One of the great things about covering film festivals throughout the year is the opportunity to see films before they go wide to the general public. This affords reviewers, such as myself, the chance to champion storytellers who we believe… Read More ›
There is a lot to love about movies that just hit the right notes and usually it is a difficult task for a feature-length directorial debut, but its not totally unheard of. Tim and Cody’s The Last Video Store is… Read More ›
Before I unveil the 2024 Sticky List, here’s a list of 19 favorite films from this year that you can stream right now as you ring in the new year. A mix of home release editions and streaming options, you’ll… Read More ›
Janus Contemporaries’s newest unnumbered entry into the Criterion Collection is priced just right at $20.99. The Beast, the latest film from Bertrand Bonello (House of Tolerance; Saint Laurent), is a surreal tale starring two of the best actors working today,… Read More ›
In our new world where big budget blockbusters dominate the theatrical landscape, Crust, the 2024 indie horror-comedy written and directed by Sean Whalen (Twister), stands out as a delightful anomaly. Featuring a cast of relatively unknown actors and a limited… Read More ›
2024 has been a banner year for movies (despite what social media and some people may have you think) and a strange one for Warner Brothers. Before diving into the home release of Joker: Folie à Deux, I want to… Read More ›
“He who seeks revenge digs two graves.” – Confucius In December 2023, director Martin Bourboulon’s The Three Musketeers – Part I: D’Artagnan released into U.S. theaters, kicking off a brand-new adaptation of author Alexandre Dumas’s classic novel. It currently remains… Read More ›
It’s very common for members of Hong Kong (HK) cinema to take on multiple career paths through their lifetime. Many start as stunt people, working their way up to actor and then, often, to the position of writing and/or directing,… Read More ›
August 8th, 1986, is a big day for Transformers fans. It’s the date that the fully-animated The Transformers: The Movie would release in theaters, beckoning its many young fans to come see its Autobot hero Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter… Read More ›
People always say “if at first you do not like something, you should give it another chance,” and that general principal is typically a good one, the exception being that if you have deep vitriol for something, your mind is… Read More ›
Directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) and based on a 2016 novel of the same name, Conclave is a tense drama that pits progress, ethics, coexistence, and empathy against corruption and abuses of power, a battle… Read More ›
Some things feel like inevitability due to hindsight. The human fascination with the unknown tends to spark real-world exploration, which is why the science-fiction adventure tale Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas by Jules Verne (published 1870), were it written… Read More ›
There is nothing and I mean *nothing* more annoying that a hotly anticipated 4K release being gatekept behind the identity of a collectors/anniversary/limited edition multipack for it to be singularly released a few months later. Now I am not saying… Read More ›
As we approach the holidays of giving (Christmas and Hanukkah overlap this year), it’s also a time when studios try to remind audiences of films they might’ve enjoyed once by re-releasing them in a new edition or format. Nearly five… Read More ›
“Never give up, never surrender!” — these are the words of the intrepid captain of the spaceship Protector, Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, a rally cry to remind his crew that in the face of insurmountable odds, one does not quit…. Read More ›
In his first time writing and directing a feature, Andrew DeYoung manages to craft the quintessential perfectly unhinged cringe comedy of the 21st century, Friendship. It’s a movie that is so absolutely and unabashedly insane, it causes the audience to… Read More ›
Whether literally or metaphorically, nostalgia is always for sale. By tapping into your rose-colored memories, companies have you ready to buy anything under the guise of it helping you escape the hardships of the present for even a moment. Doesn’t… Read More ›
Remakes and adaptations are constants in entertainment. For one, they offer safety for skittish executives worried more about their bottom line and upsetting stockholders than taking risks with an unvetted intellectual property (IP). For two, sometimes there are stories that… Read More ›
In 2024, it’s quite easy for cinema-going audiences to identify the Chinese genre of fantastical martial arts tales known as wuxia thanks to films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Hero (2002), and, more recently, Śakra (2023). Though a popular… Read More ›
Blazing Saddles (1974) is something so outstandingly outlandish and bold and still something that is wholly expected because it’s Mel Brooks. It is one of the most outlandish, hilarious, brilliant comedies of the 20th century and for it to be… Read More ›