lee_eisenberg

Herschell Gordon Lewis is widely recognized as the father of splatter cinema. His "Blood Feast" introduced audiences to shocking, gory scenes (it must've looked especially grotesque way back when, as audiences had gotten used to the limits imposed by the Hays Code).

Lewis died in 2016, but not before gracing us with one last movie, released after his death. "BloodMania" is an anthology film, with the segments (each introduced by the master himself) ranging from the bland to the lovably gory, and even one functioning as a satire on the media.

It's no match for Lewis's directorial debut, but horror fans will probably enjoy it, if only for a couple of shots of the girl group. I hope to see more of the guy's movies in the coming years.

Movie director Jeff Baena committed suicide earlier this month, so I decided to watch one of his movies in his memory. I'd never seen 2016's "Joshy", so I rented that. While there's nothing particularly special about the movie, it's still a decent look at some friends getting together for their planned bachelor party after the main character's fiancée commits suicide. These guys just do what they can to have fun, including some bro stuff.

I guess that it seems like the sort of movie that they just made for fun, but it's an enjoyable movie nonetheless. In addition to Thomas Middleditch, Adam Pally, Nick Kroll, Alex Ross Perry and Brett Gelman, the cast includes Jenny Slate, Lauren Graham, Aubrey Plaza (whom Baena later married) and Alison Brie.

Baena later cast Aubrey Plaza and Alison Brie as nuns in "The Little Hours" (2017).

Robert J. Flaherty is considered the father of the documentary. He received ample praise for "Nanook of the North" and "Man of Aran" (although the former has drawn controversy since Flaherty staged a lot of the scenes).

His swan song was 1948's "Louisiana Story". This one, however, is not a documentary. In fact, it's now known that Standard Oil - later Exxon (of the Valdez spill) - financed the movie to make oil drilling look good.

If you take the movie as a focus on the beauty of rural Louisiana, then it's an easy movie to enjoy, as there's plenty of lovely scenery. Unfortunately, it depicts a happy Cajun family, not acknowledging that the oil companies forced a lot of the Cajuns off the land for oil exploration (never mind the oil industry's despoiling of the land).

Anyway, it's worth seeing as a historical reference.