**Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.** Horror changed in 1968 when a small indie picture directed by George A. Romero from… Read More ›
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“a-ha: The Movie” makes it clear that it’s no better to be safe than sorry. [Nashville Film Festival]
Music is absolutely a paradox when it comes to its tether to time. It’s at once a product of when it was made, but it can feel entirely free of that period, being discovered or rediscovered over and over again…. Read More ›
Midnight movie “The Murder Podcast” may require a specific frame of mind to appreciate fully. [Nashville Film Festival]
Podcasting is older than most think. With the birth of digital audio playback technology in the late 1990s and early 2000s, most think of podcasts as coming up with those devices, but they really started well before that in the… Read More ›
One-woman show “Faye” finds hope in the horror. [Nashville Film Festival]
It’s confounding the lengths people will go to denigrate or dismiss the horror genre in favor of more populist genres like action, drama, or comedy. For generations, horror stories have been used as social warnings, explorations of loss, and even… Read More ›
A road trip with the Addams Family shouldn’t be so unexpectedly disastrous.
They’re creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky, and are back for a second animated film from returning directors Greg Tiernan (Sausage Party) and Conrad Vernon (Monsters vs. Aliens). Where the first film explored assimilation versus individuality, the second outing is more interested… Read More ›
Writer/director Jean Luc Herbulot’s “Saloum” will make you believe in legends. [Fantastic Fest]
The premise is a simple one: three hired guns extract and protect a druglord but find themselves seeking shelter in a remote village in Saloum, Senegal, when their transport malfunctions, landing them in a situation they could never predict. With… Read More ›
Despite being smart and compelling on its own merits, there’s little original within “No One Gets Out Alive.”
As a writer, you have to have some insane measure of confidence to title a horror novel No One Gets Out Alive and still purport to have something up your sleeve as a storyteller. Adam Nevill’s 2014 novel seemingly did… Read More ›
Twitter thread-turned-movie “Zola” is available on home video from Lionsgate.
“Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here feel out???????? It’s kind of long but full of suspense” This is the tweet that kicked off a 148-tweet thread detailing the heart-pounding adventure A’Ziah “Zola” Wells King… Read More ›
Music is the tether in short doc “Babylon: Ghetto, Renaissance, and Modern Oblivion,” linking two cultures across time and location.
Before Guttenberg changed how we share stories with the birth of the printing press in 1450, it was the oral tradition which kept the past in the memories of our present. Even well after the emergence of printed word, the… Read More ›
“Lady of the Manor” possesses the potential for a high-spirited comedy but tumbles in the execution.
Comedy is one of the most subjective forms of art. What one viewer finds to be right up their alley might completely turn another viewer off. When a film plays around with a blend of comedy subgenres, it is even… Read More ›
Go on a swashbuckling animated macabre adventure in the adaptation of “Petite Vampire.”
There are many things about cinema that The Cine-Men co-host Darryl Mansel laments, but the one that he laments the most is the lack of swashbuckler films. Disney’s recent Jungle Cruise possesses traits of these films, though mostly due to… Read More ›
Equal parts devastating and inspiriting, “What She Said” is a powerful directorial debut.
Reactions to trauma are specific to each person and situation. No two people respond to a harrowing event in the exact same fashion because the human experience and each person’s perception of the world around them is so unique. When… Read More ›
Inherit the dreams of Dreamers with “In the Heights.”
In so many ways, truth is stranger than fiction. According to actor Olga Merediz (The Place Beyond the Pines) in the featurette “That Music in the Air,” playwright/actor Lin-Manuel Miranda told her that he’d begun writing songs that would appear… Read More ›
Styled like a documentary, dramatic fiction “Dark Blood” feels like watching the spiritual obliteration of innocence.
Few films have shaken me quite like Harold Trompetero’s Dark Blood has. Uncut Gems (2019) left me vibrating from anxiety; If Anything Happens I Love You (2020) left me stunned, silently crying over the credits; Violet (2021) left me raw,… Read More ›
In the style of teen classics like “The Breakfast Club” and “Dead Poets Society,” Daigo Matsui’s “Remain in Twilight” appeals to our restless youthful spirits with wit and sincerity. [Fantasia International Film Festival]
It’s not every day we get the chance to chat with a loved one who has passed on. Skeptics would say that we never get that opportunity. If you’ve lost someone important to you, you’ve probably at least imagined having… Read More ›
Documentary “Kipchoge: The Last Milestone” reminds audiences that our limits are of our own making.
There are certain landmark achievements in human history, whether physically or intellectually or a combination of the two, that only come along once every century or so, representing the pinnacle of human potential. The documentary Kipchoge: The Last Milestone, directed… Read More ›
“It Takes Three” adapts the story of “Cyrano de Bergerac” with an ‘80s rom-com swagger.
The biggest reason to stop telling people what films they should love or hate is primarily due to its icky gatekeeping factor, but, secondarily, there’s no telling what people will connect to and when. There are as many people out… Read More ›
“The Last Matinee” satisfies with thrills and kills.
The great debate of the importance of the “theatrical experience” has been run into the ground as streaming services continue to expand and movie theater attendance becomes increasingly inconsistent. The industry was headed in this direction even before March 2020,… Read More ›
Russian comedy “Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It” is a road trip horror comedy you’ve just gotta see. [Fantasia International Film Festival]
Everyone has a thing that they look for before deciding if they want to engage with a piece of art. It could be the cover of an album that lures them in, the style of brush strokes crafting a painting,… Read More ›
“The 12 Day Tale of the Monster that Died in 8 (8日で死んだ怪獣の12日の物語)” is a carefully produced, lovingly crafted COVID-related tale. [Fantasia International Film Festival]
I don’t mess with COVID-related content. I’ve lived it for the past 18 months and, when I watch a movie, I absolutely do not want to be reminded of it in any way. Locked Down? I refuse to watch it…. Read More ›