Elements of Madness

Recent Posts - page 32

• “I’m Still Here” tells a narrative as relevant today as in 1970 Brazil.

  By Andrew J. Eisenman on February 7, 2025 • ( 0 )

  

  Oscar hopeful I’m Still Here (2024) opens with where, when, who, and what’s it like. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 1970. Eunice Paiva, the wife of a retired left-wing senator is on a beach as armored personnel carriers drive down the… Read More ›

• Eleven Films of 2024 That Stuck With Me

  By Douglas Davidson on February 6, 2025 • ( 0 )

  

  With 2024 over, it’s time to unveil the Ninth Annual Sticky List! If you’re unfamiliar with the Sticky List, these are the films which made me want to watch, rewatch, discuss, and share. While several films on my favorites list… Read More ›

• Oscar-nominated documentary “No Other Land” deserves your attention and a distributor.

  By Andrew J. Eisenman on February 5, 2025 • ( 1 )

  

  Content Warning for descriptions, images, and reporting on violent scenes of oppression, police brutality, and genocide. There are special movies, and then there are films that you’ll never forget. No Other Land, an on-the-ground account of a Palestinian West Bank… Read More ›

• “Love Me,” a metaphysical tale of romance Or: How I Decided to Stop Worrying and Simply Love YouTube.

  By justin waldman on February 4, 2025 • ( 0 )

  

  Trying to make a movie that is as adult while being not-so-on-the-nose as WALL-E (2008) is certainly a daunting task, and writers/directors Sam and Andrew Zuchero (10 Crosby) not only took on this challenge in their new film Love Me,… Read More ›

• Jesse Eisenberg’s sophomore directorial feature, “A Real Pain,” is available on digital ahead of its physical release.

  By Douglas Davidson on February 4, 2025 • ( 1 )

  

  There’s this strange compulsion by many to respond to someone’s discomfort with “everyone has problems.” Whatever the intention, all it ever does is minimize what a person is feeling with the implication that “why should someone be feeling badly about… Read More ›

• That’s that: The Criterion Collection re-releases Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love” with a 4K UHD edition.

  By Douglas Davidson on February 3, 2025 • ( 0 )

  

  “Tell someone you love them today, because life is short. But shout it at them in German, because life is also terrifying.” – anonymous meme With a career filled with critical highs and lows, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson has wowed… Read More ›

• “Like Father Like Son” lacks tension in its attempt to challenge its audience.

  By Douglas Davidson on January 31, 2025 • ( 0 )

  

  Trigger Warning: Like Father Like Son utilizes frequent use of unexpected fast cuts with visual imagery accompanied by white flashes which may disturb photosensitive viewers. What makes a killer a killer? For centuries, this question has been asked by plebs… Read More ›

• Documentary “Third Act” captures self-realizations and the discovery that they run generations-deep. [Sundance]

  By Douglas Davidson on January 30, 2025 • ( 3 )

  

  History can only be buried for so long before the truth comes out. This relates to large revelations (the purposeful attempts to control and reduce Indigenous populations through residential schools in the U.S. and Canada) and interpersonal discoveries that wield… Read More ›

• “Studio One Forever” is a “Celebration of Life” for historic West Hollywood club.

  By Mallory Moore on January 30, 2025 • ( 0 )

  

  It’s an important rite of passage for each generation to mourn the loss of the cultural norms and trends that defined its youth. Unfortunately, this mourning usually manifests as some iteration of the tone-deaf and demeaning phrase, “Kids today will… Read More ›

• Beware the creature of the night who promises peace in “Touch Me.” [Sundance]

  By Douglas Davidson on January 29, 2025 • ( 3 )

  

  Trigger Warning: The narrative of Touch Me grapples with difficult topics involving sexual abuse and addiction. Additionally, there are a few brief sequences of light-strobing that might be difficult for photosensitive viewers. “And crawling on the planet’s face, some insects,… Read More ›

• Radiance Films welcomes their second Seijun Suzuki HD 4K restoration to their collection with crime thriller “Underworld Beauty.”

  By Douglas Davidson on January 28, 2025 • ( 0 )

  

  “There is no honor among thieves.” This idea is often at the center of confidence or crime tales within any genre or medium. The people who you trust to pull a job just might be the same people who will… Read More ›

• When the debt comes due, you’ll be singing the hymn of “The Devil and the Daylong Brothers.”

  By Douglas Davidson on January 27, 2025 • ( 1 )

  

  What is a soul worth? If one believes that it’s not a thing that can be manifested on its own, that comes to us naturally, or that it is a gift instilled in us by our creator, well, that’s three… Read More ›

• Genre-hybrid “Running on Karma” gets a 2K restoration as it’s added to Eureka Entertainment’s “Masters of Cinema” series.

  By Douglas Davidson on January 27, 2025 • ( 2 )

  

  “You can’t take anything with you when you die, except your deeds.” – Lee Fun Yee (Cecilla Cheung) in Running on Karma Established in 1996 by director Johnnie To and frequent collaborator Wai Ka-Fai, production house Milkyway Image Ltd. would… Read More ›

• “Eternal You” explores the promise of extending one’s lifespan through digital transitions.

  By Douglas Davidson on January 24, 2025 • ( 2 )

  

  Once something to be imagined in your favorite sci-fi tale, artificial intelligence (A.I.) is now being forced into everything from your smartphone to your toaster. Instead of being used to expand human consciousness through exploratory play like Star Trek: The… Read More ›

• Kelsey Egan’s sophomore effort “The Fix” offers challenging ideas within an accessible action body horror package.

  By Douglas Davidson on January 23, 2025 • ( 0 )

  

  In 2021, director/co-writer Kelsey Egan brought audiences within the perimeter of a private utopia tucked away within a greater ecological threat that destroyed memories in her sci-fi thriller Glasshouse. Exploring the connection between memory and trauma, Egan challenged audiences to… Read More ›

• 4K UHD release of “Jackie Brown” stuns in 4K but with no extras in the overhead bin.

  By justin waldman on January 22, 2025 • ( 0 )

  

  When 2022 was happening and the announcement that Quentin Tarantino’s first feature ever was going to be released in 4K, everyone was foaming at their mouth with anticipation that not only was this going to be a *good* release but… Read More ›

• Pedro Almodóvar’s first English language film, “The Room Next Door,” is an ode to a life lived and what comes next.

  By Michelle Swope on January 21, 2025 • ( 0 )

  

  As painful as it can be for everyone involved, death is inevitable. You might be able to delay its arrival, but ultimately, death comes for all of us, and we will all leave someone behind to grieve our passing. Grieving… Read More ›

• Both halves of Quentin Tarantino’s fourth film, “Kill Bill,” receive a first-time 4K UHD edition and special edition steelbook via Lionsgate Limited.

  By Douglas Davidson on January 21, 2025 • ( 0 )

  

  “The Bride: You and I have unfinished business. Bill: Baby, you ain’t kidding.” – Kill Bill, Vol. 2 (2004) It’s 2025 and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is actively developing his 10th, and rumored final, film. Though incredibly divisive for the dialogue… Read More ›

• The rollercoaster of consistency in the Sony Pictures “Venom” series comes to a flat end with “The Last Dance.”

  By Douglas Davidson on January 21, 2025 • ( 0 )

  

  When the trailers first dropped for director Ruben Fleischer’s Venom (2018), audiences got a taste of something truly exciting as it looked like Sony Pictures might take the Marvel Comics villain-turned-anti-hero and introduce him through a body horror-like science fiction… Read More ›

• “The Colors Within” fill out the latest musical high school drama by filmmaker Naoko Yamada.

  By Douglas Davidson on January 20, 2025 • ( 1 )

  

  God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. – The Serenity Prayer There’s a frequently quoted adage “youth is wasted on the young.”… Read More ›

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