Summary: Set in suburban Los Angeles, Rebel without a Cause tells the story of an affluent family and their troubled son, Jim, who makes friends at the local high school with equally troubled teenagers, Judy and Plato. Jim is teased by a group of high school students, particularly their leader Buzz, and in order to…
Tag: American Movies
Pulp Fiction: Explained
Summary: Pulp Fiction is structured around three interlinking story segments which are told in non-chronological order. Vincent and Jules, two hitmen working for the gangster Marsellus, retrieve a briefcase of money belonging to their boss which had been stolen by a group of minor drug dealers. While carrying out this job they accidently shoot one…
Psycho (1960 Movie): Story Summary & Analysis
Summary: After stealing money from her boss, Marion Crane drives out of town and stops at a motel off of the main freeway. There she meets Norman Bates, the young owner of the motel. Marion decides to return the money but is murdered before she can do so and Norman disposes of her body. Marion’s…
Fight Club: Story Summary, Analysis
Regarding Fight Club there are two camps: those who consider it a disturbing celebration of homoerotic brutality, and those who have actually seen it. Ostensibly, it’s a movie about the creation of a ‘fight club’, where guys beat the crap out of one another bare knuckled so they can feel real again. Fight Club is…
Easy Rider (Movie): Meaning, Analysis
Just how cool is Easy Rider? Apparently we’ve now reached ‘post’ post-modern. There is a commercial running in America where a dull office drone is inserted via computer-generated animation into footage of Peter Fonda on his chopper from Easy Rider. Turns out the 9 to 5’er is just having a daydream aboard a commuter train…
Down By Law (Movie): Summary, Analysis
Jim Jarmusch is one of the filmmakers whose entire body of work – Stranger than Paradise (1983), Down by Law (1986), Mystery Train (1989), Night on Earth (1991), Dead Man (1995) and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) – has garnered a cult following. There is a distinctive ‘Jarmusch style’ running through his…
Donnie Darko: Explained
Dark, Darkest, Darko. Donnie Darko has already garnered a cult following. For over two years it has enjoyed an uninterrupted run in New York City, every Friday and Saturday at midnight at the Pioneer Theater. Even if the film fades from popular consciousness, it still may serve the purposes of illustrating some of the elements…
The Day The Clown Cried (1972): Summary & Analysis
What thread connects the varying projects elevated to ‘cult film’ status? There is no single definition to be sure, but you will appreciate the recurrence of exaggerated fascination developed by viewers for a specific film. At times this enormous interest is inversely proportional to the actual size of the audience. In other words: small audience…
Dawn Of The Dead (1978 Movie): Summary & Analysis
When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth. George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) is a low-budget classic, there is no disputing that. His second zombie feature Dawn of the Dead , however, is a bigger and more audacious film. Not exactly a sequel, Dawn of the Dead…
Carnival Of Souls (1962): Synopsis, Analysis
Hailed as a low budget unintentional horror masterpiece, Carnival of Souls has become the standard for the late 50s, early 60s genre of American horror. Yet, conversely, it also seems to transcend the category entirely. Its deliberate pacing and unorthodox composition elements honestly seem more attuned to the sensibilities of contemporary, French new-wave cinema than…