The Film Journal. 10.

Issue 10, with its special focus on genre cinema and, appropriately enough for an October issue, horror in particular, also heralds a smart new design. Film Journal editor Rick Curnette sets the tone with an interview with George A Romero, and first off, this whole idea of faster zombies we've been seeing lately? Neither Curnette nor Romero approve. Then, Romero talks a bit about why Day of the Dead is his favorite of the series, and of course, the one he's working on now.

Alice in Wonderland, the brilliant 1951 Disney version, might be haphazardly filed in any number of genres - kids movie, animation, stoner's zoner - but it's also a road movie, argues Victoria Oxberry.

"In the 1970s, horror films were at their peak because America itself was a horror show." That, and an effective mix of realism and formalism, explains Bradley P Guillory.

Alan Jacobson talks to Rusty Nails about his new film, Acne, "a raucous, economical, intelligent, independent horror film dealing heavily in ideas and symbolism as all great genre work does."

"Sports films are probably the most unintentionally neglected" of all genres, writes Adam Hartzell, and the most neglected of these would be Australia's "Footy" films.

Along with considerable background info on its making, Helen Donlon presents a close reading of Gaspar Noé's Irréversible.

That scene in Reservoir Dogs - you know, the ear - "plays out over some of the most effective three minutes of screen time that I've ever experienced in a movie theater," writes Dan Jardine. "It distills down for us the essence of what Tarantino is as a filmmaker." But has his public persona diluted the effect of his work?

Harvey F Chartrand profiles and then interviews Ted Rusoff, a multilingual world traveler who's overseen the dubbing of more than 500 films and has voice-acted in over 1200.

Tim Applegate on The Wages of Fear and Sorcerer: "The flaws in both pictures are impossible to ignore, and yet each succeeds at the most elemental level of cinema: they ratchet up the tension to the snapping point."

Also:

• "Current Theatrical Reviews": Peter Tonguette on Before Sunset (he's another one firmly in Linklater's camp), Hustle ("not the surprising departure for [Bogdanovich] which it appeared to be on paper") and Spider-Man 2 ("not only lacks the emotional range of Superman II but also its filmmaking prowess"); Mark Pfeiffer on A Dirty Shame ("neither shocking nor funny"); Ian Johnston on Distant Lights ("a fine addition to a growing body... of good contemporary cinema coming out of Germany"); Jardine on Hero ("Bollywood parallels notwithstanding, one helluva fine film"); and Mark Richardson on Shaun of the Dead ("an almost fifty/fifty mixture of irreverent, screwball silliness and sophisticated, thought-provoking entertainment").

• "Current Video Reviews": Bilge Ebiri on Deathdream ("a stark, unsettling reminder of the darkness within the American soul") and Johnston on Le Doulos ("the first of the series of stripped-down, aestheticised, iconic films that truly characterise [Melville's] work."

• "Current Book Reviews": David Hayes on Ed Wood's short stories and novels and Gregory Avery on Hitchcock Style: nice pix, but the text is "a complete and utter hash."

• "Director Retrospectives": Filipe Furtado on why, like so many comedians before them, the Farrelly brothers may be losing their original audience; and JD Lafrance on Michael Mann's men and their families.

Posted by dwhudson at October 3, 2004 3:31 PM