When done right and a movie captures the time period in which it’s set pitch-perfectly, it is a reflection of its audience and resonates so much deeper and more personally with those of that era. Some movies that come to… Read More ›
English
Irish hip hop underdog story “Kneecap” stays on-brand with a DVD-R home release.
If you haven’t heard of Rich Peppiatt’s newest feature, Kneecap, it’s because it flew so under the radar for everyone and its theatrical window was relatively short. However, it has now hit home release on DVD only, but don’t be… Read More ›
Animated adventure fable “Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds” envelopes for a pleasant sensory experience.
There are fables that challenge children (The NeverEnding Story), that push children (Labyrinth), and that are not safe for children (Pan’s Labyrinth). In each instance, no matter their differences, the perspective of the child is the focal point through their… Read More ›
“Frankie Freako” has come to party at your place in Shout! Studios’s home release.
Frankie Freako and his freaks are ready to dominate your television sets, so don’t adjust the motion smoothing (actually turn it right off), kick your feet up and get ready to get lost in this absolute maddening blast-from-the-past nostalgia kick… 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 ›
Filmmakers Van Tran Nguyen and Alex Derwick bring audiences “The Motherload” of emotionally heartfelt and biting satire. [NOFF]
Sometimes the best way to get an audience to consider something, to battle with the way they perceive or process something, is to give it to them wrapped in something else. In the parlance of the 2024 action rom-com The… Read More ›
First-time feature filmmaker Robie Flores explores the liminal spaces and mundane moments of life in experimental doc “The In Between.”[NOFF]
“And so he told me his secret formula for happiness. Part one of the two-part plan was that I should just get on with ordinary life, living it day by day, like anyone else. But then came part two of… Read More ›
Hunter Schafer is extraordinary in surreal body horror “Cuckoo,” a fierce commentary on bodily autonomy on home video now.
Body horror is a fascinating subgenre and one that tends to make a lot of people particularly squeamish. With films like The Fly (1986), about a scientist who becomes a human fly hybrid, and Crimes of the Future (2022), where… Read More ›
David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds” is an ambitious personal project from a master of body horror that crumples under confusing messaging. [TIFF]
When we think of directors who are famous for what they’ve done in a specific genre, it’s weird to see a movie from them that is so enriched by their personal life and feels like an incredibly personable film. That… Read More ›
Coming-of-age film “Bird” captures the drama of needing to grow up too soon. [TIFF]
In what could be described as a movie that lives in the same spiritual world as Daina Oniunas-Pusić’s Tuesday (2023), Andrea Arnold’s Bird, similar in vibes and tonal elements in storytelling, focuses on coming-of-age and growing up faster than needed… Read More ›
“The Shadow Strays” delivers on all aspects anticipated in filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto’s latest bloody crime action thriller. [TIFF]
If you’ve never heard of the name Timo Tjahjanto (The Night Comes for Us; The Big 4) then there is something you need to fix, immediately. One of the most exciting directors to exist today, he never misses and continues… Read More ›
Blockbuster Bets: “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1” misses the zeitgeist.
Why do once-beloved directors fall out of favor with the public, even when they feel that they have grown as artists? Welcome back to Blockbuster Bets, an Elements of Madness series exploring one of 2024’s biggest stories: the directors, established… Read More ›
Set sail with 88 Film’s 4K UHD remaster of the Jackie Chan-created “Project A” Collection.
Stuntman-turned-Actor Jackie Chan has been the lead of some of martial arts cinema’s most beloved films, including Meals on Wheels (1984), Police Story (1985), and Rumble in the Bronx (1995), which don’t even include the films made after his crossover… Read More ›
Writer/director Joseph Sims-Dennett’s new film, “Baal,” demonstrates a mastery of cinema’s visual language even if the resolution does not. [Beyond Fest]
Trigger Warning: There is a sequence in the climax of the film with extensive cross-cutting that may be disturbing for photosensitive viewers. There are some films which, from the start, communicate to the audience that what they’re about to witness… Read More ›
Steven Kostanski delivers another ‘80s-set comedy horror in “Frankie Freako.”
From the director of “The Veggie Masher” from V/H/S/94 (2021), Canadian sci-fi horror The Void (2016), and one of the best campy monster movies, PG: Psycho Goreman (2020), comes a movie that feels directly ripped out of the 1980s in… Read More ›
Jean Luc Herbulot’s action thriller “Zero” is a high-octane ride hiding a geo-political gut punch. [Beyond Fest]
In 2021, writer/director Jean Luc Herbulot released his supernatural thriller Saloum, and it made a mark on anyone who saw it. The story is of three mercs whose plan goes awry, yet places them exactly where they need to be… Read More ›
“Late Night with the Devil” possesses the goods in a compelling home release.
In early 2024, before horror hounds were aware we would be treated with one of the better years for horror films in recent memory, this little gem came out and set the bar, which, now in the back half of… Read More ›
Road trip dramedy “Bookworm” rewards the strong of heart and spirit with adventure. [Fantastic Fest]
Odd couple stories are the bread-and-butter of comedy. Putting mismatched people in situations (regular or irregular) is a breeding ground for hilarity as the two’s friction slowly grinds until it flares up. Add in estranged parentage with a little bit… Read More ›
Thanks to The Criterion Collection, “All of Us Strangers” receives a proper physical release.
We live in a world, it seems, where every single thing anyone ever does gets criticized and argued about no matter how absolutely fantastic and incredible things are. No matter what a company or someone does, there’s always going to… Read More ›
Tragic, whimsical romance “Daniela Forever” perfectly doses audiences with Nacho Vigalondo’s trademark story-telling. [TIFF]
Have you heard of writer/director Nacho Vigalondo? If you haven’t, you’re truly missing out. While he’s certainly not new to the scene, he has cemented himself as a force to be reckoned with when it comes to weird, insane, crazy… Read More ›