The Offbeat Marquee

The Offbeat Marquee

by Jacob Calta

An Offbeat Marquee Tribute – Ennio Morricone

Like many people, I was not expecting to wake up and find that one of the greatest creative forces in the world of film has passed. Sadly, Italian composer Ennio Morricone has leftus at age 91. And while most people will point to the masterful music penned for the work ofSergio Leone or for blockbusters…

The Offbeat Marquee #6: MJ’s Marquee

This sixth installment explores chapters in the legacy of one of the world’s most renowned entertainers, Michael Joseph Jackson. For over four decades, Jackson sang and danced his way into the radios, stereo systems, television screens, and indeed into the theaters of the world. Today, Calta takes a look at some of the many audiovisual…

The Offbeat Marquee #5: “The Radiation Wave of Cinema”

This time around, Calta digs into a subject that has long fascinated him. The 1980s, for all its neon-lit, synth-heavy glory, was a time for serious reflection on the state of the world in terms of nuclear power and warfare. Filmmakers had the power to illustrate the serious effects of things going wrong. Here, he…

The Offbeat Marquee #4: “Down and Out in New York City”

The Offbeat Marquee is the theater that will show just about anything. Columnist Jacob Calta unearths everything from forgotten Hollywood dramas to underground animation to the many oddball genre films from around the world. This fourth installment is not a matter of obscure cinema, but of an obscure idea about cinema, the hypnosis that certain…

The Offbeat Marquee #3: Music Videos

The Offbeat Marquee is the theater that will show just about anything. Columnist Jacob Calta unearths everything from forgotten Hollywood dramas to underground animation to the many oddball genre films from around the world. In this third installment, he takes a look at a medium of incredible reach and creativity: the music video! Introduction “In…

The Offbeat Marquee #2: A Snapshot of Adult Cinema

The Offbeat Marquee is the theater that will show just about anything. Columnist Jacob Calta unearths everything from forgotten Hollywood dramas to underground animation to the many oddball genre films from around the world. This second installment takes on the wild world of adult cinema. Hardcore pornography was a unique beast in the wake of…

The Offbeat Marquee #1: The Duel Project

The Offbeat Marquee is the theater that will show just about anything. Columnist Jacob Calta unearths everything from forgotten Hollywood dramas to underground animation to the many oddball genre films from around the world. This first installment takes on two films from the nation of Japan. Two halves of a friendly competition with exceptionally specific…


Jacob Calta is a filmmaker, composer, and raving movie fanatic. Fan of basically all cinema. Can be found watching an art film one day, a silent film the next, a schlocky horror film after that, and then probably will mess about watching music videos. I have a sizeable collection of DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and VHS tapes. 

Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.

Advertisement
%d bloggers like this: