Author Archives
-
“Grave of the Fireflies” gets a very timely re-release on several formats in the U.S.
Warning: The following review will include discussion of violent imagery, infanticide, and genocide. If you read my piece last year on Hayao Miyazaki’s modern masterpiece The Boy and the Heron (君たちはどう生きるか) (2023), then you know that the Ghibli studio head… Read More ›
-
“The Life of Chuck” pulls the curtain on life.
You’ll believe that a white boy can do the moonwalk — or at least that Jacob Tremblay (Luca; The Room) can do the moonwalk better than anyone else in the room at a winking Back to The Future (1985)-themed school… Read More ›
-
Universal Pictures releases “How to Train Your Dragon” fan-film in theaters.
When I discovered cinema, my first dreams were of making my mark on franchises I loved. Then, I grew and learned how to harness my creativity to dream my own dreams. This is the key difference between the passive imaginer,… Read More ›
-
The intent of “To Live and Die and Live” gets lost amid a seemingly unfocused and underdeveloped execution.
If there are any good things to say about To Live and Die and Live (2025), they are that Amin Joseph (One of Them Days; Snowfall) is a very good actor; Skye P. Marshall (Let’s Be Cops; Coup!) can sell… Read More ›
-
Toei classic “The Rapacious Jailbreaker” escapes onto Blu-ray thanks to Radiance Films.
In the visual essay “Rule Breaker: An Introduction to Sado Najajima” (2025), film critic Tom Mes calls director Sadao Nakajima (The Great Okinawa Yakuza War; Jeans Blues: No Future) one of “the Three Aces of Toei,” and laments that this… Read More ›
-
“The Wedding Banquet” invites you to find your seat at the table.
The Wedding Banquet (2025) is one of those rare films that functions more as another swing at bat than as a remake, and returning screenwriter James Schamus (The Wedding Banquet (1993); Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) scores at least a double… Read More ›
-
“Jazzy” brings friendship to the forefront.
Discovery itself is at risk. Last week I bought the 2-disc special edition of Sam Rami’s Drag Me to Hell (2009) at Eides Entertainment in Pittsburgh because I was scanning for Spike Lee’s Clockers (1995), and scanning titles with your… Read More ›
-
“New Religion” gets the picture with Third Window Films release.
In Keishi Kondo’s 2022 directorial debut New Religion, communal memory and grief intertwine in photographs to illustrate a haunted post-COVID world. The surrealist Japanese art house thriller follows Kaho Seto (My Identity; Beyond the Blue) as Miyabi, a prostitute trying… Read More ›
-
Blockbuster Bets: “Sendero” debuts an independent voice.
We were standing in the lobby of the King’s Mountain Theater in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, talking when Michael Flores (Date Night; Garrow) walked in. I was with Elements of Madness Senior Interviewer Thomas Manning III, director of the 2024… Read More ›
-
The deadly film “Hokuriku Proxy War” debuts on Blu-ray by way of Radiance Films.
There is an all-time great story of betrayal, recklessness, and tragedy told about the events that took place among the yakuza of Japan’s snowy north coast, and it’s told through around 50 minutes of interviews included as special features on… Read More ›
-
“Mermaid Legend” dives into revenge on Blu-ray from Third Window Films.
Content Warning: This film contains sexual violence and semi-explicit sex acts that may be unnerving for sensitive viewers. Mermaid Legend (1984) is the prize film in Third Window Film’s newest wave of their Blu-ray releases of The Directors Company movies…. Read More ›
-
“The Monkey” is a blood-soaked laugh-riot.
Theo James, even when he’s good, such as in White Lotus season two (2022) or the ill-fated HBO adaption of The Time Traveler’s Wife (2022), has apparently been miscast his entire career until The Monkey (2025). Usually playing a George… Read More ›
-
“Captain America: Brave New World” isn’t brave at all.
I don’t need movies to save me. In a spiritual sense, one could say that they already have, but, in a literal sense, determined leaders do more for our quality of life than good art. Unfortunately, both are in short… Read More ›
-
The Criterion Collection helps critic Richard Brody and filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard show “King Lear” to the masses.
Jean-Luc Goddard’s King Lear (1987) is a great movie for nobody and is available on Blu-ray through Criterion on February 11th, 2025. Almost nobody, actually. It’s certainly a film for me, and for legendary film critic Richard Brody of the… Read More ›
-
“I’m Still Here” tells a narrative as relevant today as in 1970 Brazil.
Oscar hopeful I’m Still Here (2024) opens with where, when, who, and what’s it like. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 1970. Eunice Paiva, the wife of a retired left-wing senator is on a beach as armored personnel carriers drive down the… Read More ›
-
Oscar-nominated documentary “No Other Land” deserves your attention and a distributor.
Content Warning for descriptions, images, and reporting on violent scenes of oppression, police brutality, and genocide. There are special movies, and then there are films that you’ll never forget. No Other Land, an on-the-ground account of a Palestinian West Bank… Read More ›
-
The “Conclave” home release on 4K has unanimous support.
The sin Cardinal Lawrence fears may be “certainty,” but Conclave (2024) is a film forged with it, and the 4K UHD home release is no different. The extras include a featurette on the making of the film and a director’s… Read More ›
-
The Criterion Collection’s Blu-ray release of 1973’s “The Mother and the Whore” exceeds the 4K release in quality and value.
Last week I got an admittedly excessive 4K UHD Blu-ray in the mail. Normally $75.99, I caught it at 48% off at $39.20. It was the 40th Anniversary Edition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), and it came… Read More ›
-
“The Beast” appears … on shelves thanks to Janus Contemporaries.
Janus Contemporaries’s newest unnumbered entry into the Criterion Collection is priced just right at $20.99. The Beast, the latest film from Bertrand Bonello (House of Tolerance; Saint Laurent), is a surreal tale starring two of the best actors working today,… Read More ›
-
“A Complete Unknown” fails to define the undefinable.
Director James Mangold does not make bad movies. He makes good movies (The Wolverine; Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) and great movies (Ford V. Ferrari; Copland; Logan). He’s a class-act craftsman but he’s no revolutionary, and neither is… Read More ›