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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Travel into the unknown as often as you like with “Frozen II” on home video now.
When the teaser for Frozen II first dropped, if you’d told me that that film would become one of my favorites of 2019, that I’d find myself revisiting it frequently, its songs on repeat willingly and purposefully, I’d have likely… Read More ›
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Class 1-A proclaim’s “I am here!” in Funimation theatrical release “My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising.”
Finally coming to American shores is Funimation Films’s latest theatrical event, My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising, the second theatrical release for the widely popular My Hero Academia anime series. First released in December 2019 overseas, the film’s inspired by the… Read More ›
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Wanna get nuts? Go “Guns Akimbo.”
Disclaimer: In light of recent events involving director Jason Lei Howden online in the last week, I, Douglas Davidson the founder of EoM, would like to make it clear that (a) racism in any form should be called out, (b)… Read More ›
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Dark satire “The Misogynists” is eerily prescient about our modern political times.
With any kind of satire, there’s a balance that must be struck in order for it to achieve its goal, especially when dealing with material that’s sensitive in nature. Most recently, audiences can look to the strangely polarizing response to… Read More ›
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Bring some Lovecraftian horror into your home now with the home release of “Color Out of Space.”
If you’ve ever dabbled in the morbid or macabre, then chances are you’ve come across the works of H.P. Lovecraft. His tales of the strange, the weird, the supernatural, and the horrific have lingered in the cultural zeitgeist with the… Read More ›
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Looking for some old fashioned family fun? Answer “The Call of the Wild.”
A story of any kind — adaptation, original, or otherwise — that features an animal, usually sparks one specific question: does the animal make it?! To quell this particular concern, the dog in director Chris Sanders’s (How to Train Your… Read More ›
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Writer/director Stella Meghie’s “The Photograph” asks her audience to look beyond the frame and love completely.
Writer/director Stella Meghie’s (Everything, Everything) new film, The Photograph, is a drama/romance depicting two love stories (one in the past, one in the present) connected by a picture. That description just scratches the surface of Meghie’s tale which examines not… Read More ›
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Funimation’s live-action manga adaptation “Kingdom” is available on home video now.
Prior to hearing about the 2019 limited theatrical release of director Shinsuke Sato’s (Inuyashiki) Kingdom, I had no awareness of the 2012 anime or the 2006 manga. Coming into the film blind, I only knew that the story involved treachery,… Read More ›
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“A Simple Wedding” subverts rom-coms expectations by focusing on self-love.
There’s something about a wedding that feels oddly restorative. Symbolically, it’s a new beginning, one in which two families are coming together to form something new, something larger, and, potentially, something stronger than what was before. This romantic notion of… Read More ›
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Meet Me at the Movies, Show 369
The last time EoM founder Douglas Davidson hung out with the Meet Me at the Movies crew the 2019 cinematic season was winding down. As he joins them again, it’s the eve of the 92nd Academy Awards, so they talk… Read More ›
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The Cine-Men, Special Episode: 92nd Academy Awards – Part II
As we near the 92nd Academy Awards, The Cine-Men co-hosts brave to discuss the big six categories: Supporting Actor/Actress, Lead Actor/Actress, Directing, and Best Picture. To tackle this mighty feat, the duo broke each category into its own minisode with… Read More ›
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“Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” takes these broken wings and learns to soar.
The last time audiences saw Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, she was being freed from Black Gate prison by The Joker (Jared Leto) in David Ayers’s Suicide Squad. That was in 2016 when hopes were high that a group of DC… Read More ›
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The Cine-Men, Special Episode: 92nd Academy Awards – Part I
As we near the 92nd Academy Awards, The Cine-Men co-hosts brave to discuss the big six categories: Supporting Actor/Actress, Lead Actor/Actress, Directing, and Best Picture. To tackle this mighty feat, the duo broke each category into its own minisode with… Read More ›
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“Doctor Sleep” called in your prescription for Mike Flanagan’s director’s cut. Watch it stat.
There’s something about Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Shining that’s gripped audiences for nearly four decades despite factors which one might presume would detract from its popularity. Kubrick quite famously tortured Shelley Duvall on set to a… Read More ›
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Coming To Theaters: February 2020
Depending on where you live, February kicks off the real start to winter. When the temps drop around freezing and the thought of leaving your house better be for something good. With luck, this month’s list of theatrical treats offers… Read More ›
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As long as we sing “The Song of Names,” the lost will not be forgotten.
Never forget. These are the words that every Jew learns at a young age in our modern era. They signify a persistent vigilance and the vigorous act of remembrance. It is not enough to know that a thing happened, it… Read More ›
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Edward Norton’s passion project “Motherless Brooklyn” is now available on home video.
According to actor/writer/director Edward Norton, his relationship with Jonathan Lethem’s 1999 novel Motherless Brooklyn began before the book hit shelves. As he explains in the featurette “Making-Of: Edward Norton’s Methodical Process,” he was tipped off by a friend about the… Read More ›
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Bloody mayhem, gangsters, and wisecracking bystanders are the tip of the iceberg in Guy Ritchie’s “The Gentlemen.”
When it comes to Guy Ritchie films, the mileage varies depending on where you were introduced. If you came in during the era of his early works, specifically his first two features Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and… Read More ›
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“Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” is a family affair and we’re all invited!
1994 low budget comedy Clerks is writer/director Kevin Smith’s first film and the foundation for a 25-year strong series of films, comics, a cartoon, and a cartoon television show that have entertained literal generations of audiences. Dubbed the “View Askewniverse”… Read More ›
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An unexpected rambunctious adrenaline ride, “Bad Boys for Life” is the just break you need from the winter doldrums.
When a film releases a new addition to a franchise a decade or more after the last entry, there’s good reason to be skeptical about the quality. Often, what worked before doesn’t connect due to changes in the cultural landscape,… Read More ›