“I reject your reality and I substitute my own!” – From the film The Dungeonmaster (1984) and *not* Adam Savage There’s a fairly popular video and text meme which starts with a reminder that it costs nothing to be kind… Read More ›
film festival
A Conversation with “Desert Road” filmmaker Shannon Triplett. [SXSW]
In this edition of EoM Presents, Senior Interviewer Thomas Manning speaks with writer and director Shannon Triplett about her debut feature film Desert Road. Triplett talks about the real-life inspiration for the script, the intense, physically demanding lead performance from… Read More ›
Filmmaker Michael Felker’s sci-fi thriller “Things Will Be Different” shakes up the time travel genre for the better. [SXSW]
There’s the world we know — the one we can see, hear, smell, and touch — and there is the world in between. It exists around us, within the spaces within spaces. Overlapping and overlapping, like a Venn diagram wherein… Read More ›
“The Bleacher” takes audiences on a wild eight-minute adventure in a laundromat [SXSW]
After a world premiere at Sundance 2024, co-directors and operators of Magic Society Pictures, Nicole Daddona and Adam Wilder (Sexy Furby; The Mundanes) bring their animated horror short The Bleacher to SXSW for its Texas premiere. Looking like stop motion… Read More ›
Filmmaker Shannon Triplett’s directorial debut “Desert Road” utilizes the loop thriller to profound effect. [SXSW]
“… no one can never see past the choice they don’t understand… ” The Oracle, The Matrix Revolutions (2003) Loop films are, by their nature, a sci-fi fantasy tool utilized to get a protagonist to confront some aspect of themselves…. Read More ›
No matter snow, rain, heat, or gloom, “Dead Mail” delivers. [SXSW]
There’re directors who go things alone and then there’re directors who operate with someone else as a team. You’ve got the Coen brothers (Miller’s Crossing), the Wachowskis (The Matrix trilogy), the Russo brothers (several MCU films), the Farrelly brothers (Dumb… Read More ›
Table top gaming documentary “The Hobby” demonstrates that gaming is for everyone. [SXSW]
“You don’t stop playing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop playing.” – George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. On wintry days when it was too cold to venture out or on summer… Read More ›
15 films to keep on your radar for SXSW 2024.
For the fourth year in a row, Elements of Madness will officially be covering SXSW and we thought we’d offer up our recommendations of what to check out during the fest or what to keep an eye out for in… Read More ›
Go see “House” already, it’s perfect. [Japanese Horror Fest]
Running from March 1st – 14th at Film Forum NYC, a 25-film Japanese Horror festival gives New Yorkers the chance to see Nobuhiko Obayashi’s (The Little Girl Who Conquered Time; His Motorbike, Her Island) House (1977). This Japanese blockbuster was… Read More ›
Family documentary “Lili” explores parental separation from the perspective of a child in the fallout. [SBIFF]
Divorces are hard. Rarely is there an instance where both parties walk away satisfied, happy, or otherwise ok. Divorce is the resolution of a relationship ending and there’s often regret at what could have been or sadness over what is… Read More ›
Kate Cobb’s feature directorial debut “Okie” asks audiences what they owe to their homes. Its answer may unnerve you. [SBIFF]
My therapist introduced the idea of “the story we tell ourselves.” What they mean by this is that individuals have a tendency to create a version of the truth that fits within the framework of information that they have. Someone… Read More ›
“Lucha: A Wrestling Tale” captures the ways lessons work on and off the mat. [SBIFF]
In American high school sports, for most schools, it’s football, basketball, and maybe soccer as the big three. Sure, you can run cross country, maybe play tennis, but down on the lower rungs of high school competition (in terms of… Read More ›
Grief-based horror short “Above & Within” captivates with its storytelling, performances, and cinematography. [SBIFF]
Death, grief, isolation, and the horrors within them all are universal. The question of what gives life meaning when it all comes crashing to a halt, sometimes, unexpectedly, tends to send a chill running down our spines at the mere… Read More ›
Documentarian Dan Partland’s “God & Country” deftly lays out the historical evidence that explains the current rise of Christian Nationalism. [SBIFF]
E Pluribus Unum. This brief Latin phrase meaning “one from many” was first added to United States coins in 1795. It’s a motto that speaks to all citizens of the United States of America, even in an era when those… Read More ›
Documentary “The Movie Man” deftly reminds that filmgoing is a social experience that requires social responsibility to maintain. [SBIFF]
Though the first moving pictures were shown in the 1800s and began as a sideshow, they transformed into a main event with the advent of the movie theater. No longer having to go into a tent or side space, people… Read More ›
Wrestling doc “The Death Tour” is more than about heels, faces, or even the pop – but why the audience matters. [Slamdance Film Festival]
In the United States, names like World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Assault Championship Wrestling (ACW), and All Elite Wrestling (AEW) may come to mind when bringing up sports entertainment. But wrestling isn’t a U.S.-based sport, with countries… Read More ›
New Disney+ documentary “Madu” breaks tradition as it follows a gifted dancer from Nigeria to England. [SBIFF]
Photosensitivity Warning: There are a few scenes of refracted light that may be triggering for sensitive viewers. In August 2020, a video of 11-year-old Anthony Mmesoma Madu dancing outside of his ballet school went viral, garnering attention not just from… Read More ›
Filmmaker Omar Kamara explores the rich complexity of sibling relationships in dramedy “African Giants.” [Slamdance Film Festival]
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” – Sir Isaac Newton With all of the discussion of borders — who’s securing them, who’s refusing to do so, what do we do with the… Read More ›
First-time documentarian Ryan Jacobi explores the man behind the improv character in “I’m ‘George Lucas’: A Connor Ratliff Story.” [Slamdance Film Festival]
Before there was The Mandalorian (2019-??), Andor (2022), The Book of Boba Fett (2021), or Ashoka (2023), before there was either a Prequel or Sequel Trilogy, there was only Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of… Read More ›
Don’t miss out on Rasheed Stephens’s best day of his life in the mixed-format dramedy “All I’ve Got & Then Some.” [Slamdance Film Festival]
“Best Day of My Life!” When asked how he’s doing by friends, colleagues in the comedy realm, passengers in his latest pick-up, and everyone in between, Rasheed Stephens (himself) replies with the same answer: “Best day of my life.” It’s… Read More ›