Subspace Blog
More From Tarik (Our Guest Curator for June)
by Chance Shirley • June 14, 2022
Not only was Tarik Davis nice enough to be our guest curator for June, he also put together an epic Twitter thread about his picks. A few highlights...
The Brother From Another Planet — “The first film on the list is by John Sayles and stars the great Joe Morton, who is masterful as the kind and gentle Brother From Another Planet.
“So much to say about this incredible film. It’s still relevant, unique, it’s a time capsule of ’80s NYC. It’s perfect.”
Starman — “One of my favorite directors, John Carpenter, plus Jeff Bridges collaborating... what could be better?! They bring this alien-comes-to-earth tale to life. Starman also stars Karen Allen and is an amazing sci-fi film.”
Cosmos — “Here’s a master class in great acting and storytelling done on a budget. Directed by Elliot and Zander Weaver and shot all in the interior of a car, Cosmos has so much heart.”
Read the whole thread on Twitter.
Guest Curators
June’s Guest Curator: Tarik Davis
by Chance Shirley • June 4, 2022
Many thanks to actor/writer/Renaissance man Tarik Davis for being our guest curator for June! Aside from his work on The Amber Ruffin Show, Tarik performs with Freestyle Love Supreme and is one of the hosts of the weekly Brothers From Another Planet podcast.
He also wrote, produced, and performed Lucas Sinclair's A.V. Club Interview: My Crazy Uncle Jack, a wonderful Stranger Things fan film.
You can follow Tarik on Twitter for the latest news about all of the cool stuff he’s working on.
Tarik went above and beyond and sent us eighteen excellent picks!
- The Brother From Another Planet
- Buckaroo Banzai
- Starman
- Night of the Comet
- The Wraith
- Eve of Destruction
- Doctor Mordrid
- Parallel (2018)
- Cosmos (2019)
- Lifeforce
- The Philadelphia Experiment
- Face/Off
- Steel Dawn
- Trancers
- Turbokid
- The Last Man On Earth
- Robot Jox
- The Day the Earth Stood Still
Guest Curators
May’s Guest Curator: Jay Burleson
by Chance Shirley • May 5, 2022
Many thanks to Alabama-based filmmaker Jay Burleson for being our guest curator for May! Jay’s shot-on-VHS feature film The Nobodies was released in 2018 by Troma. You can pick up a copy for yourself at Amazon (in glorious standard definition) or stream it on Troma Now. And Jay is premiering two brand new slasher movies in June — The Third Saturday in October and The Third Saturday in October Part V. Yes, you read that correctly — Jay has devised an entire series of original slasher films, and he’s shooting them out of order. Part V has a 1990s feel, and I believe that part one has a 1970s feel. I got to see a sneak screening of Part V a few months ago, and I love it and can’t wait to see the rest of the movies in this amazing series.
So both of Jay’s new movies are premiering at the Chattanooga Film Festival, which is online this year. That means you can attend even if you are nowhere near Chattanooga. Check out the festival website for more information.
And you can follow Jay on Twitter for the latest news about his films.Jay’s picks...
- Donnie Darko
- Dark Star
- Miracle Mile
- John Dies at the End
- Phantasm
- The Signal
- Timecrimes
- The Crazies
- Quantum Leap
Guest Curators
Not on Subspace: Planet of the Apes (the TV Show)
by Chance Shirley • April 22, 2022
The original 1968 Planet of the Apes movie was a big hit for 20th Century Fox, so the studio of course made a sequel. The sequel (Beneath the Planet of the Apes, which happens to be one of my favorite sequels of all time) was also a hit, so Fox made more sequels, four in total, with the last one being Battle for the Planet of the Apes in 1973. But sensing that the public might still be at least a little ape for Apes, Fox decided to take the chatty simians to the small screen. Planet of the Apes (the television show) made its debut on the CBS network in the United States on September 13, 1974.
Like the movie, the TV series features astronauts from the 20th century who find themselves trapped in a post-apocalpytic future dystopia ruled by apes, but it jettisons a lot of the weirder aspects of the films, like the psychic mutants from Beneath. It even lets the future humans speak, which makes the role reversal between the reigning apes and subservient humans less drastic than in the films where all of the future humans are mute. Some of the differences can be explained by the TV show’s setting — 3085 AD, approximately 900 years before the events of the 1968 feature film. Or maybe the Apes TV show is taking place in a totally different timeline than the movies — there is a lot of time travel in the Apes franchise, so there are bound to be multiple timelines, right?
The Apes show generally follows a Fugitive-type setup — the two astronauts (along with their chimpanzee friend Galen, portrayed by Apes movie alum Roddy McDowall), while on the run from ape authorities, get involved helping out the guest-humans-of-the-week contend with some crisis, all while trying to find a way to return to their home back in the year 1980.
The ratings for Planet of the Apes weren’t great, so CBS canceled it after fourteen episodes. But that’s not quite the end of the story — Fox re-edited ten of the episodes into five syndicated TV movies in the early 80s, with wonderful titles like Forgotten City of the Planet of the Apes and Life, Liberty and Pursuit on the Planet of the Apes. That’s how I first experienced the show — morning matinee screenings of the TV movie edits on my local indie UHF channel.
I’m pretty sure the Planet of the Apes franchise is owned by Disney now, since they bought 20th Century Fox a few years ago. The Apes TV show is pretty much an all-ages affair, so it’d be nice to have it available on Disney+. But it’s really hard to find these days — the North American DVD is out of print (though I think a European DVD is available for import), and I can’t find it on any legitimate streaming service. If you’re curious about it, you can probably find a few fan-uploaded episodes on YouTube. And it looks like you can rent it by mail from the good folks at Scarecrow.
Not on Subspace
April’s Guest Curator: Laura Jean Hocking
by Chance Shirley • April 4, 2022
Many thanks to Laura Jean Hocking for being our guest curator for April! Laura Jean is a Memphis-based film editor, director, and producer who has worked on documentary features, experimental shorts, and music videos. She edited the feature doc Juvenile in 2021, and she’s currently editing The Scent of Linden, the first Bulgarian feature film to be produced in the U.S. You can (and should!) follow Laura Jean on Twitter, where her handle is @laurajeanorama . And if you’d like to see some of her work, check out her reel on Vimeo.
Laura Jean’s picks...
- Plan 9 from Outer Space
- The Day The Earth Stood Still
- Melonchalia
- Ex Machina
- Under the Skin
- Metropolis
- 1984
- Mars Attacks!
- District 9
- Mothra vs. Godzilla
(She also recommended The Thing and Barbarella, both of which just dropped off the free services at the start of the month. So check those out if you get the chance!)
Guest Curators