Visart Diaries
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Sifting Through Meaninglessness and Grief with ‘The Monkey’
Why does anything happen, really? Director Osgood Perkins has certainly wrestled with this question at times, if not all the time, given the untimely passing of his iconic father Anthony Perkins due to AIDS-related complications in 1992 and mother Marisa “Berry” Berenson as a passenger on a flight that was…
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‘The Substance’ Explores Feminism Through Body Horror
Despite my penchant for reviewing decades-old movies, today we’re going to explore something a bit more contemporary: Coralie Fargeat’s newest film, The Substance, starring Demi Moore, Dennis Quaid and Margaret Qualley. Of course, this isn’t my first time writing about body horror for Queen City Nerve and, if I have…
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‘Kills’ Me Now: A Full History of the Halloween Movie Franchise
Despite my desire to stay retired from my movie-writing career, I’ve been pulled back in by my editor and, more important, my love/hate relationship with the Halloween franchise. My need to write about the latest Halloween Kills flick outweighed my need to hang up the pen. I promise we’re going…
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‘Society’ Brings Body Image Issues to Another Level
The best horror and science fiction always tend to have a social awareness to them, even if you have to squint a little to see it in the 1989 coming-of-age flick Society. Without giving too much away, the plotline at its most basic follows Beverly Hills teenager Billy as he…
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‘The Corndog Man’ is a Deep-Fried Look at Southern Hypocrisy
I’ve spent my whole life in the South and I honestly can’t imagine living anywhere else. I was born and raised in the Monkey Junction area of Wilmington. I visited family in neighboring Leland and spent summers “vacationing” in Dawsonville, Georgia, hometown of NASCAR legend Bill Elliott, aka Awesome Bill…
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The Return of Joe Bob Briggs
The man, the myth, the legend, Joe Bob Briggs will be in Charlotte on 4/20, and while that sentence may make some people explode with joy, others will surely ask, “Who?” To explain who Joe Bob Briggs is, I need to lay the groundwork for the concept of movie marathon…
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Zombie Movies Ain’t Dead, They Just Needed ‘The Battery’
What does a movie made with $6,000 look like? In the case of 2012’s The Battery, pretty damn good. I’ve been hearing about this film for a while but it honestly took me this long to check it out because of zombie fatigue. Reviews of the film all read the…
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Two-Lane Blacktop: The Great American Road Movie
James Taylor and Dennis Wilson may not be two names that immediately get you thinking about street racing and illegal drag racing. But maybe they should be. Monte Hellman’s underrated 1971 car racing flick Two-Lane Blacktop is a film that we should be discussing in schools and at dinner parties…
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VisArt Diaries: ‘Chaos’ in the Cave
One of the many things I’ve ranted about in this column, but maybe not often enough, is the back room theater in Visart Video. On a weekly basis, and for less than $5, you can watch an often hard-to-find and potentially yet-to-be-released film in an intimate setting. The theater seats…
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VisArt Diaries: On the Road
Touring in a band can be a lot of fun, and getting to play music in a front of a new audience every night can be rewarding. It’s mind blowing that anyone outside of the local scene cares — in our case, cares even more than the local scene, to…
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VisArt Diaries: ‘The Fourth Man’ Breaks Down Homophobic Tropes
For this installment of VisArt Diaries, I want to highlight some of the VHS that Visart has to offer. For those born in the new millennium, VHS stands for Video Home System, and refers to tapes that go into a videocassette recorder, or VCR. Now that that’s out of the…
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VisArt Diaries: Autopsy of a Horror Film
Happy 2019, we all made it, unless you’re not reading this, then I assume you’re dead. If you’re not dead, then welcome back. Let’s start with our resolutions for the year. I previously stated that I was going to read more, play guitar more and watch less movies. So far…
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VisArt Diaries: Embracing the Mythical Mockbuster
As you know if you read my debut VisArt Diaries column from two weeks ago, I’ve spent the last year trying to watch 365 movies, among other things. Well, you’ll be happy to know (or not care) that I recently reached my goal for 2018 — I am actually at…
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Visart Diaries: No Leg to Stand On
For the last few years I’ve been keeping track of every film I’ve watched. I thought it would be interesting to see how many I watched in a given year, but also helpful when friends routinely ask, “See any good films lately?” In the back of my mind, I always…
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