A good biography will make you regret never meeting the subject. A great biography will make you fall in love. This documentary about author Hubert Selby Jr. falls into the latter category. Cubby, as he called himself, was a warm man who transcended a great deal of pain to create beautiful and lasting art.

This compelling film is a well-edited mix of interviews with the author and his friends and associates, historical background, and feature film clips. It is narrated by Robert Downey Jr. and features interviews with artists such as poet Amiri Baraka, writer/performers Henry Rollins and Lou Reed, authors Richard Price and Jerry Stahl, actors Jared Leto and Ellen Burstyn, directors Matt Polish, Darren Aronofsky, and Jem Cohen, literary critic Michael Silverblatt, and writer/publisher Gilbert Sorrentino.

The story of Cubby's life is linear and well-told. Period stock photography is used, as well as actual photos of the author and his family. An only child who grew up in Brooklyn, Cubby dropped out of school in the eighth grade and joined the Merchant Marine. There, he developed alcoholism and contracted tuberculosis. He spent the next several years of his life in the TB ward, systematically losing pieces of his lungs and rib cage, and the rest of his life battling lung problems. He began writing because he didn't have training to do anything else. His first novel, Last Exit to Brooklyn, was a critical success and an international bestseller. The proceeds from that book, however, went into his arm: in his early 30s, his alcoholism had flowered into heroin addiction, and he didn't become clean until he turned 40.

Cubby's earlier books reflect the ravages and pain of addiction, but his later ones the hope of recovery. His life and art demonstrate that the difficult experiences of life can be transmuted into beauty. Although many people took offense at his depictions of addiction, the underlying theme of his work is the destruction "wreaked by the American dream" and, in later books and also in his life, that love can help us transcend pain and darkness. In fact, several interviewees, as well as the author himself, spoke of the necessity to say "yes" to life, whatever it is that life offers.

Cubby was also known for his unique style of writing, as evidenced by the slash in this movie's title. He wrote in a colorful vernacular, shocking some readers. He also felt that the author was taking dictation, that "…the responsibility of the artist is to transcend the human ego." Cubby was, and is, more popular in Europe than in his own United States.

The film itself is well-crafted and was an Official Selection in the Deauville Film Festival 2005. It was co-directed by Michael W. Dean, another entry into Dean's body of work that inspires artists to, like Hubert Selby Jr., step outside the commercial mainstream, and create strong and honest art.

By Uncle Creepy (of Dread Central)

The Pang Brothers. I'm thinking Danny and Oxide should change their names to Hit and Miss. Why, you ask? Because that is the perfect description of their work. Best known for their Eye trilogy, the Brothers have been pumping out ghost stories with mixed results for the better part of the last ten years. While The Eye was a great film and even The Eye 2 served its purpose, it was the laughably bad The Eye 10 that nearly made me write the duo off completely.

Here in the States J-Horror has just about run its course. Even Sirand, our resident foreign freak, is fed up with the twitchy chicks with long black hair. What was once a breath of fresh air from the Far East has now become soured by the stench of cliché. So what's a pair of filmmakers looking to cash in on a passing craze to do? Simple! Head to America and make their latest spook-fest specifically for Western audiences. Enter The Messengers. A film that is — you guessed it — hit and miss.

Sixteen-year-old Jess (Kristen Stewart) is a bit of a problem child. After a couple of rough years in Chi-town, her family packs up and heads to North Dakota to become — hold on to your asses — sunflower farmers(!). Well, I guess someone's gotta do it, right?

Upon reaching their new dwelling place, Jess discovers that they are not alone. Living with her parents and her little brother are some pretty nasty spirits and a murder of crows. Of course her folks assume that she's just acting out again so they dismiss her rantings as a cry for attention. Luckily for Jess, her brother can see the ghosties too, but the poor kid can't speak so she can't even get her story corroborated. Hell, at least she knows she's not crazy. Things quickly get out of hand, and before you know it, the entire family is taking on the evil in the home as one unit while screaming their heads off on the road to a twist ending, which, I must admit, I didn't see coming.

All in all, aside from some strange plot choices (read: sunflower farming(!) being the profession of choice) The Messengers does just fine in the story department. More importantly the ghosts do their jobs well enough when it comes to delivering the creeps. There were more than a couple of "that's messed-up" moments that had me grinning with goosebumps.

So where did this little film go wrong aside from the ghosts being damned near completely absent during the movie's finale? The answer is simple. With the influx of Asian horror hitting these shores at a truly fast and furious pace, we've seen all these gags before. The floating spectres, the twitching bodies, the stuttering crawling type movements, the discolored clutching hands reaching out to hold their victims at bay — talk about déjà vu. Still, even with all these familiarities, The Messengers does have a few inspired moments. At least this time no one was farting to keep away the spirits (a less than inspired scene from The Eye 10). Thanks for leaving that gag out, Pangs! Go you!

On the supplemental side of the sunflower farm(!), we have a pretty standard package. All that's here is a cast and crew commentary that, just like the film itself, feels very hit or… I'm not gonna say it a third time. You know what I mean. From there we have a series of seven featurettes entitled Examining The Messengers that doles out the standard making-of stuff we've all come to expect. Again, nothing to write home about.

Maybe it's time to just hang up the old long-haired black wig. We're ready for and need something new. Something that can spark the imagination and make the mind's floorboards creak with the type of dread that we crave in a good ghost story.

Sorry, guys, but this is just a case of the message getting here too damned late.

Special Features

• Cast and crew commentary
• Examining The Messengers seven-part behind-the-scenes featurette(s)

Film

2 1/2 out of 5

Special Features
2 1/2 out of 5

Dread Central is the premier website for breaking news, original content and active community in the world of horror, covering movies, DVDs, games, collectibles, live events and music. If it’s got something to do with the dark and horrific, you’ll find it on Dread Central.

By Uncle Creepy (of Dread Central)

Zzzz … zzzz … zzzz … Huh?! What's that?! There's a Hannibal Lecter movie going on? THE HELL YOU SAY! I haven't seen hide nor hair of Anthony Hopkins and I've been sitting here watching … well okay, napping, for over two hours! Surely someone didn't make a Hannibal film without him! How could they?

Well I'll be.

Let's face it, folks — we live in a world in which everything is over-explained. There's just no mystery anymore. We have to know everything. At least that was Thomas Harris' take when he wrote the novel on which this film is based. Yep, our good Dr. Lecter's early years have been dissected, analyzed, and finally put to celluloid. So does it work? In a word — no.

Hannibal Rising has all of the stunning beauty of the other films in this franchise; yet, even that cannot save it from its own mediocrity. Let's start at the beginning …

After his parents are killed, young Hannibal and his sister, Mischa, are held prisoner by a roving pack of would-be Nazis. Things get desperate for the men and their captives. So desperate in fact, that the group has to resort to cannibalism as a means to stay alive. Of course this not only develops Hannibal's taste for flesh but also drives him a bit mad. Fast forward a few years. Hannibal (played with much scenery chewing goodness by Gaspard Ulliel) sets out on his own to find the men who held him and his sister hostage way back when. What follows is your standard revenge tale which — dare I say it — lacks any real bite.

Part of the magic behind the character we all know and love was Hopkins' deliciously ghoulish portrayal. Ulliel isn't bad for what he has to work with, but Sir Anthony he is not. Bottom line — this leaves a huge void not only in the film but within the hearts of fans that cannot be filled.

Now let's talk about the word. You see it there in those enticing red letters. Unrated. Could there have been a bit more meat to pick at that the MPAA wisely shielded us from? Maybe the presence of a little more grue could make this predominantly boring and flaccid piece of unnecessary fiction go down a bit easier. Guess what? We get nothing. Not a single extra drop of blood. Just a few more minutes of exposition. Thanks. Appreciate that. Why not just include a coupon for sleeping pills as a DVD extra?

Speaking of which …

Don't expect too much from the supplemental material. We get a feature commentary with director Peter Webber and producer Martha De Laurentiis that amounts to little more than pretentious back-patting. Seven minutes of deleted scenes with optional ass-kissing commentary. A seven-minute featurette hosted by production designer Allan Starski (who is nothing without Hutch) entitled Designing Horror and Elegance (can't you just smell the snobbery?). And then things are capped off with a sixteen-minute featurette that at least sounds promising, Hannibal Lecter: The Origin of Evil. The operative word there being sounds. Instead of a concise look at the fava bean-eating madman, we just get a bit more musing by the culprits behind this snooze-fest.

Yay.

In closing … aw, screw it. I'm going back to sleep. Someone wake me when Hopkins returns from making shitty courtroom thrillers with a whole new recipe for evil.

Special Features

• Commentary with director Peter Webber and producer Martha De Laurentiis
• Deleted scenes with optional commentary
• Designing Horror and Elegance featurette
• Hannibal Lecter: The Origin of Evil featurette
• Trailers

Film

2 1/2 out of 5

Special Features
2 1/2 out of 5

Dread Central is the premier website for breaking news, original content and active community in the world of horror, covering movies, DVDs, games, collectibles, live events and music. If it’s got something to do with the dark and horrific, you’ll find it on Dread Central.