Theo James, even when he’s good, such as in White Lotus season two (2022) or the ill-fated HBO adaption of The Time Traveler’s Wife (2022), has apparently been miscast his entire career until The Monkey (2025). Usually playing a George… Read More ›
based on a book
“I’m Still Here” tells a narrative as relevant today as in 1970 Brazil.
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 ›
The “Conclave” home release on 4K has unanimous support.
The sin Cardinal Lawrence fears may be “certainty,” but Conclave (2024) is a film forged with it, and the 4K UHD home release is no different. The extras include a featurette on the making of the film and a director’s… Read More ›
Criterion puts out a lucky 4K with “No Country for Old Men.”
People always say “if at first you do not like something, you should give it another chance,” and that general principal is typically a good one, the exception being that if you have deep vitriol for something, your mind is… Read More ›
Edward Berger’s captivating and politically relevant thriller, “Conclave,” arrives on digital.
Directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) and based on a 2016 novel of the same name, Conclave is a tense drama that pits progress, ethics, coexistence, and empathy against corruption and abuses of power, a battle… Read More ›
Sam Raimi’s bleak crime thriller “A Simple Plan” is given the 4K UHD remaster it deserves from Arrow Video.
“You can’t see everything.” These four words were a commonplace statement by me on episodes of The Cine-Men (RIP), a way to deflect and soften the fact that while the mind is willing, time and opportunity don’t often allow someone… Read More ›
“It Ends with Us” Digital Code Giveaway
Last week, the Justin Baldoni-directed adaptation of the Colleen Hoover novel, It Ends with Us, released on physical formats. If you’re curious to check out the film, EoM is giving away the digital code that accompanied the review copy provided by… Read More ›
Book adaptation “It Ends with Us” disappoints as much as a home release as it does as both a drama and rom-com.
Trigger Warning: It Ends with Us explores domestic abuse and includes an instance of attempted sexual assault. In 2024, a film released in theaters in which a woman has a meet-cute with a man, finds herself falling love, struggles to… Read More ›
“Emilia Pérez” dazzles with its operatic style and frustrates with its masked hollowness.
Redemption stories come in a great many forms. Time loops stories utilize the constriction created by a repeated day(s) to force introspection and change, the loop broken in comedies (Groundhog Day), dramas (The Map of Tiny Perfect Things), and horror… Read More ›
Live-action family adventure “Harold and the Purple Crayon” has drawn its way to home video.
Board book, hard cover, or soft — chances are, at some point in your life, you encountered author Crockett Johnson’s children’s book Harold and the Purple Crayon. A tale of wonder, the brief adventure features a toddler/little kid-aged boy in… Read More ›
“The Wild Robot” continues writer/director Chris Sanders’s run on delivering animated magic for all-ages.
The landscape of animated movies has been ever-changing. Over the years, animation has managed to pack a punch with audiences. Film franchises like The Lego Movie, Inside Out, and How to Train Your Dragon have emotionally stirred viewers to their… Read More ›
Paramount Pictures celebrates the 25th anniversary of Martin Scorsese’s “Bringing Out the Dead” with a first-time 4K UHD edition.
Photosensitivity Warning: Bringing Out the Dead contains multiple sequences of flashing lights either directly (scenes with or focused on ambulance lights) or indirectly (lights flashing on characters) which may disturb sensitivity viewers. A lot can happen in 25 years. For… Read More ›
A full pew of talent on all sides of the pulpit delivers a flawless thriller in “Conclave.” [TIFF]
How does one, specifically Edward Berger, follow up All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)? With one of the most interesting and captivating stories about selecting a new Pope and the events that happen during the conclave. For a task… Read More ›
Book-to-film adaptation “The Watchers” stumbles on pacing and dialog in Ishana Night Shyamalan’s feature debut.
Back in April, at the beginning of a particularly sleepy 12-hour shift manning the box office of the downtown Durham theatre in which I work, I opened A.M. Shine’s The Watchers on my Kindle, having impulsively downloaded it via the… Read More ›
Lee Cipolla’s adaptation of “Rally Caps” will have you donning your own.
Truth is a matter of perspective. We know this, but we tend to forget it during the daily moments of our lives. What we see, what we hear, and how we react is all sifted through our experience, so, often,… Read More ›
When the last eagle flies over the last crumbling mountain, the 4K UHD remaster of “The Last Unicorn” from Shout! Studios will have you believing.
Originally published in 1968, author Peter S. Beagle’s adventure fantasy The Last Unicorn would be tapped by The Hobbit (1977) co-directors Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr. for adaptation. Their theatrical release of the same name, The Last Unicorn (1982),… Read More ›
Bring home Cord Jefferson’s satire “American Fiction” on Blu-ray thanks to Warner Bros. Pictures.
Amidst the insanity of 2023’s awards season, there were a lot of flicks that stood out ahead of the pack. From thoughtful dramedies about an American toy icon to the typical Oscar fair, there were clearly a lot of movies… Read More ›
Utilizing the style and action of its source material, “BLUE LOCK THE MOVIE -EPISODE NAGI-” offers a cinematic perspective that may delight fans while leaving new audiences a touch cold.
Since August 2018, the Japanese manga series BLUE LOCK, also stylized as BLUELOCK, has published in Kodansha’s Weekly Shōnen Magazine — publisher of such tales as Go! Go! Loser Ranger! and Girlfriend, Girlfriend. Written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and illustrated by… Read More ›
“The Vourdalak” sets a new standard for the genre with Adrien Beau’s fresh take on vampire movies.
If you watched The Vourdalak with no background information, you might think you’d discovered a lost made-for-TV gem from 1980-something. With its grainy appearance, humble sets, and Jim-Henson-esque puppet villain, how could this dark yet charming vampire fantasy not be… Read More ›
Romantic mystery “Darkest Miriam” may leave stones unturned but captivates with Britt Lower’s performance. [Tribeca Film Festival]
The first thing that I learned about Naomi Jaye’s (The Pin) newest feature, Darkest Miriam, was that it was executive produced by Charlie Kaufman (I’m thinking of ending things), and that automatically adds a level of intrigue and suspense to… Read More ›