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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Anachronistic musical fusion “Inu-Oh” adapts an old story to tell a very modern tale of artistic freedom and personal identity. [Fantasia International Film Festival]
One of the oldest storytelling conveyances is the oral tradition. Before we could write or read, we spoke and the sounds we made transfixed audiences, transporting them to times before their present. With the advent of the written-word, one might… Read More ›
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Writer/director Andrew Semans’s psychological thriller “Resurrection” is a powerhouse of a film, holding the potential to devastate its audience.
There are a lot of things about parenthood that are kept from the general public. Most talk about the wonderful things that come from being a parent, like getting to see a first-time reaction to something or sharing an experience,… Read More ›
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“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” Digital Code Giveaway
As of today, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is available to own on both physical and digital formats, as well as streaming on Disney+. If you didn’t snag a copy yet, this giveaway may just be for you. Physical… Read More ›
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Gather your charcuterie and sit down with jungle adventure “The Lost City” on home video.
A deleted scene from the Aaron and Adam Nee-directed film The Lost City features romance novelist Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) and book cover model Dash (Channing Tatum) talking before going to sleep in a shared hammock. In this brief moment,… Read More ›
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“They Live in the Grey” DVD Giveaway
Writer/director team The Vang Brothers follow up their 2016 horror film Bedeviled with supernatural thriller They Live in the Grey. After releasing on Shudder in February of 2022 and in partnership with RLJE Films, They Live in the Grey is coming… Read More ›
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You’ve heard of the restaurant at the end of the world. How about the rest stop at the end of existence? It’s “Glorious.” [Fantasia International Film Festival]
There have been many films conceived, shot, and released since COVID-19 quarantines more or less stopped the world. Some of them put the virus front-and-center (The End of Us), while others used the period as an opportunity to tell a… Read More ›
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“White Elephant” DVD Giveaway
Writer/director Jesse V. Johnson has produced some truly fun action films over the last few years: The Debt Collector (2018), Triple Threat (2019), Avengement (2019), and Hell Hath No Fury (2021), to name a few. His latest project is White Elephant, an action thriller centered… Read More ›
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The Cine-Men, Episode 70: Top Five Films of 2022 (So Far).
As we’re officially halfway through the year, it’s time to discuss the films that are at the top The Cine-Men’s recommendation lists. We’ve got foreign films, blockbusters, documentaries, and more between the two of us! Of course, with the recent… Read More ›
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It’s just another Thursday in the star-studded action-thriller “The Gray Man” from directing duo the Russos.
Directing team the Russos (brothers Joe and Anthony) are no strangers to adapting works for cinema. If their work on 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier wasn’t enough to gain your attention, their directing of the end of the Marvel… Read More ›
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“Dark Nature” contains big ideas that are underserved by putting most of its secrets up front. [Fantasia International Film Festival]
Folklore is easily the earliest form of storytelling we have. Some folklore is intended to serve as lessons in morality or ethics, designed to push a people into certain behaviors, while others are merely stories passed down through the generations… Read More ›
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Good news! “Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko” arrives on home video with our two-hours of bonus materials.
The latest GKids Films release, Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko, is set to arrive on home video from Shout! Factory with a host of special features that celebrate the last adaptation of author Kanako Nishi’s work. In this case, the adaptation… Read More ›
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Documentary “Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin” offers the long-overdue flowers to an auteur less known. [Fantasia International Film Festival]
It is not the destiny of every artist to be known beyond the reaches of their imagination. It’s a sad truth that sometimes, well past an artist’s prime or even after their life has ended, is when someone’s catalogue of… Read More ›
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“Popran (添付)” is an amusing, heartfelt phallus joke whose finish delights, even if not leaving one awash in afterglow. [Fantasia International Film Festival]
In 2017, writer/director Shin’ichirô Ueda released unto the world One Cut of the Dead, his adaptation of Ryoichi Wada’s play “Ghost in the Box!”. If you haven’t seen the film, it’s an absolute marvel that’s an inventive lo-fi zombie film… Read More ›
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Get your order of “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” to-go smothered in bonus feature sides.
According to the “Making of the Movie” featurette featuring Bob’s Burgers creator Loren Bouchard, the inception point for the film began with the two-night Bob’s Burgers Live shows from 2017. Before switching to a fairly detailed walkthrough of the process… Read More ›
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Dive into the details of the darkly comic “Dual” from writer/director Riley Stearns via home video.
If you could clone yourself, would you? For some, the answer is “yes” because their mind goes to all the things that they dislike doing which they could put off on their clone — your errands, your job, maybe the… Read More ›
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Nick Cage is BACK (not that he went anywhere) in the home release of “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.”
We should all be so lucky to have as wild and varied a career in whatever we do as actor Nicolas Cage does in his. He’s been in comedies (Valley Girl; Raising Arizona), romances (Moonstruck; Honeymoon in Vegas), action films… Read More ›
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Writer/director Bong Joon Ho’s Netflix Original “Okja” receives a Criterion home release worthy of the Best Superpig.
Before writer/director Bong Joon Ho would go on to win Best International Feature, Best Director, and Best Picture for his film Parasite (2019) at the 92nd Academy Awards, Bong Joon Ho was awarded Best Motion Picture in the Foreign Language… Read More ›
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Thriller “Gasoline Alley” explores multiple topics while maintaining a gripping narrative.
The opening of every film sets the tone for what’s to come. Director Sam Raimi kicked off Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) with a chase sequence, signaling that most of the film will be a race to… Read More ›
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The Cine-Men, Episode 69 with special guest intimacy coordinator Samantha McDonald.
As always, when you expect The Cine-Men to dodge, we weave, and when you expect us to bob, we swerve. That’s why when it came time to plan out our 69th episode, co-host Darryl Mansel and I decided to get… Read More ›
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Turn down the lights, pop some corn, and snag your favorite candy to celebrate the home release of “Pompo: The Cinéphile” with a well-deserved movie night.
It all begins with three words: Lights. Camera. Action! Sure, with the changing of technology, the specific terms have changed, but they all go back to these three. Three words which, while not large, immediately call to mind tales of… Read More ›