Nel Dahl

My selections are films I find incredibly distinctive, yet mostly underrated or worse upon initial release.

Low-budget horror cinema’s potential to unexpectedly reverse its initially mixed reception is epitomized by the strange afterlife of Paul Morrissey’s Andy Warhol-produced double feature, Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Blood for Dracula (1974).

Music was the initial art form Cree artist Buffy Sainte-Marie chose to reach the most people on issues of Indigenous rights, war, gender and more. But only time has revealed the challenges she faced in delivering those messages. A long overdue book prioritizes Sainte-Marie’s voice foremost, allowing her to set the record straight.

In ‘Gone’, her new video with Charli XCX, the French pop star explores themes and ideas she’s been navigating her whole career

The 1940s noir-adjacent film at its best (or even second-best: so many great “B” noir films) offers a bountiful set of variations and ambiguity. There are so many I’ve seen and yet so many remain to watch that it’s hard to begin to pinpoint which are the most worthy of attention or which aspects to highlight. In the meantime, here are ten I highly recommend that are currently available on Youtube (but worth finding elsewhere regardless).
The foundational Gothic “Bluebeard” reference is made e...

Behind the lens that shot Chantal Akerman’s iconic Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) is camerawoman and filmmaker Babette Mangolte.

Two new books celebrate the challenging, unapologetically bizarre work of the writer and painter Leonora Carrington.

It's not merely the nature of the actress's characters that sets her apart, it's the thought-provoking ambiguities she riddles them with.

As she releases her long-awaited Before The Dawn live album, we explore the musician’s longstanding desire to tie together the worlds of music and film.

The Handmaiden is a unique, complex new entry in gothic storytelling that recalls the dense subtext and filmic innovations of its predecessors like Gaslight, a film that seventy years later still confounds viewers.

An inspiration in every direction she went, Amanda Lear was Salvador Dali’s biggest muse, a Studio 54 disco queen, Roxy Music album cover girl, the basis behind Absolutely Fabulous’ Patsy, and much more. But Lear spun the role as decoration for men’s work into a self-mythologized career featuring some of the era’s most indelible imagery and songs...