In 2019, writer/director Tilman Singer made an enormous splash with his possession thriller Luz. It’s as much an homage to the horror films of the ‘60s and ‘70s, evoking the look via cinematography and art direction, while telling a unique… Read More ›
In the first half of 2022, the dancers and staff at the National Ballet of Canada were pouring themselves into rehearsals for a historic opening: a new production of the iconic Swan Lake directed by ballet legend Karen Kain. This… Read More ›
Prequels seem like a good idea on paper as they often seek to answer questions impossible to explore in initial outings. Through prequel stories, we can discover how Han Solo (Harrison Ford) came to own the Millennium Falcon (Solo: A… Read More ›
Perfect Days (2023) is the title of Wim Wender’s (Paris, Texas) newest film, which has entered the illustrious Criterion Collection, but, at the same time, it almost perfectly describes the ambiance and sentiments of the movie, as well. Perfection is… Read More ›
Imprint Films has played a great hand with their Blu-ray (debut) of The Queen of Spades, the 1949 horror film famously beloved by filmmakers like Martin Scorsese. They’ve stacked the deck with special features, including three commentary tracks, an introduction… Read More ›
Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi & I (Sisi & Ich) sat completed on the shelf for nearly two years after its initial shooting dates, and was even further delayed for release in America by almost an entire other year following its premiere… Read More ›
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 ›
We’ve seen nearly every iteration of meeting one’s parents that could possibly exist from Meet the Parents (2000) to Ready or Not (2019) and Get Out (2017), so when audiences get another family-gathering thriller, they typically know what they’re getting… Read More ›
What Remains is a film that presents itself as a detective procedural with a possible serial killer being interviewed by his psychiatrist and a detective trying to piece together the killer’s muddled and confused confessions of murder and rape. What… Read More ›
Genuinely speaking, I don’t want to condone a movie, but the trance, anxiety, and dread that Thordur Palsson creates with his directorial debut, The Damned, needs to be studied as A Clockwork Orange-style of torture. This movie is the one… Read More ›
Obsessively pursuing art is the focus of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960). The parallels to artistic pursuit as it pertains to a filmmaker are hard to miss, as are the Freudian psychoanalytics. Both of which are apt as Powell (The… Read More ›
Awards season has come and gone once again, like another overblown, overwrought, overlong thief in the night, spanning an impressive seven months from the beginning of the Venice Film Festival to that of the Academy Awards. Though, unlike other years,… Read More ›
Films can be more than just the latest sci-fi/superhero blockbuster or summer comedy. Some films aspire to teach audiences lessons and history. I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba), a 1964 political propaganda film, is one such story. Its historical richness and… Read More ›
Photosensitivity Warning: There are multiple scenes in which either a character is using a camera with flash or a strobe is used (often at length). Proceed with absolute caution. In the realm of action fantasy, John Milius’s 1982 sword and… Read More ›
After spending time on the festival circuit, Matt Vesely’s feature-length directorial debut, Monolith, starring Evil Dead Rise‘s Lily Sullivan, released into U.S. theaters February 2024. Now the science fiction thriller is set to come home on physical formats via Well Go… Read More ›
Gillian Anderson and Billie Piper join Noel T. Manning II today on Open Dialogue to chat about their roles in the Netflix film Scoop. Scoop follows the true story of BBC producer Samantha McAlister’s journey into landing the legendary 2019… Read More ›
In the most Abed Nadir voice possible — “Nicolas Cage maaaaaaaaan” — and that alone should either have an audience immediately ready to dive into what absolute madness whether good, bad, or Cage, they’re about to get into. While the… Read More ›
“I like movies” is not just something I tell people at parties, it’s also the title of Chandler Levack’s debut feature film. If you’re someone who reads pieces like this review, this is a film with something to say about… Read More ›
There are so many ways that a film can get under an audience’s skin, whether that be intentional or not, but beating the proverbial dead horse with a children’s bat is certainly not the way to get things going in… Read More ›
The pandemic did a lot of things to the citizens of the world in the early years, the least of which was take thousands of lives. Those who remained in those initial months and years dealt with physical isolation, financial… Read More ›