Author Archives
Founder: Elements of Madness | Past Bylines at CLTure, Pretty Vacant One, FilmFed, & Mountain Xpress | NC Film Critics Association, Southeastern Film Critics Association, & Critics Choice Association member | Rotten Tomatoes approved individual critic
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Schedule your own journey on Jérémie Périn’s “Mars Express” anytime via the Shout! Studios/GKIDS Films home release.
A vicious murder, a private detective, a thread-pull revealing a larger conspiracy, and a question of robotic sentience — all the makings of a cyberpunk neo-noir. We’ve seen it before with the Blade Runner and The Matrix series, as well… Read More ›
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For all the women who’ve never been “Satisfied,” comes a documentary that centers actor Renée Elise Goldsberry’s quest to achieve it. [Tribeca Film Festival]
“… if you know anything about me, I have spent the last 10 years of my life, what some would consider the lifeblood of a woman’s career, just trying to have children. And I get to testify in front of… Read More ›
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Dramedy “Griffin in Summer” is a story of first love that stands out by being ordinary. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Coming-of-age stories come in all shapes and sizes. The term refers to a story of someone going through a particularly age-specific moment of growing up, but it doesn’t always lean toward the light-hearted. Films like The Young Arsonists (2023) or… Read More ›
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“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” arrives on home video with a single message: Hail to the Kings, Baby.
Photosensitivity Warning: There are several sequences within the film (traveling to Hollow Earth; uses of breath abilities) that may prove triggering for photosensitive views. Take proper precautions before pressing play. What a time to be alive. Despite the claims that… Read More ›
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“Blind War” Blu-ray Giveaway
The latest action thriller from The Sniper director Huo Suiqiang, Blind War, starring Andy On (100 Yards; Undercover Punch and Gun), initially released in 2022 before landing on Well Go USA’s martial arts streaming service Hi-YAH!. Now, Well Go USA is set… Read More ›
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Romantic dramedy “The Everything Pot” is a bunch of mishegaas with a thoughtful center. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Social mores dictate that a person is born, grows up, pairs off, has children, and then dies. In between is a life-lived that can be often defined by the stage one is in rather than the person they are. If… Read More ›
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Satirical slasher “#AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead” takes on the shallow nature in U.S. culture. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Every story is designed to convey something. Doesn’t matter if it’s a comedy, drama, mystery, or horror tale, from the surreal to the pointed, stories possess something that they want to pass along to the audience. Some grow richer through… Read More ›
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Filmmaker Sabrina Van Tassel’s “Missing from Fire Trail Road” is an evocative condemnation of the culpability of North America against its Indigenous peoples. [Tribeca Film Festival]
The version of American History that most students learn is that the American Revolution took place largely due to the concept of “taxation without representation.” That the colonists found it frustrating and unfair to have to send taxes to a… Read More ›
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Director Neil Berkeley’s comedy doc “Group Therapy” declares that we’re all in this life together. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Comedy is tragedy plus time. – Samuel Clemens Early into Gilbert/Harmantown director Neil Berkeley’s new film Group Therapy, one of the central cast members, comedian Mike Birbiglia, comments that comedy is similar to therapy in that the comedian opens themselves… Read More ›
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Filmmaker Tom Nesher beckons audiences to lean in in her semi-autobiographical dramedy “Come Closer.” [Tribeca Film Festival]
**Photosensitivity Warning: A club sequence includes a prolonged sequence of flashing lights that may prove triggering for sensitive viewers.** Shared joy is double joy; Shared sorrow is half a sorrow. – Swedish proverb Just about everywhere one looks, there’s a… Read More ›
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Religious thriller “Exemplum” is a good idea whose parts are stronger than the whole.
When the institution becomes bigger than the idea which spawned it, a problem forms. Ideas are free-flowing, malleable, capable of change with new information or situations. Institutions are rigid, structured, and harder to redirect once a flow is created. If… Read More ›
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Writer/director Savi Gabizon remakes his own adult drama for American audiences with the Richard Gere-led “Longing.”
There are many reasons films get adapted. Sometimes it’s because a film wasn’t received well or, confusingly, because a film was received extraordinarily well. Adaptations aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Because someone sought director Roger Corman’s 1960 Little Shop of… Read More ›
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On the “Night Shift,” you’ll find another home where you’re never alone.
There’s no place like home. Except in horror films, in which case, there’s no place that’s safe. Part of the tension in a good horror film is the realization that danger lurks whether you’re in a cabin in the woods… Read More ›
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Sex comedy “Frivolous Lola” is the second Tinto Brass 4K UHD restoration home release by Cult Epics.
In April 2024, physical media boutique Cult Epics released a first-time world premiere 4K UHD of filmmaker Tinto Brass’s erotic dramedy All Ladies Do It (1992). This would be the first of several restorations the boutique would release in the… Read More ›
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28 films we’d like to see during Tribeca Film Festival 2024.
Elements of Madness returns to cover the Tribeca Film Festival for the third year in a row! In the run-up to the festival, we thought we’d offer up our recommendations of what we hope to check out during the fest…. Read More ›
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The special features on the home release of “Kingdom of Storms” will hold you over until the second part of the “Creation of the Gods” trilogy releases into theaters
16th century Chinese novel Fengshen Yanyi (Investiture of the Gods) is the inspiration for a number of adaptions in Chinese entertainment. Adaptations in written forms, television programs, and, of course, cinema. Sometimes it’s in individual portions, such as with studio… Read More ›
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Jonathan Smith’s alt-love story “Guy Friends” uplifts genuine friendship and trashes toxicity.
Finding your people while growing up is pretty difficult. It can be accidental, it can be manufactured through parental involvement, but it always remains trying as you discover who you are as you collect the people you hope to keep… Read More ›
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The destined battle plays out fair and square in the theatrical adaptation of “Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle.”
Mangas, like all other kinds of storytelling, come in a variety of types. Americans are familiar with the isekai (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime), shonen (Jujutsu Kaisen), and parody (One-Punch Man), with several breaking through into mainstream… Read More ›
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MVD Rewind Collection welcomes an impressive 2K restoration of Greydon Clark’s sex comedy “Joysticks” to the catalog.
It’s not so uncommon for those in the film industry to recognize a trend and try to lean into it. We’re not talking about similar releases like Deep Impact (1998) and Armageddon (1998), which released two months apart, but films… Read More ›
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In the world of independent aeronautics, if you want to be at the front of the pack, you’ve got to “Go Like Hell.” [Atlanta Film Festival]
“Take my love, take my land Take me where I cannot stand I don’t care, I’m still free You can’t take the sky from me … .” – Sonny Rhodes, The Ballad of Serenity Speaking at Rice University on September… Read More ›