Reaction Shots

Anna May Wong (left) in a still from Outside the Law What is and what no longer is: texts and (dis)appearance or Gee, this is a lot to put on a fifteen year old There are three available early films that Anna May Wong has small parts in. Each one is a classic or near-classic in its own right and normally, I'd happily review and analyze each one based on their own individual merits. However, given the context of this series, I'm looking at these works in relation to Anna May Wong's overall life and career and more specifically, with what we know of what was going on in her life at the time these films were produced. We know that Anna May hung around movie sets, asked questions, and can surmise that she received more extra work and likely more uncredited roles than what we have documentation for. It's difficult to envision just how rapid turnover was for performers and crews from one film to another during the silent and early sound eras. We may safely assume that as volu...

Erik Bloomquist directs from a script by himself and his writing partner, brother Carson a not-bad stab (yes, I wrote that semi-intentionally) at a politic-centric slasher flick that has way too much going on and consequently, just can't quite deliver all the goods. It does deliver some, but it's too stuffed with characters that should have been elided or not given so much prominence (particularly as they relate to what should be a kind of conspiracy ring) because they lead to a denouement that lacks complete sense and just doesn't land. The gist of the film is that we're in a small northeastern town, could be New England, doesn't really matter and thankfully, no one is trying to do accents. There's a heated mayoral race going on between the current mayor, Blair Gladwell (Amy Hargreaves, who knows exactly what kind of movie she's in and leans as far into going big as possible and wonderfully so), running on a ticket of "consistency", and her oppone...