Take the brilliant stunt choreography of Indonesian action film The Night Comes for Us (2018), the intrigue of Indonesian thriller The Raid: Berandal (2014), and mix with superhero elements you know from various Marvel and DC storylines and you’ll get… Read More ›
The way an audience perceives art is by framing it within their own experience. This can be taken literally, as in someone considers their lifetime experience against what they are engaging in, or it can be taken more figuratively, as… Read More ›
The last time the Cine-Men gathered we spoke of revolution! This time around they look specifically at films of the non-English variety and name three of their favorites. If we do our jobs right, you’ll only be able to guess… Read More ›
For a population currently living through a viral pandemic that is wreaking havoc on the world, zombie films feel almost a little too on the nose at this point. Take into account how it’s now clear that a good portion… Read More ›
Screened at a variety of global festivals before seeing a limited release in 2020, Anca Damian’s Marona’s Fantastic Tale (L’extraordinaire voyage de Marona) is unlike anything I’ve seen so far this year. The story itself is fairly simple: a dog,… Read More ›
Since its commodification, Asia has capitalized on the horror genre perhaps more fiercely than any other continent. From early Japanese tales of feudal terrors like Ugetsu (雨月物語), Kwaidan (怪談), and Kuroneko (藪の中の黒猫), to more modern tales of turmoil like Ringu… Read More ›
In the middle of shooting a zombie film, the cast and crew find themselves fighting off an actual zombie attack. This is the premise for the 2017 release One Cut of the Dead from director Shin’ichirô Ueda adapted from the… Read More ›
Described as “a lively action flick with a samurai twist,” latest Well Go USA release Samurai Marathon meets that description with a unique vigor. Directed by Bernard Rose (Candyman) and adapted from the novel “The Marathon Samurai: Five Tales of… Read More ›
Myths and legends, stories like those of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round, Robin Hood, and Paul Bunyan and those of gods, goddesses, demons, and immortals, are often given the adaptation treatment in cinema. These stories are often… Read More ›
While anyone can insert their influences into their art, it’s something else entirely when the creation stands on its own. Writer/director Kirill Sokolov is open about his fondness for directors Sergio Leone (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly), Martin… Read More ›
Swedish writer and director Jimmy Olsson, who is known for short films like Repressed (2011) and 2nd Class (2018), examines some difficult subjects in his latest short, Alive. Running at just twenty-three minutes, Alive deals with ableism and relational boundaries… Read More ›
There’s an elegance and simplicity to writer/director Hoon-jung Park’s The Witch: Subversion that all begins with the opening. Via photo montage with intense tonal scoring, The Witch sets up a mysterious cabal performing medical experiments on children: iron lungs, tubes… Read More ›
We can pretend like Greta Gerwig not receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Director for Little Women is the end-all, be-all of discrimination against women in the film industry, but the misogynistic practices of this massive industry stretch much further… Read More ›
If you’re still looking for romance the week after Valentine’s Day, or perhaps if you’re desperate for something warm and colorful to beat the winter blahs, Masaaki Yuasa’s new anime feature, Ride Your Wave, might be just the pick-me-up you… Read More ›
With just one other feature film under his belt (Closeness, 2017), Russian director Kantemir Balagov takes on a challenge with his second feature, Beanpole. The film packs a complex story of female friendship and desire that requires precise characterization and… Read More ›
As early as 1945, two years before the liberation of Auschwitz, filmmakers began to grapple with the challenge of preserving Holocaust memory on screen. Directors like Mark Donskoy and Wanda Jakubowska took great risks with their films, The Unvanquished (1945)… Read More ›
I love lesbian romance movies. Please, hear me out before you think I’m a total sleaze. As a gay man, there’s no “entry point” for me in queer love stories involving two women. I am taken out of contention to… Read More ›
South Korea is a country technically younger than Helen Mirren, smaller than the state of Kentucky, with a population slightly higher than the state of California. Yet, when it comes to countries leading the way in the realm of technology,… Read More ›
“A priest, a rabbi and an imam walk into a bar…,” a setup to many jokes heard worldwide. Sometimes, the jokes are funny. Other times they might be offensive, but you’ve heard at least one that somehow pertains to the… Read More ›
Though Oscar-winning writer/director Guillermo del Toro’s been working since the mid-’80s, the majority of audiences know him as the director of either Hellboy (2004), Pacific Rim (2013), and The Shape of Water (2017). In cinema-focused circles, however, del Toro’s more… Read More ›