Welcome to Fistful of Features, a celebration of film preservation through physical media and the discussion of cinematic treasures to maintain their relevance in the cultural lexicon. I’m taking a different approach this time around and decided to focus on… Read More ›
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 ›
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 ›
“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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
The deconstruction and evaluation of superheroes in cinema and television didn’t begin with Zack Snyder or Eric Kripke, though they are the ones most widely known for it at the moment. Their stories take a darker look at the notion… Read More ›
Originally slated for February 7th, 2020, the second-part of the Fengshen Cinematic Universe went into stasis until a brief theatrical rollout in October 2020. Now, though, nearly a year after it was to hit cinemaplexes, Jiang Ziya (also known as… Read More ›
Even in the Before Times, it was nearly impossible to see every film that was released in a given year. You can certainly try, but there’re bound to be a few that you miss either by choice or circumstance. This… Read More ›