The key to a great slasher film, other than a great antagonist, is a situation where the stakes are high for one or both parties, an arena where both the hunter and the hunted have an equal playing field and… Read More ›
Recommendation
Hong Kong cinema homage “Love Hurts” arrives on physical formats, bringing its production secrets with it.
It’s a tale as old as time. Actor gets work with not one, but multiple top-tier directors, and then finds themselves struggling to get work. Most times, those actors fade into obscurity if they can’t pivot. One such actor, Ke… Read More ›
Buddy comedy “One of Them Days” is sparse on bonus materials for the home release, but not on laughs.
During the featurette “Dream Team,” first-time feature director Lawrence Lamont (Rap Sh!t) describes to producer Issa Rae (Insecure; The Lovebirds) the homages within One of Them Days, referring to both Friday (1995) and Superbad (2007). Each of these comes from… Read More ›
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s “Freaky Tales” mythologizes the Oakland Bay area through a punk rock & hip-hop infused anthology.
Anthologies have a long history in storytelling as they gather seemingly disparate narratives into a singular collection. In cinema, the connection between the parts can remain thematic, leaving the stories individual (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)); may be through… Read More ›
GKIDS Films re-releases Mamoru Hosoda’s “Summer Wars” on home video as they kick off their Hosoda Collection coverage.
“This is the nature of war: By protecting others, you save yourselves. If you only think of yourself, you’ll only destroy yourself.” – Seven Samurai (1954) One never knows what their introduction to a filmmaker’s filmography will be. Someone could… Read More ›
18 Overlook Film Festival 2025 films to get your fright on.
For the third year in a row, Elements of Madness will officially be covering The Overlook Film Festival and, as the sole member of the team “attending,” I thought I’d offer up a few recommendations of what to check out… Read More ›
“She’s the He” turns the bathroom panic in today’s political landscape into a hilarious and heartfelt coming-of-age sex comedy. [SXSW]
Coming-of-age tales are fairly commonplace in cinema with explorations of self and sex in semi-recent films like Porky’s (1981), A Goofy Movie (1995), and The People’s Joker (2024). These stories feature young adults getting into a variety of hijinks either… Read More ›
“Bob Trevino Likes It” and audiences will love it.
Tracie Laymon may have arguably the year’s best feature debut. Her adapted from real life story, Bob Trevino Likes It, is masterfully crafted by its entire cast, bringing the film to emotional heights and devastating realizations, resulting in a movie… Read More ›
“A Complete Unknown” comes to home viewing like a rolling stone.
When we think of Bob Dylan, we often reflect on his profound impact on music, culture, and politics. Over the decades, he’s transcended the role of a mere musician, becoming a cultural icon whose voice and influence have defined multiple… Read More ›
“Tommy Boy” retains its quality comedy 30 years later in 4K UHD and you can take the butcher’s word for it.
“If at first you don’t succeed, lower your standards.” – Tommy Boy tagline For Generation Xers and Millennials, Saturday Night Live had a pretty strong grip on our popular culture experience in the ‘90s. Through various cast members (original and… Read More ›
88 Films offers Lau Kar-Leung’s action comedy “The Lady is the Boss” for a first-time U.S. release.
Actor, writer, director Lau Kar-Leung is a staple of the Shaw Brothers Studio as evidenced by projects like The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978), The Shadow Boxing (1979), The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter (1984), and Disciples of the 36th Chamber… Read More ›
You could bring the horror of possession tale “Devils Stay” home or ….. not.
A staple of cinema is the horror story: possession, corruption, soul-trading. You name it and horror is going to give it to you. For his first feature film, writer/director Hyun Moon-seop utilizes the well-worn path of demon possession in his… Read More ›
Revisit a terrific Gene Hackman performance with The Criterion Collection’s edition of “Night Moves.”
The New Hollywood movement (or “period”, depending on who you ask) was a defining moment in cinema where the film director was the “end-all/be-all” authority rather than the film studio. It’s a movement (generally from the mid-‘60s to early ‘80s)… Read More ›
A24 rewards “Babygirl” with very worthy features on its home release on Blu-ray and 4K UHD.
If you’re a fan of physical media (I mean who isn’t, and if you’re not, you’re not reading this) and you care about more than just *owning* a copy of the movie (you like the packaging, you like the extras,… Read More ›
“New Religion” gets the picture with Third Window Films release.
In Keishi Kondo’s 2022 directorial debut New Religion, communal memory and grief intertwine in photographs to illustrate a haunted post-COVID world. The surrealist Japanese art house thriller follows Kaho Seto (My Identity; Beyond the Blue) as Miyabi, a prostitute trying… Read More ›
The Criterion restoration of “Godzilla vs. Biollante” in 4K Blu-ray is well worth a revisit.
Whether you’ve been a fan of the kaiju-destroying Godzilla from its initial creation in 1954 from Toho, or your first introduction to the gigantic destructive beast was Legendary’s Godzilla from 2014 or 2023’s spectacular Godzilla Minus One, there is one… Read More ›
The home release of disjointed “Wolf Man” brings enjoyable special features.
In another reality, modern audiences would be elbow-deep in the modern monsterverse Universal Pictures dubbed the “Dark Universe,” which kicked off with the release of 2017’s The Mummy. It was all in place with cast and concept, but the failed… Read More ›
Charlie Chaplin’s progressive romantic drama “A Woman of Paris” is his ninth title to enter The Criterion Collection.
Left to leave her hometown without her partner, a woman moves toward a major city center, finds herself a rich lover who allows her to enjoy the finer things in life, until two things occur requiring her to reconsider her… Read More ›
Eight Boston Underground Film Festival 2025 films to investigate.
For the first time, Elements of Madness is officially covering the Boston Underground Film Festival and I thought I’d offer up a short-list of films I hope to check out during the fest or what to keep an eye out… Read More ›
Ben Leonberg’s “Good Boy” takes the horror tropes you know and revitalizes them via a new context that’s unpredictable and terrifying. [SXSW]
Photosensitivity Warning: Good Boy involves several night time sequences that occur during a storm, resulting in a great deal of lightning flashes. Those with light sensitivities should take precautions before viewing. Every genre has their tropes, but very few play… Read More ›