Sometimes, the movie experience you need most is the one with the least number of hurdles to get over. There’s a comfort that comes from a film that’s so straight-forward and streamlined that you can just kick back and enjoy… Read More ›
Recommendation
Studio Ghibli’s “Earwig and the Witch” is now available on home video.
February 2021 saw the theatrical release of a new Studio Ghibli film, Earwig and the Witch, and it wasn’t quite as well received as hoped. While the switch from hand-drawn animation to 3D CG was, initially, off-putting, the real issue… Read More ›
Writer/director Patrick Picard’s “The Bloodhound” is the best unfaithful adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe you can experience at home.
“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heaves, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and… Read More ›
Two features and five shorts to keep an eye out for. [SXSW Film Festival]
SXSW 2021 has come and gone, offering accredited press a dizzying array of opportunities in which to indulge. While the Elements of Madness coverage team wrote a hearty portion of reviews, there were far more films worth seeing than we… Read More ›
Life is good. But it could be better with “Wonder Woman 1984” out on home video.
Kicking off Warner Bros. Pictures’s new simultaneous release policy with HBO Max, Wonder Woman 1984 debuted in select theaters and on the burgeoning streaming service on December 25th, 2020. For 31 days, audiences could elect to either head to theaters… Read More ›
To celebrate its 65th Anniversary, Paramount Home Entertainment releases “The Ten Commandments” on 4K UHD for the first time.
For every time, there is a season. As March gives way to April, entertainments give way from the secular to the non-secular as Passover and Easter come into focus. For many, this means a specific tradition is about to grace… Read More ›
Ahead of the modern MonsterVerse showdown, revisit Gareth Edwards’s “Godzilla” for the first time in 4K UHD.
Alright, everyone: WHO IS READY TO RUMMMMMMMMMMMMMBBBBLLLLLEEEEE????!!!!! (Copyright Michael Buffer.) On March 31st, the fight kaiju fans have been waiting for is going down: Godzilla Vs. Kong. In the run-up to the glorious smackdown in which Kong will sucker punch… Read More ›
Just In: “Breaking News in Yuba County” fails to live up to the promise of its cast.
No one can accuse Tate Taylor of being the kind of director who’s confined to one genre or style. He’s tackled book adaptations with the Oscar-winning The Help (2011), biographical material with Get on Up (2014), suspense with The Girl… Read More ›
Liberate tutemet ex inferis. “Event Horizon” Collector’s Edition coming from Shout! Factory.
Have you taken time to praise our lord and savior Paul W.S. Anderson today? For his truth and wisdom are great and mighty, and his camp polished and lively. For he…also made the Resident Evil movies, and that’s pretty cool,… Read More ›
Funimation’s 4K UHD Limited Edition set of “Akira” is well worth the time and investment.
Director Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s 1988 adaptation of his own 1982 manga, Akira, is considered one of the greatest film ever made if only for its influence on all the post-apocalyptic cyberpunk stories to come. Both the manga and film pre-date Masamune… Read More ›
Fistful of Features: Week of March 16th
Welcome to this week’s edition of Fistful of Features, a weekly column that celebrates film preservation through physical media and discusses cinematic treasures from every genre to maintain their relevance in the cultural lexicon. There are some great releases that… Read More ›
Effulgent and joyous, “Mr. Soul!” is a celebration of one man’s work.
In 1968, you couldn’t turn on the television, listen to the radio, or read something in print without seeing a White face. Even during the Civil Rights Movement, any presentation of the Black experience was almost always presented through a… Read More ›
Writer/director Djibril Diop Mambéty’s “Touki bouki (Journey of the Hyena)” finally gets a solo Criterion release.
Since its inception, The Criterion Collection has become both preservationist and distributor of arthouse cinema (with a few exceptions for more populist material (what’s up, Armageddon?)). In keeping with this, they’ve partnered with Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project on three… Read More ›
“Coming 2 America” is a serotonin-filled blast from the past.
To paraphrase a line from director Craig Brewer’s (Dolemite Is My Name) Coming 2 America, Hollywood is nothing but superhero films, remakes, and sequels no one asked for. Without getting into the numerous ways that’s an oversimplification that ignores the… Read More ›
Celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Amanda Bynes/Channing Tatum Shakespeare adaptation “She’s The Man” with a brand-new Blu-ray release.
Everybody has a secret… Duke wants Olivia who likes Sebastian who is really Viola whose brother is dating Monique so she hates Olivia who’s with Duke to make Sebastian jealous who is really Viola who’s crushing on Duke who thinks… Read More ›
Akira Kurosawa Series: A Look Back on “Stray Dog.”
By the end of Akira Kurosawa’s 1949 detective drama, Stray Dog, there is not a character that escapes the fray without rolling around in the mud, figuratively and literally. Every decision has consequences, and every action has a reaction. Some, more… Read More ›
Arrow Video’s HD restoration of director Park Chan-wook’s “JSA: Joint Security Area” is an opportunity to learn from the past.
One of the great things about boutique distributors like Criterion, Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome, and others is that whether a film is lost or beloved, they find new life via a new release. Even though the major studios are starting to… Read More ›
Fistful of Features: Week of February 23rd
Welcome to Fistful of Features, a weekly column that celebrates film preservation through physical media and discusses cinematic treasures from every genre to maintain their relevance in the cultural lexicon. There are many great labels that are doing incredible work… Read More ›
Ramin Bahrani’s “Chop Shop” offers a compelling look at the life of adolescent immigrants.
Two years after the release of Man Push Cart (2005), writer/director Ramin Bahrani followed it with Chop Shop (2007), a thematic continuation of the immigrant story he began with Ahmad the Pakistani food cart owner. Though actor Ahmad Razvi does… Read More ›
Ramin Bahrani’s melancholic “Man Push Cart” joins the Criterion Collection.
It’s interesting how things rarely change with time. There are incremental changes, sure, shifts in the way people dress or the meanings of words, but, largely, there are some things which remain. A sadness, a true melancholy, shrouds our existence,… Read More ›