There’s one scene in writer-director Sea Fahey’s film For Kicks that I can’t stop thinking about. The documentary by the Iowa City transplant covers a pair of Black martial artists who broke into the overseas kung fu movie market in its hey-day: Eugene Thomas, a native Chicagoan, and Ron van Clief out of Brooklyn, New […]
B movies
A-List: Bruce Campbell’s new book charts the second phase of his career
Actor, director and writer Bruce Campbell has crafted a career out of a certain kind of off-beat character. As an actor, he doesn’t disappear into a role, but rather imbues each with an almost ludicrous uniqueness, a deeply specific sense of self. This kind of interplay between the fantasy and reality of his existence is a perfect precursor to his alternate career as a memoirist.
Talking Movies: Late shift at the Grindhouse, curated by FilmScene projectionist Ross Meyer, celebrates three years
In the last few years B movies have stepped out of the cinematic shadows and into the limelight as legitimate, critically valid films. From John Wick to Green Room and, recently, Get Out, cinematic fare once considered schlock is now being taken seriously. Hollywood has been turning out low-budget commercial fare since its Golden Age — though there are many terrible B movies, there are also plenty of cinematic gems in the genre. Ross Meyer is the local cinephile who uncovers and curates these lost treasures for a weekly movie celebration known as Late Shift at the Grindhouse, coming up on its third anniversary this month. The Wednesday night series is the culmination of Meyer’s lifelong passion for film.




