Manga author Koyoharu Gotouge’s fantasy adventure shonen Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (鬼滅の刃) first published in February 2016, introducing audiences to Tanjiro Kamado, a young boy living in Taishō era Japan with his mother and siblings, making their living as… Read More ›
Reviews
Disney & Pixar’s “Elio,” a standard but fun, visually dazzling cosmos adventure of self-esteem, comes home in digital HD.
From 2008’s WALL-E to 2022’s Lightyear (and 2020’s Soul, if you count The Great Beyond as a qualifier), Pixar started a tradition of traveling into the beautiful outer space cosmos. In 2025, they continued this tradition with Elio. The film… Read More ›
Confidence crime thriller “Yadang: The Snitch” comes to home video, inspiring you to question who you trust the whole way.
Photosensitivity Warning: There are several party sequences and instances involving the press wherein lights either flash or strobe. Be advised. Everyone has a favorite type of story. For some, it’s romances; others, comedies; and, others still, horror. In my top… Read More ›
Western “The Unholy Trinity” arrives on home video devoid of bonus features.
The Unholy Trinity (2024) is a film that, at first glance, seems tailor-made for fans longing for a return to the gritty, dust-caked charm of old-school westerns. With its barren landscapes, tense shootouts, and a score that leans into the… Read More ›
The web series turned tv show now turned feature film “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie” brings the familiar chaos of Johnson and McCarrol to the big screen. [TIFF]
Have you ever heard of the incredibly Canadian television show Nirvanna the Band the Show? No? It premiered on Vice in 2016 after being a web series in 2007. The show was about two friends who create a band called… Read More ›
Psychological sports thriller “The Cut” takes the legs out from under otherwise well-executed mental and physical breakdowns.
Much like the horror or fantasy genres, sports films are often filled with metaphors. In most cases, the competition is about more than the event itself, it’s about something larger for the character(s) or the idea it represents. In modern… Read More ›
Mystery thriller “It Was Just an Accident” engages audiences to explore their own morality. [TIFF]
Sometimes a title is crucial to the integrity of the movie, giving audiences an idea or an exploratory idea of what they’re about to get themselves into, and sometimes the title is something that feels like it could mean more… Read More ›
“Exit 8” utilizes the video game adaptation genre to dive deep into humanity and individual choices. [TIFF]
To go into a movie without knowing anything about it is a rare experience, but sometimes something drops into your inbox and you decide to jump head first into it knowing nothing other than that it is a festival screening…. Read More ›
The robust performances within escape room horror thriller “Locked” can’t enhance its shallow philosophy.
What would you do to right a wrong? What wrong would you do to make something right? Where is the line by which a good person becomes bad and what rationale do they provide to defend themselves? In truth, from… Read More ›
Catch a strong tail wind and grab the new 4K UHD edition of Peter Weir’s “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.”
November 2003 saw the release of director/co-writer Peter Weir’s (The Truman Show; Dead Poets Society) nautical wartime tale Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, an indirect adaptation of the stories from the Patrick O’Brian Master and Commander… Read More ›
Filmmaker Josh Roush’s “Long Lonesome History: The Story of Michael Parks” is a loving memorial to a lost and treasured friend.
On May 9th, 2017, actor Michael Parks, born Harry Samuel Parks, passed away. Among the many things he left behind, his entertainment-based legacy includes notable roles in television and cinema as well as a career in music. His performances were… Read More ›
The mop of justice returns with filmmaker Macon Blair’s “The Toxic Avenger” adaptation.
The tagline for Macon Blair’s 2023 adaptation of Lloyd Kaufman’s The Toxic Avenger is “The Hero We Need Now,” and this rings even more true upon its wider theatrical release in 2025. Environmental protections are down in favor of corporate… Read More ›
Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme” negotiated a home release but with meager offerings in bonus features.
Storyteller Wes Anderson broke onto the scene with 1994’s Bottle Rocket and hasn’t really looked back. He’s developed a signature style while assembling what’s best described as a theatrical troupe, a set of actors who relish the chance to return… Read More ›
“Lilo & Stitch” come home digitally with a talented cast delivering great family entertainment in live-action.
Live-action remakes of coveted animated films can be a pain point of mine. Most of the time (well, all of the time), it’s an opportunity to juice more money out of an existing IP and less an opportunity to tell… Read More ›
Horror thriller “Burning” utilizes multiple perspectives to showcase how little we know about the people around us. [Fantasia]
In storytelling, the most obvious thing is that the narrative is based on perception, but it’s also the thing that we most take for granted as an audience. We presume that what we see, what we hear, is what happens;… Read More ›
Filmmaker Youssef Chahine is welcomed into the Criterion Collection with a 4K HD restoration of his 1958 crime thriller “Cairo Station.”
Film scholar Joseph Fahim describes director Youssef Chahine’s 1958 crime thriller Cairo Station (باب الحديد) as a film that failed to connect with audiences and was viewed as a failure upon its initial release. He also states that the film… Read More ›
You may not know you’re “Transcending Dimensions,” but you’ll certainly feel it. [Fantasia]
Photosensitivity Warning: There are three instances of powerful strobing/flashing lights that may trigger a painful response in audiences: two shortly after the title card appears and one in the climatic sequence of the film. Japanese filmmaker Toshiaki Toyoda has built… Read More ›
Carlson Young’s new thriller “Trust” showcases the torrid lengths men will go to deny responsibility.
If even a fraction of the things done to women happened to men, the world would be a decidedly different place. Rather than offered equal respect, they are demeaned and denigrated regularly; expected to take it on the chin without… Read More ›
Vittorio De Sica’s first masterpiece “Shoeshine,” a devastating tale of innocence lost in postwar Italy, comes home in excellent restoration, courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
Before he directed one of the greatest films of all time, 1948’s Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio De Sica became the face of Italian Neorealism in 1946 with his first masterpiece Shoeshine. Italian Neorealism was a post-World War II film movement which… Read More ›
“Mother of Flies” is a poetic and unsettling horror tale from one of indie cinema’s most distinctive filmmaking families. [Fantasia]
Mother of Flies is another remarkable entry from this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, and a testament to the uniquely haunting and heartfelt filmmaking voice of The Adams Family — the indie horror power trio made up of Zelda Adams,… Read More ›