It is 2023 and the theatrical window is dangerously small now. Things that aren’t being made on $100 million budgets are barely seeing the theatrical window to begin with, and then a physical release is even less likely, and if… Read More ›
based on a book
Writer/director Joan Micklin Silver joins the Criterion Collection with a 4K restoration of her dark rom-com satire “Chilly Scenes of Winter.”
Personal feelings have a way of clouding one’s more practical or pragmatic judgement. If we’re excited or enamored with something, we’re more likely to excuse or soften something’s harder edges. If we’re not interested or already turned off by something,… Read More ›
Writer/director Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” has everything, except the specificity and unique point of view that women’s cinema needs.
With an impressive cast, best-selling source material, two Oscar nominations, and one Oscar win, Women Talking has gotten a lot of buzz. Unlike some of this year’s other best picture nominees, Women Talking isn’t supposed to entertain crowds or draw… Read More ›
Children’s book adaptation “The Magician’s Elephant” reminds the audience to never grow too old to ask ‘What if?’.
Award-winning children’s author Kate DiCamillo is the creator of such works as Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, Flora & Ulysses, and The Tiger Rising. While she’s also written several others, these four are particularly notable as they’ve each… Read More ›
Shout! Factory and LAIKA Studios invite you to revisit the world of Cheesebridge in the first-time 4K UHD edition of “The Boxtrolls”
In February of 2021, it was announced that LAIKA Studios and boutique home media distributor Shout! Factory made a deal to bring LAIKA’s incredible stop-motion films to U.S. audiences’ homes. Toward the end of 2021, Shout! Factory released Blu-ray/DVD combo… Read More ›
Director Kei Ishikawa’s dramatic thriller “A Man (ある男)” explores the value of self and identity. [Santa Barbara International Film Festival]
Who are you? Stop for a moment. Read not a line further, and think on that. Are you one thing or are you many? Are you your thoughts and fears? Your anxieties or successes? Your actions? Are you your present… Read More ›
Social thriller “The Sixth Child (Le sixième enfant)” will challenge you to reconsider the complex notion of conception. [Santa Barbara International Film Festival]
In modern society there are a number of presumptions that enable and empower those who have to look down upon those who have not. Aspects of health, wealth, occupation, and hobbies are all treated as aspects of one’s morality. Don’t… Read More ›
Neither too preachy nor too dramatic, “Jesus Revolution” is a heartfelt, inspirational revolution worth joining.
In desperate, confounding times such as the times we’re living in today, the most arduous of questions begs itself to be pondered: What happens when the message of faith and hope can’t reach today’s generation of tomorrow’s future? Directors Jon… Read More ›
Steelbook of “Warm Bodies” may have you dragging your feet unless you’re a collector.
I for one have never been an avid reader. I know, shocking. But sometimes a book will take me by surprise and really engross me in its story and I will finish the book. That was Isaac Marion’s fourth work,… Read More ›
M. Night Shyamalan’s “Knock at the Cabin” is one you’ll want to answer.
Right before the pandemic really kicked off, I read Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World. It had been the hot new horror novel on the block a little while back and I figured it to be… Read More ›
The home release supplemental materials may underwhelm, but feature “Bones and All” remains a meal.
I have a complicated relationship with Luca Guadagnino. I love his work, sans one film of his, and even consider his 2018 remake of Suspiria to be in my top 5 films of all time (sidenote: someone please take the… Read More ›
Maria Schrader seeks to honor the #MeToo Movement in “She Said,” available on home video now.
While the real-life work of an investigative journalist might feel like running head-first into a brick wall over and over again, movies and shows usually make it seem like an idealistic, noble, and exciting job that combines the thrill of… Read More ›
“Devotion” Digital Code & Book Giveaway
Director J.D. Dillard adapted Adam Makos’s novel Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice, based on an incredible true story, into the feature film Devotion starring Jonathan Majors as Jesse Brown, the first Black Navy Aviator, and Glen… Read More ›
Open Dialogue with “Women Talking” actor Sheila McCarthy.
Sheila McCarthy stars in the Sarah Polley ensemble-dialogue-driven film Women Talking. Listed on many ”Best of Lists for 2022,” this picture offers a thought-provoking story, stellar performances, beautiful cinematography, and it engages the audience with deep questions, and characters at… Read More ›
The house on East 88th Street comes to you as “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” is now available at home.
In 1962, children’s book author Bernard Waber published The House on East 88th Street, a story in which the Primm family moved into a brownstone in New York City is surprised to discover a crocodile already living there. As if… Read More ›
Shout! Factory and LAIKA Studios re-release “Coraline” for the first-time in a stunning 4K UHD edition.
In February of 2021, it was announced that LAIKA Studios and boutique home media distributor Shout! Factory made a deal to bring LAIKA’s incredible stop-motion films to U.S. audiences’ homes. Toward the end of 2021, Shout! Factory released Blu-ray/DVD combo… Read More ›
Some 30 years after theatrical release, Spike Lee’s masterful “Malcolm X” joins the Criterion Collection.
First there was Do the Right Thing (1989), then there was Bamboozled (2000), and now, for the third entry into the Criterion Collection, writer/director/actor Spike Lee’s Oscar-nominated Malcom X (1992) joins the illustrious physical format boutique distributor nearly 30 years… Read More ›
Animator Masashi Ando’s directorial debut, “The Deer King,” is available on home video from Shout! Factory.
Adaptations, in live action or animation, are the lifeblood of storytelling. We, as audiences, like to think that the magic comes from original stories, but, more often than not, that thing you love is an adaptation of a story originating… Read More ›
Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” will force you to examine all your contradictory ideas and make you better for it. [Film Fest 919]
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 ›
Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise” is so boldly unconventional, it makes this white whale of an adaptation feel somehow even more tremendous. [Film Fest 919]
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 ›