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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Radiance Films welcome a new Damiano Damiani-directed film to their collection, the spy thriller “Goodbye & Amen.”
During the debut year for physical media boutique Radiance Films, a distributor interested in lesser-available/known international cinema, they released a wonderful three-film collection of director Damiano Damiani’s film dubbed “Cosa Nostra: Franco Nero in three Mafia Tales by Damiano Damiani.”… Read More ›
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2023 lo-fi sci-fi time loop comedy “River” drifts onto home video via Third Window Films.
If you’re not familiar with Japanese theatrical troupe Europe Kikaku, they are the talent behind 2021’s lo-fi sci-fi comedy Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes and 2023’s lo-fi sci-fi rom-com River. Both directed by Junta Yamaguchi and written by Makoto Ueda,… Read More ›
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It’s your birthday and Scream Factor has a 4K UHD edition of horror comedy “Willy’s Wonderland” available just for you.
There are few actors who can seamlessly blend into any genre so that when they pop up in a movie, there’s no disruption the flow of the film. Comedy, action, drama, horror, satire — he appears and your first thought… Read More ›
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Nia DaCosta’s MCU space action comedy “The Marvels” blasts off from space and arrives at home.
Higher. Further. Faster. Together. This is the name of the game for Marvel Studios’s 33rd release, the Nia DaCosta-directed sci-fi actioner The Marvels, as it sees Brie Larson reprise her role as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel and being joined by WandaVision’s… Read More ›
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Wrestling doc “The Death Tour” is more than about heels, faces, or even the pop – but why the audience matters. [Slamdance Film Festival]
In the United States, names like World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Assault Championship Wrestling (ACW), and All Elite Wrestling (AEW) may come to mind when bringing up sports entertainment. But wrestling isn’t a U.S.-based sport, with countries… Read More ›
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New Disney+ documentary “Madu” breaks tradition as it follows a gifted dancer from Nigeria to England. [SBIFF]
Photosensitivity Warning: There are a few scenes of refracted light that may be triggering for sensitive viewers. In August 2020, a video of 11-year-old Anthony Mmesoma Madu dancing outside of his ballet school went viral, garnering attention not just from… Read More ›
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Filmmaker Omar Kamara explores the rich complexity of sibling relationships in dramedy “African Giants.” [Slamdance Film Festival]
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” – Sir Isaac Newton With all of the discussion of borders — who’s securing them, who’s refusing to do so, what do we do with the… Read More ›
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Silent film action comedy “Hundreds of Beavers” is a film you need to see to believe.
City Lights. Metropolis. Hundreds of Beavers. From 1894 to 1931, the earliest period of moving periods is known as the Silent Era. These films, made with celluloid and glass (to help simulate color), make up a significant portion of our… Read More ›
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“A Creature Was Stirring” Blu-ray Giveaway
There’s been a wonderful rise in genre-centric holiday films with films like Violent Night (2022) and It’s a Wonderful Knife (2023) blending in a little bloodshed with the ho-ho-hos. In 2023, Well Go USA released the Damien LeVeck-directed horror thriller A Creature Was… Read More ›
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Kino Lorber re-issues the 50th anniversary 4K Blu-ray restoration of Norman Jewison’s crime caper “The Thomas Crown Affair.”
The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom. – Arthur Schopenhauer 56 years ago, the writer of Bullitt, Alan Trustman, and the director of In the Heat of the Night, Norman Jewison, released their sexy crime thriller The… Read More ›
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Radiance Films adds Kōhei Oguri’s “The Sting of Death” to their collection with a first-time Blu-ray limited edition.
It’s 1985 and author Toshio Shimao releases “The Sting of Death” and Other Stories, a collection of works, the primary one being described as autobiographical. Five years later, writer/director Kōhei Oguri (Muddy River) would adapt that central tale into his… Read More ›
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First-time documentarian Ryan Jacobi explores the man behind the improv character in “I’m ‘George Lucas’: A Connor Ratliff Story.” [Slamdance Film Festival]
Before there was The Mandalorian (2019-??), Andor (2022), The Book of Boba Fett (2021), or Ashoka (2023), before there was either a Prequel or Sequel Trilogy, there was only Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of… Read More ›
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What’s inside DECAL Releasing’s home release edition of “Waitress, the Musical – Live on Broadway!” is very little, yet still deeply satisfying to those seeking another slice of pie.
“Sugar. Butter. Flour.” These are the first words we hear in Waitress, The Musical, the Diane Paulus-directed (Cirque du Soleil: Amaluna) stage production that adapts the 2007 Adrienne Shelly-written/directed/starred romantic comedy non-musical Waitress. These three words signify the start of… Read More ›
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Be not afraid and journey out into the shadows with fantasy adventure “Orion and the Dark.”
“Being brave doesn’t mean not being afraid. It’s being afraid and doing it anyway.” In our house, we don’t tell people not to be afraid of things. We talk about how it’s natural and that humanity has survived for generations… Read More ›
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Animated action fantasy “The Tiger’s Apprentice” rushes in all the areas it shouldn’t to make the action mean something.
Author Laurence Yep has written many books over his career, focusing on the area of children’s literature, even having won the Newbery twice, once in 1976 and again in 1994. Yep’s work is a mixture of historical fiction like the… Read More ›
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“The Book of Harth” DVD Giveaway
After spending time on the festival circuit in 2022 and 2023, documentarian Pierre Guillet’s (Bristol Fashion) latest project, The Book of Harth, is releasing on physical formats. This project follows a conceptual artist, David Greg Harth, in his quest to gather… Read More ›
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Filmmaker Juan Pablo Reinoso explores the notion of movie memorabilia as modern art in his new documentary “Mad Props.”
Movies are magic. They take visions of the imagination and breathe life into them, projecting them high onto a silver screen in a large auditorium so that the gathered audience can share in the illusion together. Doesn’t matter if the… Read More ›
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Give us a kiss, a-holes! “Joe’s Apartment” receives a first-time Blu-ray remaster that’ll have you dancing with your funkiest towel.
If you were a kid in the ‘90s, you likely watched MTV and remember some of its original programming like Beavis and Butt-head (1993-1998), Total Request Live (1998-2008), and The Real World (1992-2008). Those are merely three of the *many*… Read More ›
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Don’t miss out on Rasheed Stephens’s best day of his life in the mixed-format dramedy “All I’ve Got & Then Some.” [Slamdance Film Festival]
“Best Day of My Life!” When asked how he’s doing by friends, colleagues in the comedy realm, passengers in his latest pick-up, and everyone in between, Rasheed Stephens (himself) replies with the same answer: “Best day of my life.” It’s… Read More ›
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It’s the beginning of the end of the TomorrowVerse with “Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One,” available on home video now.
In 2020, DC Entertainment kicked off what’s become known as the TomorrowVerse via Superman: The Man of Tomorrow, introducing a new animated universe centered on the introduction of the biggest hero of DC Comics, Superman. After, six more films would… Read More ›