Will Sorg- Paul Schrader has been making movies for a very long time. At 77, the writer, director and film critic has been making movies since he was an angry young screenwriter putting his personal struggles with toxic masculinity into the character of Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. In the many decades since, Schrader has continually used the simple setup of an existentialist and isolated … Continue reading Movies from Swank: Master Gardener
Will Sorg- I doubt there’s a movie that captures following your passion in life as accurately as Almost Famous. Writer/director Cameron Crowe had plenty of experience to draw from as he started out as a writer for Rolling Stone when he was 18-years-old. Most movies are built out of the lived experience of the people who make them, but this one more than others draws … Continue reading Movies from Swank: Almost Famous
Will Sorg- Two unpopular lesbians start a fight club to lose their virginity before high school is over. If you’re not immediately sold by that premise like I was then Bottoms may not be your kind of movie. Bottoms is an easy movie to love if you’re the right person. If you are a fan of camp, a fan of high school comedies, a lover … Continue reading Bottoms
Will Sorg- Andrew Haigh is not interested in conventional love. Haigh, who’s an openly gay filmmaker from the United Kingdom, has been making films about outsiders finding love for decades. His breakout film Weekend follows two men as they fall for each other during a weekend fling. This year his film, All Of Us Strangers, premiered – and it is a truly incredible experience. Over … Continue reading Twin Cities Film Festival: All of Us Strangers
Will Sorg- Far too often in movies, Indigenous stories are made that use the Indigenous characters as set dressing for a story about white people. It has happened for almost as long as film has been a medium and carries with it a history of settler colonialism, oppression, and genocide. Martin Scorsese’s latest film, Killers of The Flower Moon (KoTFM), reckons with both film history’s … Continue reading Killers of the Flower Moon
Will Sorg- It is difficult to think of a genre more dead than found footage horror. Found footage movies had the horror market in a stranglehold for about a decade, and then they vanished from the box office by the mid-2010s. Still, for me, it’s hard to forget how big some of those really popular found footage films were. Paranormal Activity was one of those … Continue reading Movies from Swank: Paranormal Activity
Will Sorg- Friday The 13th has a very unique place in horror history: it’s the second biggest slasher film to capture the world’s movie-going audiences. Friday The 13th was originally conceived off of the name alone; the filmmakers put out an ad with the title and almost immediately received funding for the entire project. By that point, a script had not even been made, it … Continue reading Movies from Swank: Friday the 13th
Will Sorg- In movies, cheating on one’s partner is often shown as the final straw that ends a relationship. This is justifiably so; cheating is a horrible betrayal of trust and can be the cause of lifelong trauma or anxiety. However, it is rare that cheating in films sets off a series of events that lead to the other person having to fight hopping undead … Continue reading Encounters of the Spooky Kind
Will Sorg- Augusto Pinochet was a monster. Propped up by the CIA and the Chilean military, Pinochet was the dictator of Chile for almost 20 years. In that time he oversaw murders, tortures, assassinations and so much corruption that he was said to have stolen over $26 million of his people’s money. Chile eventually managed to oust Pinochet and established a non-dictatorial government, Pinochet died … Continue reading El Conde: beautiful, bloody, and boring.
Will Sorg- Supporting independent cinema is essential in this day and age. It has become easier than ever to make a movie with little to no money; if you have a phone you can do it. That’s what makes truly excellent microbudget films really stand out. I was recently reached out to by Jack Clarke, a producer for the independent film Nobody Loves You and … Continue reading Nobody Loves You and You Don’t Deserve to Exist
