Comic book heroes are filtered through the eyes of the creatives before reaching the reader, empowering our heroes to shift, change, and experience adventures that are unique to the storyteller. Sure, it may create places for readers to argue and… Read More ›
Eephus (2024), now out on Blu-ray, is a great American movie because, like America’s Favorite Pastime, it captures the ways we can be and have forgotten how to be — communal, patient, and honorable, surprisingly loud, and sometimes surprisingly quiet… Read More ›
“See, white folks, they like the blues just fine. They just don’t like the people who make it.” – Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) Xenophobes exhibit a strange cognitive dissonance. They own iPhones, but hate the people who make them. They… Read More ›
Absolute Dominion (2025), when pitched, sounds like the left-wing equivalent of an evangelical Lionsgate film that’s obviously a money-laundering scheme, but its impressive direction, a great concept, and a more cohesive politic leave you knowing that it could have been… Read More ›
Warning: The following review will include discussion of violent imagery, infanticide, and genocide. If you read my piece last year on Hayao Miyazaki’s modern masterpiece The Boy and the Heron (君たちはどう生きるか) (2023), then you know that the Ghibli studio head… Read More ›
With few exceptions, American-based action stars primarily relied on either physical strength (Arnold Schwarzenegger) or firearms (Bruce Willis; Eddie Murphy) as the means for righting perceived wrongs. Slowly, however, thanks to actors like Chuck Norris (Enter the Dragon; Missing in… Read More ›
The Amateur is that rare remake that not only justifies its existence but surpasses its source material in nearly every way. In an era overflowing with soulless sequels and shallow reboots, this film reminds us what a remake should be:… Read More ›
July 2025 includes the 29th edition of Fantasia International Film Festival and Elements of Madness is delighted to be covering the esteemed fest for the sixth time. EoM Founder Douglas Davidson and EoM Contributors Justin Waldman and AJ Friar are… Read More ›
If you’ve never seen F. Gary Gray’s Law Abiding Citizen, then stop reading this right now, go find a copy (this new snazzy steelbook is now available), and sit down and watch it (preferably the unrated cut as it has… Read More ›
Fifty years ago, on June 20th, 1975, Steven Spielberg (Hook) unleashed Jaws into theaters and audiences immediately became terrified to go into the water. Widely regarded as the first blockbuster film, its legacy is indelible between its John Williams (Star… Read More ›
Once a box office bomb but now a celebrated cult classic in its own right, Alex Proyas’s Dark City (1998) gives its audience the best of both worlds in its genre-bending plot — dystopian science fiction mixed with detective noir…. Read More ›
It’s July and that means we’re closer to 2026 than we are the start of 2025. Even better, it means that many of the films that released in the first half of 2025 are likely more available than you realize…. Read More ›
The longer one is alive, the more one learns about history, the more timeline events feel like traveling in a circle, rather than in a flat line. Communities build up, empires rise, blights come, and, eventually, the empires fall. The… Read More ›
Now is a great time to be an action cinema fan. In 2025 alone, some highlights include Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League, 40 Acres, The Accountant2, Freaky Tales, One Spoon of Chocolate, and Predator: Killer of Killers. These are stories,… Read More ›
Writer-director Todd Solondz’s fifth feature Palindromes (2004) — a film of taboos, hypocrisies, and uncomfortable hard truths – is an exercise in cynical, cruel comedy. Known as one of independent cinema’s favorite misanthropes, Solondz paints his twisted portrait of motherhood,… Read More ›
Content Warning: The Woman in the Yard deals with concepts of grief, suicide ideation, and parental struggle. Since 2005’s House of Wax remake, filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra has alternated between straight horror titles (Orphan), thrillers (Carry-On), and more family-friendly fare (Jungle… Read More ›
This film is a miracle of cinema. Let me explain. After struggles making the film, including production delays, cast conflicts, and more, William Friedkin’s tense masterpiece of a thriller Sorcerer was finally released in cinemas in 1977. Another film released… Read More ›
Before filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie accepted the mission four times (Mission: Impossible franchise) and before he adapted Lee Child’s nomadic former MP for the big screen (Jack Reacher (2012)), he started out with his own creation, the neo-western The Way of… Read More ›
If you’re Gen X, or older, you might remember a creepy toy from your childhood, a monkey with unsettling eyes that, when wound up, would bang cymbals together frantically, bob its head up and down while grinning, and sometimes make… Read More ›
Director Terry Gilliam has always been a difficult talent for me to connect with. His films relish in a level of weirdness that never lands as intended. Movies like Time Bandits (1981) and 12 Monkeys (1995) never left a significant… Read More ›