**Trigger Warning: Alice, Darling involves emotional and psychological abuse.** There are movies that create such a tense, uncomfortable, but horribly familiar atmosphere for audiences which don’t need to fall into the horror genre but rather into a drama that truly… Read More ›
In a world where there are literally countless hours of product out there, having something with power behind and in front of the camera that breaks the mold so drastically is always something that catches the eyes of a viewer…. Read More ›
**Content Warning: Beautiful Beings contains material involving sexual abuse of minors, inferences of abuse, and other subject material that may trigger SA survivors.** Writer/director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson (Heartstone) followed up his first feature film with a story that’s at once… Read More ›
If you aren’t a part of the community as I am, the world of Gay Twitter™ went absolutely hog wild when the trailer for M3GAN dropped back in October. Within mere minutes, drag queens all across the world were dropping… Read More ›
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” – Matthew 24:40. It says a lot about a person or a community how they treat others,… Read More ›
Since its publication in 1883, Italian author Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio has been adapted on paper and for stage and screen many times. The most well-known, of course, being the 1940 Walt Disney animated adaptation. It’s a story… Read More ›
In March 2002, in order to combat the persistent and often violent persecution practitioners of Falun Gong endured in China, several members decided to break into the evening news to project one of their DVDs. The idea being that if… Read More ›
Just because you’ve been with someone a long time doesn’t mean that it’s either a good fit or meant to last forever. Good relationships are ones in which each participant invests in both themselves and their partner. Bad ones result… Read More ›
For every smart little one-liner I wanted to inject into this intro about Santa Claus to describe this film, I realized it was already covered by Violent Night’s catchphrase-heavy screenplay, rendering my job nearly useless, as one can imagine the… Read More ›
I am a sucker when it comes to some people’s bodies of work and usually, when I’m made aware they’re in something that even vaguely catches my eye, I will watch it without any further knowledge as to what the… Read More ›
For as long as someone thought themselves superior to another, for as long as someone believed themselves owed what belongs to another, there has been colonization. The roots likely go deeper than we know for sure, but, starting in February… Read More ›
An observation about American cinema is made early into writer/actor/director Ahcitz Azcona’s The Inevitable Death of the Crab (La Inevitable Muerte del Cangrejo) that’s incredibly obvious yet startling once considered: whomever the latest “bad guy” is to the U.S., they… Read More ›
Satire is a sticky wicket requiring expert balance to nail. Films like Paul Verhoven’s RoboCop (1987) and Starship Troopers (1997) are as frequently misunderstood for their analysis of corporate greed and nationalism as Fight Club is (film (1999) or novel)… Read More ›
As I type this intro, the verdict to the Darrell Brooks trial has just been read, ending a weeks-long shitshow of an abuse of a public system of representation for someone who was clearly guilty (I can say that now,… Read More ›
2019’s surprise of the holiday season was writer/director Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, a whodunit that takes all the hallmarks of the great mystery writers and gave it his own spin. First, there’s the rich family where motive is everywhere and… Read More ›
Movies have been around since the late 1800s and music has been around even longer, so to have someone want to create something to be classified in either medium that is original or even inspired is a difficult task. I… Read More ›
A lot of (not all, don’t swarm me) these new kids like to think everything is peachy keen and hunky dory in the world of queerness in the modern world. Unlike so many generations before them, there are actual chances… Read More ›
Empire of Light immediately had me on its side because I too work at an independent, two-screen cinema that features grand Beaux Arts architecture, an eclectic group of regulars, and perhaps an even more eclectic staff. Operating as a sort… Read More ›
I have two small gripes about the naming of Women Talking, which are my only two jokes I’m allowing myself to make about this film since it is such a serious affair. 1. I’m sad this movie has that name… Read More ›
Three years ago, Film Fest 919 opened the 2019 festival with Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, and I was taken. It was a much more muted affair for the Frances Ha and While We’re Young filmmaker, known for his quirkier approach… Read More ›