In the art of filmmaking, short films aren’t the films you make for widespread acclaim and global distribution, but rather for the cinephiles and short-form entertainment enthusiasts that might just have the pull to get your foot in the door… Read More ›
comedy
Surprise hit of 2017, “One Cut of the Dead,” now out on physical release.
In the middle of shooting a zombie film, the cast and crew find themselves fighting off an actual zombie attack. This is the premise for the 2017 release One Cut of the Dead from director Shin’ichirô Ueda adapted from the… Read More ›
To make heaven a place on Earth, “We Must Summon the Darkness.”
Released on VOD and digital April 2020, horror-comedy We Summon the Darkness is making its way to home video and is coming straight for your living rooms. Directed by Marc Meyers (My Friend Dahmer) from a script by Alan Trezza… Read More ›
“Dreamland” is a super stylish and entertaining noir.
Bruce McDonald isn’t a director that a lot of people are going to be familiar with. Sure, he has credits to his name, but nothing that the average filmgoer will be able to recognize. However, the most famous movie in… Read More ›
Mirrah Foulkes’s “Judy & Punch” is a brilliant dark meta-comedy exploring the accepted horrors of the patriarchy.
In recent memory, there are few films that have made me quite as angry as Mirrah Foulkes’s feature-length directorial debut Judy & Punch. Debuting at Sundance in 2019 before a long theatrical release, the film itself is a brilliant dark… Read More ›
Musical dramedy hits “The High Note.”
In times of great stress like these, it’s important to remember what gets us through: art. Art, of course, can be anything from clothes, food, movies, projects, music, and more. They are the things which bring us joy and help… Read More ›
Great performances fail to breathe life into color-by-numbers dramedy “Military Wives.”
When it comes to films that are “inspired by” or “based on” an actual story, there’s a persistent battle between reviewing the film in front of me and the truth. It’s something which Darryl Mansel, The Cine-Men co-host, and I… Read More ›
Breezy comedy “The Lovebirds” takes a light approach to a dark premise.
Despite things being as they are in 2020, actors Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae are having a really solid year. Rae’s The Photograph is an engrossing story focused on a mature love, while her HBO program, Insecure, is all over… Read More ›
Watch “The Photograph” develop anytime you like on home video.
There’s an authenticity that radiates outward from every frame of writer/director Stella Meghie’s The Photograph. One thing that keeps being repeated in each of the three brief featurettes included with the home release of The Photograph is the simplicity of… Read More ›
Teen comedy “CRSHD” is a fun and colorful take on coming-of-age in the social media generation.
From Rebel Without a Cause (1955) to The Breakfast Club (1985) to Lady Bird (2017), each generation has its special coming-of-age films that it can claim as its own. These are the movies grounded in a cultural milieu that take… Read More ›
“Tammy’s Always Dying” is an honest, non-judgmental look into toxic relationships.
For her first feature script, Joanne Sarazen (I Came Here Alone) nails the endless pain and difficulty of a parental toxic relationship: the way the parent, an incubus born of weaponized love, cycles through terrible behavior after terrible behavior, pulling… Read More ›
“Like a Boss” celebrates friendship making for a wonderful catharsis: a home release review.
A Word of Warning: This home release review is going to get a little personal. If you want to know about the film without all the excess, jump to the spoiler-free theatrical review. The whole reason I love movies as… Read More ›
Criterion gives the special treatment to another Spike Lee joint, the 2000 satire “Bamboozled.”
When it comes to provocative storytelling, there really is no one else like writer/director Spike Lee. More than any modern artist, Lee minces no words with his films, cutting straight through the bullshit each and every time. In his 2015… Read More ›
New satire “Greed” misses the mark.
Throughout years of film criticism, it has become cliché to say that a film “defies categorization” in reference to genre. Many times, the greatest films of this nature find a way to weave together distinct tones and elements from a… Read More ›
Awkward anti-comedy “Tapeworm” checks all the boxes for quirky indie flick. [Slamdance Film Festival]
The Slamdance Film Festival, which runs at the same time and in the same city as the more widely known Sundance Film Festival, gives new and aspiring filmmakers the chance to showcase their work in front of other industry professionals…. Read More ›
Wanna get nuts? Go “Guns Akimbo.”
Disclaimer: In light of recent events involving director Jason Lei Howden online in the last week, I, Douglas Davidson the founder of EoM, would like to make it clear that (a) racism in any form should be called out, (b)… Read More ›
Dark satire “The Misogynists” is eerily prescient about our modern political times.
With any kind of satire, there’s a balance that must be struck in order for it to achieve its goal, especially when dealing with material that’s sensitive in nature. Most recently, audiences can look to the strangely polarizing response to… Read More ›
Feel-good anime “Ride Your Wave” is a visual joy with a mix of old and new romantic themes.
If you’re still looking for romance the week after Valentine’s Day, or perhaps if you’re desperate for something warm and colorful to beat the winter blahs, Masaaki Yuasa’s new anime feature, Ride Your Wave, might be just the pick-me-up you… Read More ›
Writer/director Stella Meghie’s “The Photograph” asks her audience to look beyond the frame and love completely.
Writer/director Stella Meghie’s (Everything, Everything) new film, The Photograph, is a drama/romance depicting two love stories (one in the past, one in the present) connected by a picture. That description just scratches the surface of Meghie’s tale which examines not… Read More ›
“A Simple Wedding” subverts rom-coms expectations by focusing on self-love.
There’s something about a wedding that feels oddly restorative. Symbolically, it’s a new beginning, one in which two families are coming together to form something new, something larger, and, potentially, something stronger than what was before. This romantic notion of… Read More ›