“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” – The final stanza of Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy… Read More ›
film festival
“Stay Online” pulls the audience into a personal battle set during a current war and pins you down. [Fantasia International Film Festival]
Trigger Warning: A newsreel montage near the beginning includes footage of wartime incidents, including the dead and wounded. We are a world on the brink of a third global war all because of pride and greed. For nearly 10 years,… Read More ›
From “The First Slam Dunk” to the last, this manga adaptation will have you on the edge of your seat. [Fantasia International Film Festival]
Born first as a manga series that ran from 1990 – 1996 under the title Slam Dunk, the creation of Takehiko Inoue has been adapted for television, film, and video games since its debut. The series ran in Shueisha’s Weekly… Read More ›
Larry Fessenden’s “Blackout” seeks to eviscerate more than tender flesh. [Fantasia International Film Festival]
Monster stories, creature features, if you will, generally are tales of outsiders. Dracula is but a lone survivor of a people trying to rekindle his species, Frankenstein’s creation is but a homemade newborn trying to find a place in a… Read More ›
25 films to check out during the Fantasia International Film Festival 2023.
For the fourth year in a row, Elements of Madness will officially be covering the Fantasia International Film Festival and we thought we’d offer up our recommendations of what to check out during the fest or what to keep an… Read More ›
Frank Marhsall’s documentary “Rather” reports on the man who covered history then and now. [Tribeca Film Festival]
As a Communications Major at the University of North Carolina at Asheville (Go Bulldogs!), there were two specific newscasters that came up in conversation: Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. Coincidentally, both were born roughly a decade apart, worked for… Read More ›
Music doc “Anthem” is frequently sobering, but lacks temerity. [Tribeca Film Festival]
It’s a strange thing to be a person of a country. You can’t just identify as yourself in the singular as too many things require you to announce in the binary if you’re in support of or against where you… Read More ›
Documentary “Stan Lee” honors the life and legacy forged by The Man through his own words. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Before I dive into this review of the documentary simply titled Stan Lee, I just want to make a little bit of a note on myself and who I was as a child. It is particularly interesting that I always… Read More ›
“The Space Race” empowers a long-buried piece of NASA’s history. [Tribeca Film Festival]
“Black history is American history. We forget it at our peril.” – Charlie Bolden, former NASA astronaut and administrator October 1st, 1958, NASA officially began operations working to break free from Earth and into orbit. It would be nearly 25… Read More ›
Space drama “I.S.S.” is a tense thriller never takes its foot off the gas pedal. [Tribeca Film Festival]
There is always something inherently interesting to see what someone’s first made screenplay actually ends up being, and for Nick Shafir, that ended up being I.S.S., directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Our Friend), and it certainly sets Nick up to be… Read More ›
Director Joe Lynch’s Lovecraft adaptation “Suitable Flesh” will terrify and titillate. [Tribeca Film Festival]
For all the nasty, horrible parts of author H.P. Lovecraft’s legacy, there’s no denying the lasting impression his stories have made on tales of occult and horror. Using the unknown elements of the natural and spiritual worlds, colliding them together… Read More ›
“Catching Dust” fails to capture the attention of the audience. [Tribeca Film Festival]
There is nothing more disheartening that reading what a movie is about and it under-delivering on what the movie could possibly be. The only thing that makes that feeling worse is when that movie is a festival title that someone… Read More ›
“The Listener” enthralls with Steve Buscemi’s direction and Tessa Thompson’s performance. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Steve Buscemi (Interview) directs his first feature in 15 years (originally played Venice 2022) and somehow, without ever having seen anything Buscemi has directed, The Listener was not at all what I was expecting, but something much more grounded and… Read More ›
Noam Kaplan’s “The Future” challenges its audience to reconsider how it sees the world. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity. ― George Carlin At some point in a colonizer’s life, they look back on the choices they’ve made. For many, they’ll see the civilizations they’ve liberated, the cultures they’ve enlightened, and the… Read More ›
With delicacy and care, Jane M. Wagner’s “Break the Game” presents a tale of an adventurer on one last quest. [Tribeca Film Festival]
February 21st, 1986, an action/fantasy RPG-like game released on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) called The Legend of Zelda. Unlike the console’s mascot, the Italian plumber Mario, who jumped, stomped, and power-uped his way through one obstacle or another on… Read More ›
Billy Porter and Luke Evans deliver landmark performances in “Our Son.” [Tribeca Film Festival]
In 2019, everyone was going mad for Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, and after watching it, I was utterly dumbfounded. I mean, the movie is a whole lot of fine and doesn’t really say anything new. Sure, both Adam Driver and… Read More ›
Once Stewart Thorndike’s “Bad Things” checks you in, you may never leave. [Tribeca Film Festival]
A movie relies on a lot of things to be successful, but one thing it relies on to capture audiences that does not get talked about nearly enough is the atmosphere. A movie can be the most horrifying thing ever… Read More ›
“Somewhere Quiet” is predictable but Jennifer Kim stands out. [Tribeca Film Festival]
There is always something exciting about a thriller, it is in the name after all. But when there is a distinct lack of either performance or development of a character, any and almost all that excitement dissipates as intentions are… Read More ›
Your time in “LaRoy” may be brief, but its impact long-lasting. [Tribeca Film Festival]
If we’re lucky, when we start in this life, we approach it with a spark, an excitement for what’s to come. This could be pursuing a passion, exploring an idea, or just getting out of a dead-end town and away… Read More ›
Self-identification, reexamination, and reclamation are at the heart of Sav Rodgers’s doc “Chasing Chasing Amy.” [Tribeca Film Festival]
Holden: Oh no, here’s the big test. Quick Stop. Alyssa: My best friend fucked a dead guy in the bathroom. Holden: You know that girl? Alyssa: I did, before she was committed. – Chasing Amy (1997) Anyone who’s taken the… Read More ›