When Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol dropped in 2011, I hadn’t seen any of the other films in the series, but the trailer’s promises of acrophobic suspense shot in full 70mm IMAX pulled me in. I was so enthralled by… Read More ›
Reviews
25 films to check out during the Fantasia International Film Festival 2023.
For the fourth year in a row, Elements of Madness will officially be covering the Fantasia International Film Festival and we thought we’d offer up our recommendations of what to check out during the fest or what to keep an… Read More ›
20th Century Studios re-releases the 2009 hit “Avatar” in a first-time 4K UHD with HDR presentation.
It’s 2009 and outside of some television and oceanic-centric films, writer/director James Cameron hasn’t had a film in theaters since 1997’s Titanic. His new project, Avatar, promises to take audiences on an incredible ride to a new planet, invaded by… Read More ›
“Biosphere” is fertile ground for a good time.
It’s always strange when a film, its release date set months or years in advance, syncs up with current events. Of course, a writer’s job is often to synthesize their experiences and see how they will evolve down the road,… Read More ›
Paramount Pictures honors the 25th anniversary of “The Truman Show” with a 4K UHD remaster.
Despite what one may think of reality tv programming, it’s neither extraordinarily new nor a fad. Is it a way to get around the writers’ strike happening right now? Only a little bit as, one may be surprised to learn,… Read More ›
Benedetta Porcaroli exudes main-character energy as the leading lady in Carolina Cavalli’s “Amanda.”
Carolina Cavalli’s Amanda couldn’t be titled anything else. The protagonist and titular character, 24-year-old Amanda, is the gravitational force that holds this quirky, quietly humorous, and, at times, meandering film together. Portrayed with delightful nuance by Benedetta Porcaroli (The Shadow… Read More ›
Adele Lim’s R-rated comedy is an absolute “Joy Ride.”
The R-rated studio sex comedy. Once a staple of the American film industry, this genre has since faded into semi-obscurity following a mixture of oversaturation (did we really need three Hangover (2009-2013) films?) and Gen Z finding their own comedic… Read More ›
Frank Marhsall’s documentary “Rather” reports on the man who covered history then and now. [Tribeca Film Festival]
As a Communications Major at the University of North Carolina at Asheville (Go Bulldogs!), there were two specific newscasters that came up in conversation: Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. Coincidentally, both were born roughly a decade apart, worked for… Read More ›
Criterion resurrects “The Rules of the Game” in a beautiful 4K UHD presentation.
There is something to be noted about Criterion and Janus films; while some of their slate of films and releases can be defined as questionable, they certainly release undeniably important films and always have. Especially as someone who went to… Read More ›
Summoning a Kandarian demon gets you a great horror experience despite absent special features in “Evil Dead Rise.”
A controversial take to start off the review: I prefer the newer Evil Dead films to the older ones. This isn’t because I think they’re significantly better in quality, Sam Raimi’s trilogy is a masterclass in camp filmmaking that has… Read More ›
In a period of uncertain times, “Nimona” celebrates the rejects.
“Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.” – German proverb. In the stories we tell, if there’s a hero, there’s a villain, someone for the bold and courageous to conquer; otherwise, how are they to be bold and courageous?… Read More ›
Music doc “Anthem” is frequently sobering, but lacks temerity. [Tribeca Film Festival]
It’s a strange thing to be a person of a country. You can’t just identify as yourself in the singular as too many things require you to announce in the binary if you’re in support of or against where you… Read More ›
Harrison Ford takes Indiana Jones for one last cinematic adventure in “Dial of Destiny.”
Indiana Jones is one of cinema’s most beloved franchises. Those films resonate with audiences on a massive scale. After three successful classics, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull (2008) divided the fans. 15 years have passed and a fifth film,… Read More ›
“No Hard Feelings” astroglides on the chemistry between its two leads.
Jennifer Lawrence is known to have a funny off-screen persona. Her no-nonsense personality has made her a fan favorite celebrity for audiences. That funny personality has never shown in her performances, until now. No Hard Feelings is a raunchy R-rated… Read More ›
Enjoy the surprisingly charming and enjoyable “The Pope’s Exorcist” at home now.
It’s sometimes tough as a horror fan to not occasionally roll my eyes at certain sub-genres under the umbrella due to being burned one too many times by vapid copycats. Strangely, the exorcism sub-genre of horror, while defined by William… Read More ›
The Criterion Collection’s new release of “Time Bandits” on 4K is former released materials with a new format.
In part of what writer/director Terry Gilliam calls his “Trilogy of Imagination,” Time Bandits represents the adolescent perspective: a period of wonder, amazement, magic, and disappointment. It’s an adventure tale in which a child journeys through holes in the universe… Read More ›
Writer/director Diana Galimzyanova hits the festival circuit with idiosyncratic “Plan 9 from Aliexpress.”
“You Won’t Understand A Single Thing.” There is not a more on-target tag in all of cinema history, I think, than this one attached to the new Diana Galimzyanova (The Lightest Darkness) project, Plan 9 from Aliexpress, currently on the… Read More ›
“Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” may be special feature-free, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to explore in the home release.
“The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.” – Proverb of unclear origin. By October 2001, within a month of the U.S.-based terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001, U.S. armed forces moved into Afghanistan in… Read More ›
Radiance Films adds Rudolf Thome’s “Red Sun” to their collection in a first-time U.S. edition.
In its quest for cinema preservation, boutique distributor Radiance Films has released onto Blu-ray such films as Kōsaku Yamashita’s Big Time Gambling Boss (1968), Luigi Comencini’s The Sunday Woman (1975), Todd Solondz’s Welcome to the Doll House (1995), and Amy… Read More ›
Documentary “Stan Lee” honors the life and legacy forged by The Man through his own words. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Before I dive into this review of the documentary simply titled Stan Lee, I just want to make a little bit of a note on myself and who I was as a child. It is particularly interesting that I always… Read More ›