Scraps on Cinema

Based on the semi-autobiographical, non-fiction book of the same name co-written by Evangelical pastor and author Greg Laurie with Ellen Vaughn, the Christian historical drama  Jesus Revolution  presents a liberally condensed account of the emergence of the "Jesus Movement," a non-exclusive wave of Christian revivals in the late-'60s and early-'70s that was primarily born from the ashes of disillusionment, and the embers of hope, carried by young people who had either lived through or vicariously experienced the rise of the hippie counterculture, and then its dispiriting descent into waywardness, substance abuse, and communal fracture. Some came to experience grace on their own terms, while others converted on the long and winding road to what remained of San Francisco's hippie sanctuary. But to agnostic burnouts and crewcut suburbanites alike, they were all "Jesus freaks," still identifying with the Summer of Love's emancipatory idealism, but now se

Philip Marlowe may be one of the most famous P.I.'s in all the detective canon, but in his 84-years of official existence in paperback, on film, and on the radio, the figment of his character tends to elude all but name. Technically created by Raymond Chandler in his breakthrough 1939 novel  The Big Sleep , Marlowe was himself cannibalized from several tough, wise-cracking, but deceptively philosophical anti-heroes who had appeared under various  noms de plume  in the author's short stories. And if Chandler had pinned down the essence of a character, he had never been particularly concerned with the question of his age, or the continuity of his adventures. Therefore, if Philip Marlowe was a world-weary but youthful 33 in The Big Sleep  (set in 1936), and only 42 in The Long Goodbye (taking place some 14 to 16 years later), we shouldn't scratch our heads too much if the new film Marlowe  takes place in 1939, but now casts the 70-year-old Liam Neeson as a significantly older

I first became aware of Robbie Banfitch's shoestring "found footage" horror film The Outwaters  last October when I saw that it was being lined up for a screening at the Lambertville Halloween Film Festival (LHFF). I wasn't able to make it to that screening, but my regional loyalty to a Jersey boy independent and a smattering of cryptic D.I.Y. promotions ensured that the flick would stay pinned to my watchlist. Even so, I was both surprised and delighted that  The Outwaters , which turns out to be a small and rough picture indeed, should be starting out on a limited theatrical run so soon this year, its distribution being handled by Cinedigm Entertainment Group. The early months of 2023 are turning out to be a banner moment for so-called "experimental" horror films, with the Canadian film Skinamarink  seeming to dominate word-of-mouth, and Paul Owens' own LandLocked  quietly carving its own path from festival to V.O.D. Just as a jadedness and malaise see