grinds fruitlessly against […]

VIXEN! (1968)

The cool and calming bush country of the Canadian northwest, a far cry from the usual California and southwest American hotspots that serve as the playing fields for Meyer’s usual cast of characters, proves itself incapable in staving off the creeping evil that invades the hearts of men and women alike. For amid the peaceful […]

DARBY O’ GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE (1959)

Once upon a time, a long time ago and in a galaxy far, far away, Disney was just the last name of an animator with big dreams. In fact, there was a long stretch of time in our cultural history when his Christian name was always attached to his surname in our common lexicon. This […]