Kuttey, Review: Gulp Friction Quentin Tarantino can rightfully claim a patent to the format used in Kuttey: prologue, epilogue and a non-chronological structure, with the present merging with the past and the past merging with the present. The co-writer and director of Kuttey (Dogs), Aasmaan Bhardwaj was born one year after Pulp Fiction (1994) was released, bagged top honours at home and abroad, and attained cult status soon afterwards. Twenty-seven years after he was born, Aasmaan has made h...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Studio Binder is reminding us that Quentin Tarantino is an actor, writer, and “the most influential director of our generation,” says Peter Bogdanovich. Here’s where to see that video essay, from Studio Binder's The Director’s Chair. The series is a meaningful exploration of some great directors. (See clip below.) You’re welcome. “Structure Like a Novel,” kids, QT’s best advice. Now star...

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Review: Good, but not as Tarantino was, once upon a time It is inspired by the murders of actress Sharon Tate and her friends at the hands of a hippy cult in 1969, only the film re-writes this historical fact. It is inspired by the super-hit spaghetti Westerns of the mid to late 60s, led by Italian director Sergio Leone, only he is never mentioned in the film. It is a satirical take on martial arts’ ‘God’ Bruce Lee, but takes an amazingly unfla...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent There’s something in the smog, in the air that is, in Hollywood, whereby stunt men and women are getting their due. Take Gary Kent, for example, one of the derring-dudes which inspired Quentin Tarantino’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD character Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt.   If you could blow it up, Kent could ride, fly, stroll, or shimmy through it. As a young boy, director Joe O’Connell was paying attention. So, t...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent “On the QT, and very Hush, Hush” is a line from LA CONFIDENTIAL, and that’s what’s happening in Hollywood right now in reaction to Quentin Tarantino’s much-ballyhooed 9th film, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. By anyone’s standards, to resurrect the ghost of a slain pregnant woman killed by the Manson Family on Aug. 9, 1969, is questionable. (Anniverary of Hiroshima bomb drop, Aug. 9, coincidence?) Especially ...

(Midi Z, cast and crew before the world premiere of Nina Wu, © Lindsay Bellinger 2019)  By LINDSAY R. BELLINGER Nina Wu is an interesting film that hits a hard punch, and it's clear that Midi Z has enjoyed his share of Quentin Tarantino films in addition to other filmmaking greats. It made its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section today. It's no surprise to this film journalist that QT showed up for this screening. This is the kind of film that one might thin...

The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Review: US nephew, Russian nephew, German niece and the sinister Italian family plot It’s not about a man or the man, and the clever acronym for the secret agent network is a clear reference to Uncle Sam, alias the President of the United States of America, even though United Network Command for Law and Enforcement (UNCLE) is formally created only in the very last shot of the film. Then, again, it is not about Americans only. There’s a Russian KGB man too,...

Interstellar, Review-- Gravity of the situation: Galactic Wormhole or Earthy Dust-bowl?   Mainly based on the scientific theories of Kip Thorne, Interstellar is a film that Steven Spielberg was to direct, and took about nine earthly years to land on planet IMAX (probably the last one to be shot on IMAX 15/70 format), courtesy spaceships Warner and Paramount. Thorne is an American Caltech physicist theoretical physicist who has written academic books on general relativity, colla...