Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 11hI do wonder if the restored The Devils cut is substantially different, apart from picture quality, from the ones fans pieced together ages ago. 100
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 13hI just found that Tony Gatlif died over a month ago and haven't see anyone say a thing about it. No wonder my respect for the online movie world has ... declined. 020
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 14hViewing: Andrew Patterson's The Rivals of Amziah King. First half risked being too cute-folksy, but was warm, funny, lively. Second half deflates slowly, partly but not entirely because it's absent McConaughey, and had an unpleasant story twist I couldn't swallow. Damn shame. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 23h...Vale Eva Marie Saint, one of the last and longest-lived of stars from Hollywood's glory days, an actress of real distinction despite getting pushed into glamour roles that never quite seemed to fit her. In memoriam, my look at Grand Prix: filmfreedonia.com/2014/08/10/g...filmfreedonia.comGrand Prix (1966). Director: John Frankenheimer By Roderick Heath James Garner’s recent death came to a man of ripe, old age (86) with a rich, full life behind him. But it was still a stinging loss to movie and TV … 020
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Rewatch: Terry Marcel's Prisoners of the Lost Universe. From the Hawk the Slayer crew with much the same artisanal invention and charm, a clever plot and expert John Saxon villainy; also winner of the 1983 "I can't believe it's not Italian" award. 020
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Rewatch: Steve Miner's Friday The 13th Part 2. So lame and lazy in set-up and formula-stretching, and yet Miner's direction is clever; Amy Steel a top-flight final girl; Kirsten Baker the emblematic hot victim. 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 04/10/2026...Vale Marjoe Gortner, who I've always found a perplexing yet fascinating presence in movies of yore. In memoriam, my look at Starcrash: thisislandrod.blogspot.com/2018/02/star...thisislandrod.blogspot.comStarcrash (1979)The success of Star Wars (1977) provoked one of the last great waves of B-movie cash-ins, as every producer from Burbank to Tokyo got busy... 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Viewing: Jane Schoenbrun's Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma. More interesting and affecting in its intimate character scenes than its frankly tedious and sloppy meta thesis statements. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Viewing: Yuen Woo-Ping's Blades of the Guardians. Took its time to find its proper groove, then delivered a dynamite second half. In another, proper world Yuen directed the new Star Wars movies. 020
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Rewatch: Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express. "I wouldn't trust you from here to the door." 100
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Viewing: Olivia Wilde's The Invite. Well-made and acted, and the best of Wilde's films to date, but it really doesn't transcend the sitcom-ness of the set-up and most of the beats. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Rewatch: George Roy Hill's Slap Shot. One of those movies that suffers an odd fate: it's so funny that people don't notice it's a masterpiece of observation and construction. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The recent trend of notable directors crashing and burning thinking they can do arty musicals now because musicals are back again is trenchant. The theater kids do not care, my friends. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 29/09/2026One must accept the things one cannot control, my friend. 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 29/09/2026"Her Private Hell instead pushes Refn’s aesthetic just about as far as it can go, stripping away complications and even reality itself as much as possible..." - new at Film Freedonia: filmfreedonia.com/2026/09/28/h... 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 28/09/2026New at Film Freedonia, I look at one of my favourite movies of the year so far, Nicolas Winding Refn's bloody, bitchy post-genre freak-out Her Private Hell: filmfreedonia.com/2026/09/28/h... 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Viewing: Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme. This was basically The Brutalist except good. Or at least more entertaining. 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 26/09/2026My hot take on that 100 Best 2000s TV shows list: almost all modern television is extraordinarily overblown in rep. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 26/09/2026All I know is if I hear "biopic" pronounced as "bi-op-ic" one more time I will rampage. 030
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Viewing: Matt Johnson's Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie. Clever and well-put-together, but finally more frantic than actually funny. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 25/09/2026"Schrader and Ormsby...made a firm choice that none of that suggestion and subtlety were for them. This was the 1980s, dammit, and people expected their dose of blood and tits." -- looking at Paul Schrader's Cat People at This Island Rod: thisislandrod.blogspot.com/2026/09/cat-... 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 25/09/2026One called Claws was released in 1977, even cheaper. Still creeped the hell out of me watching on VHS as a kid. 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Synergy! www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJJj...youtube.comCat People (Putting Out Fire)YouTube video by Giorgio Moroder - Topic 022
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026New at This Island Rod, a look at Paul Schrader's Cat People, a remake that gave a horror classic a bloody, kinky, messy makeover: thisislandrod.blogspot.com/2026/09/cat-...thisislandrod.blogspot.comCat People (1982)The upsurge of interest in popularity for science fiction, horror, and fantasy cinema in the late 1970s and 1980s provoked a cyc... 131
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026I was watching Lady Snowblood but the disc hit a damaged patch. Drag! 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026For those who come from small regional film industries, regular work. 110
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 23/09/2026*sniff* Vale Gary 'Angry' Anderson, sometime actor, often singer, total legend. In memoriam, my look at Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome: filmfreedonia.com/2024/02/12/m...filmfreedonia.comMad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) / Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Directors: George Miller / George Miller, George OgilvieScreenwriters: Terry Hayes, George Miller, Brian Hannant / Terry Hayes, George Miller By Roderick Heath The success of George Miller’s Mad … 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 23/09/2026I've said it before and I'll say again: a journey that does not end in some fashion with a hamburger is not worth taking. 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Viewing: John Farrow's The Hitler Gang. Impressive; dramatic licence here and there, mostly to make Adolf seem more of a phony, and episodic. But Farrow weaves in bits of excellent direction; material lets him go places Hollywood usually didn't dare. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Viewing: Marco Brambilla's Demolition Man. No, I don't know why I hadn't seen this before either. Some properly clever, witty satire delivered by an oddly good cast, although standard action-isms and clumsy direction hamper it. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Viewing: Will Gluck's One Night Only. Dear god, if ever a film needed to have been made by John Waters... 010
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 19/09/2026and Greetings: filmfreedonia.com/2009/05/30/f...filmfreedonia.comGreetings (1968)Director/Screenwriter: Brian De Palma By Roderick Heath Brian De Palma, one of the greatest stylists amongst contemporary American cinematic masters and one of the most misunderstood, made several … 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 19/09/2026...Vale Gerrit Graham, comic and character actor extraordinaire. In memoriam, my old essays on Phantom of the Paradise... filmfreedonia.com/2012/02/03/p...filmfreedonia.comPhantom of the Paradise (1974)Director/Screenwriter: Brian De Palma By Roderick Heath Brian De Palma’s volatile career, whatever you might think of it, must be regarded as one of the most individualistic of American commercial … 110
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Viewing: Aleshea Harris' Is God Is. Audacious and stylish, darkly funny and emotionally gut-punching, but fell apart for me in its last act, like it wanted to have to entirely divergent morals at the same time. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 17/09/2026And Telly Savalas playing a totally different character! 120
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Viewing: John Huston's The Roots Of Heaven. Uneven and verbose, but also thoughtful and rich, improves as it goes; agonising climactic scenes. Huston self-critique and semi-sequel to his Moby Dick. Hell of a cast almost all doing career-best work. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I can't believe the biggest controversy in current art vs politics is being fought out by the ginger minge and the Thrift Shop guy. 000
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 16/09/2026There's a vaguely meta joke about the paddle steamer much of the action revolves around actually being a Sacramento riverboat from 1875. 020
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 16/09/2026...brilliant shot-for-shot storytelling that wastes nothing and conjures a detailed little universe most current directors couldn't hope to match, matched to a good story and strong star turns. Baby James Hong and Anita Ekberg in bewildering flashes. 110
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Rewatch: William A Wellman's Blood Alley. Has obvious dated and cringe elements, with a lot of star John Wayne's politics. And yet still one of my favourite Wellmans... 110
Roderick Heath @roderickheath.bsky.social · 16/09/2026I kept *almost* renting that out of sheer wtf but something kept holding me back. 100
