For two days in January 1984, Hong Kong experienced its first riot in 17 years. The violence stemmed from outrage over a tax increase which impacted the taxi drivers of the region. According to The New York Times, over 150… Read More ›
crime
Radiance Films packages three individual Damiano Damiani-directed mafia films into one fantastic thematic trilogy.
For every general genre in storytelling, there’s a subgenre within it that enables a storyteller to narrow their focus, thereby utilizing specific tools to explore their themes. It’s the difference between a chiller or thriller in horror, slapstick or screwball… Read More ›
Joining the Radiance Films collection is director Benny Chan’s first solo directorial debut “A Moment of Romance,” in a 4K HD restoration.
August 23rd, 2020, writer/actor/producer/director Benny Chan passed away from nasopharyngeal cancer, first diagnosed in 2019 while shooting the film Raging Fire with Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse. Raging Fire did eventually get released in 2021, both in China and internationally,… Read More ›
The home release of “Holy Spider” ensnares with rich bonus features.
If, in the year 2022, you didn’t see Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider, then you simply missed one of the best movies to come out of that year. However, it is with fair warning that this movie is an incredibly tough… Read More ›
It’s Pros vs. Amateurs in “Baby Assassins: 2 Babies.” [Fantasia International Film Festival]
There are some films whose descriptions pique your interest and under-deliver, some which meet expectations, and some which blow your mind (the diamonds in the rough). The 2021 crime comedy Baby Assassins, written and directed by Yûgo Sakamoto, is the… Read More ›
Radiance Films adds Rudolf Thome’s “Red Sun” to their collection in a first-time U.S. edition.
In its quest for cinema preservation, boutique distributor Radiance Films has released onto Blu-ray such films as Kōsaku Yamashita’s Big Time Gambling Boss (1968), Luigi Comencini’s The Sunday Woman (1975), Todd Solondz’s Welcome to the Doll House (1995), and Amy… Read More ›
John Slattery’s “Maggie Moore(s)” pulls off a blending of sweet rom-com and devilish murder mystery. [Tribeca Film Festival]
“Some of this actually happened…” This is the message that greets audiences after a rather tense opening in actor John Slattery’s (Mad Men/Iron Man 2) second feature film, the darkly comic mystery Maggie Moore(s). No matter how weird or wild… Read More ›
It is difficult to mind your “Dress Code” when dealing with complicated shadows.
Of the stories made in America, none are as prolific worldwide as mafia stories. They’re used to tell immigrant stories, crime stories, family dramas, and even comedies. You’d be hard pressed to find any genre today that doesn’t include some… Read More ›
Take the plunge with The Criterion Collection’s “Thelma & Louise” Blu-ray and 4K home release.
It has been nearly 32 years since Ridley Scott introduced the world to Thelma and Louise, and having never visited this picture before, I had an idea of what I was getting myself into, but no idea the extent of… Read More ›
“The Siege” Blu-ray Giveaway
From director Brad Watson (Hallows Eve) and actor Daniel Stisen (Last Man Down) comes The Siege, an action/adventure film in which alliances are forged and broken when a group of highly-skilled killers attacks a facility filled with assassins. The Siege lands on… Read More ›
It may be wise to find another group of “Righteous Thieves” for your next heist.
There’s something about a good confidence film. They’re not always A-List-led romps like Ocean’s Eleven (2001) or explorations of morality like Rififi (1955). Sometimes, they’re a mixture of both, keeping the audience on their toes the entire time like Confidence… Read More ›
Radiance Films releases director Kinji Fukasaku’s crime drama “Yakuza Graveyard” on Blu-ray for the first time.
Photosensitivity Warning: During an interrogation scene late into the film a brief but prolonged flashing sequence occurs. Within crime stories, there is a specific subgenre born from Japan: yakuza films. These stories center on the lives or operations of members… Read More ›
88 Films gathers the first four films in the “In the Line of Duty” series in one collector’s set.
In the world of martial arts action, names like Jimmy Wang Yu (One-Armed Boxer), Gordon Liu (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin), Bruce Lee (Fist of Fury), Sammo Hung (Enter the Fat Dragon), Jackie Chan (Drunken Master), and Donnie Yen (Tiger… Read More ›
Open Dialogue with “The Legend of Jack and Diane” director/co-writer Bruce Bellocchi.
In this edition of Meet Me at the Movies: Open Dialogue, Thomas Manning chats with writer, director, producer, and editor Bruce Bellocchi about his directorial debut The Legend of Jack and Diane. Bellocchi speaks about the evolution of his decades-long… Read More ›
Shout! Factory’s “Jackie Chan Collection: Volume 2 (1983-1993)” covers the gauntlet of Chan’s transitional period.
My first true introduction to Jackie Chan was in the summer of 1995. 15-year-old me witnessed Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) give an enthusiastic speech about the infectious manner Jackie’s films had in the theater. Before presenting him with his lifetime… Read More ›
Open Dialogue with “Florida Man” actors Edgar Ramírez and Abbey Lee.
In this edition of Meet Me at the Movies: Open Dialogue, Thomas Manning sits down with Edgar Ramírez and Abbey Lee to discuss the new Netflix limited series Florida Man. They discuss their previous personal experiences with the state of… Read More ›
Warner Bros. Pictures’s presents a first-time 4K UHD restoration of John Huston’s classic noir “The Maltese Falcon.”
Beginning as a character in a serial, Dashiell Hammett’s hard-boiled detective Sam Spade has appeared in the original 1930 tale The Maltese Falcon, two films of the same name, several short stories, and several short films. Of the characterizations, the… Read More ›
“Last Stop Larrimah:” A cozy true crime doc for scandal junkies. [SXSW]
Last Stop Larrimah grabbed my attention right away from the description. It’s a stranger-than-fiction true crime documentary about the goings-on in Larrimah, a remote Australian town with only 10 residents. There were 11 until Paddy Moriarty went missing on December… Read More ›
“Citizen Sleuth” is an interesting exploration of the lines between true crime investigation and exploitation. [SXSW]
True Crime podcasts are a dicey guilty pleasure: on one hand, the reinterpretation/summary of gruesome and/or strange murders can be enticing to delve into; on the other hand, you risk crashing into the space of exploiting the tragic lives in… Read More ›
EoM Presents: A Conversation with “Citizen Sleuth” director Chris Kasick. [SXSW]
In this conversation, EoM senior interviewer Thomas Manning speaks with filmmaker Chris Kasick about his feature documentary directorial debut Citizen Sleuth, an official selection at SXSW 2023. Kasick discusses the vast evolution of the project over a five year period… Read More ›