Film Reviews · Backpex

Title	Overview		Toggle columns Title Overview
Dionysus in '69	Filmed stageplay based on the ancient greek play The Bacchae written by Euripides. This play is performed by members of The Performance Group, an NYC experimental theater group who has made their own personal adaptation of this ancient text. Filmed by Brian De Palma.
Baazigar	Wealthy widower Madan Chopra has two young and marriageable aged daughters, Priya and Seema. Madan would like Priya to marry Vicky Malhotra, his business associate, to which she reluctantly agrees. Seema attends college and is seduced by Ajay Sharma and aspires to marry him secretly. But when they go to register the marriage Ajay mysteriously kills Seema by throwing her off a multi-storied building. A grief-stricken Priya is unable to forget this incident and what she does not know is that Vicky is not what he claims to be.
Charley-One-Eye	A black, Union Army deserter and his crippled American Indian hostage form a strained partnership in the interests of surviving the advancing threats of a racist bounty hunter and neighboring bandits.
City Limits	A series of teenage gangs struggle against each other in a not-so-distant future. Eventually they united against an evil corporation, as represented by evil CEO Robby Benson who wants to control everything.
Aftermath	Two brothers are trying to find out the truth from years ago. The whole town is against them.
6ixtynin9	A woman, fired from a financial coorporation during the Asia crisis, returns home with no money. However, she finds a box with a fortune in front of her door, and decides to keep it. However, the people that left it there soon want it back.
Harvey	An unlikely hero, Elwood P. Dowd. This mild-mannered-but-eccentric bachelor has, for several years, happily kept company with Harvey, a six-foot-tall rabbit that only he can see. All's well until Elwood's social-climbing sister, Veta, and her teenage daughter, Myrtle Mae, come to live with him and fear his odd behavior will undermine their ambitions. When Elwood disrupts the ladies' first afternoon tea party by introducing wealthy Aunt Ethel Chauvenet to Harvey, Veta sees that something must be done right away. She takes compliant Elwood to the Chumley Rest Home, leaving him in the car while she tells a Dr. Sanderson all about Elwood and Harvey. Sanderson concludes that Veta is the psychotic one and has her carted off to be committed. Meanwhile Elwood is treated with respect and dignity in light of his sister's mental state. When Dr. Chumley, head of the rest home, returns and hears of the case, he draws the opposite conclusion-that Elwood in fact hallucinates.
The Thief	1952 black and white Cold War spy film, entirely without dialog
Man at Bath	Omar (Omar Ben Sellem) and Emmanuel (François Sagat) go to great lengths to prove they are not in love.
The Substitute	A high school substitute English teacher resorts to murder to protect her murderous dark past while seducing a student whom begins to suspect her true identity.
Night of the Devils	Night of the Devils is an Italian vampire thriller with a remarkably good pedigree. The script is based on The Wurdalak, a short story by A.K. Tolstoy. The central character is the patriarch of a wealthy family who fears that he will show up one day in vampire form. Should this happen, he warns his family not to let him back in his house, no matter how much he begs.
Surfer, Dude	A wave twisting tale of a soul searching surfer experiencing an existential crisis.
Miracle in Harlem	A crooked real estate tycoon tricks a trusting young woman out of her small candy store. When he is found dead, the girl is suspected of the crime.
Southbounders	A young woman attempts a "thru-hike" of the Appalachian Trail, the 2,170 mile footpath wandering the length of the Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Georgia.
Terminus	In a sort of "Mad Max" futuristic adventure, an international sport has been established where a driver of a computerized truck must drive across country to an established terminus and not be stopped by other vehicles. The lead truck, called "Monster" has been created by a boy genius and is to be driven by a woman through the course. The only problem is the computer guidance system fails and she ends up in uncharted territories. There she encounters leather-clad hoods who torture her and eventually kill her. Before dying she tells a fellow prisoner about the truck and he uses it to escape.

Dionysus in '69

Filmed stageplay based on the ancient greek play The Bacchae written by Euripides. This play is performed by members of The Performance Group, an NYC experimental theater group who has made their own personal adaptation of this ancient text. Filmed by Brian De Palma.

Baazigar

Wealthy widower Madan Chopra has two young and marriageable aged daughters, Priya and Seema. Madan would like Priya to marry Vicky Malhotra, his business associate, to which she reluctantly agrees. Seema attends college and is seduced by Ajay Sharma and aspires to marry him secretly. But when they go to register the marriage Ajay mysteriously kills Seema by throwing her off a multi-storied building. A grief-stricken Priya is unable to forget this incident and what she does not know is that Vicky is not what he claims to be.

Charley-One-Eye

A black, Union Army deserter and his crippled American Indian hostage form a strained partnership in the interests of surviving the advancing threats of a racist bounty hunter and neighboring bandits.

City Limits

A series of teenage gangs struggle against each other in a not-so-distant future. Eventually they united against an evil corporation, as represented by evil CEO Robby Benson who wants to control everything.

Aftermath

Two brothers are trying to find out the truth from years ago. The whole town is against them.

6ixtynin9

A woman, fired from a financial coorporation during the Asia crisis, returns home with no money. However, she finds a box with a fortune in front of her door, and decides to keep it. However, the people that left it there soon want it back.

Harvey

An unlikely hero, Elwood P. Dowd. This mild-mannered-but-eccentric bachelor has, for several years, happily kept company with Harvey, a six-foot-tall rabbit that only he can see. All's well until Elwood's social-climbing sister, Veta, and her teenage daughter, Myrtle Mae, come to live with him and fear his odd behavior will undermine their ambitions. When Elwood disrupts the ladies' first afternoon tea party by introducing wealthy Aunt Ethel Chauvenet to Harvey, Veta sees that something must be done right away. She takes compliant Elwood to the Chumley Rest Home, leaving him in the car while she tells a Dr. Sanderson all about Elwood and Harvey. Sanderson concludes that Veta is the psychotic one and has her carted off to be committed. Meanwhile Elwood is treated with respect and dignity in light of his sister's mental state. When Dr. Chumley, head of the rest home, returns and hears of the case, he draws the opposite conclusion-that Elwood in fact hallucinates.

The Thief

1952 black and white Cold War spy film, entirely without dialog

Man at Bath

Omar (Omar Ben Sellem) and Emmanuel (François Sagat) go to great lengths to prove they are not in love.

The Substitute

A high school substitute English teacher resorts to murder to protect her murderous dark past while seducing a student whom begins to suspect her true identity.

Night of the Devils

Night of the Devils is an Italian vampire thriller with a remarkably good pedigree. The script is based on The Wurdalak, a short story by A.K. Tolstoy. The central character is the patriarch of a wealthy family who fears that he will show up one day in vampire form. Should this happen, he warns his family not to let him back in his house, no matter how much he begs.

Surfer, Dude

A wave twisting tale of a soul searching surfer experiencing an existential crisis.

Miracle in Harlem

A crooked real estate tycoon tricks a trusting young woman out of her small candy store. When he is found dead, the girl is suspected of the crime.

Southbounders

A young woman attempts a "thru-hike" of the Appalachian Trail, the 2,170 mile footpath wandering the length of the Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Georgia.

Terminus

In a sort of "Mad Max" futuristic adventure, an international sport has been established where a driver of a computerized truck must drive across country to an established terminus and not be stopped by other vehicles. The lead truck, called "Monster" has been created by a boy genius and is to be driven by a woman through the course. The only problem is the computer guidance system fails and she ends up in uncharted territories. There she encounters leather-clad hoods who torture her and eventually kill her. Before dying she tells a fellow prisoner about the truck and he uses it to escape.