There are many things about cinema that The Cine-Men co-host Darryl Mansel laments, but the one that he laments the most is the lack of swashbuckler films. Disney’s recent Jungle Cruise possesses traits of these films, though mostly due to… Read More ›
French
“Holidays At All Cost (Vacances á Tout Prix)” has enough unique flourishes to make a well-worn journey worth the travel. [Dances With Films Festival]
Vacations are meant to be an enjoyable time of rest, relaxation, and quality time with one’s family. Of course, when you get to a certain age, odds are that you will find yourself having gone through your fair share of… Read More ›
Zom-com “Brain Freeze” has its heart in the right place, yet still arrives DOA. [Fantasia International Film Festival]
Fine, let’s just get it out of the way: I am not a very big fan of zombie films on the base level. There are many other things that can make a zombie film good, that I can identify with… Read More ›
Allow Fistful of Features to guide you on a trip through Shout! Factory’s collector’s edition release of “Brotherhood of the Wolf.”
Welcome to Fistful of Features, a celebration of film preservation through physical media and the discussion of cinematic treasures to maintain their relevance in the cultural lexicon. Today we’ll be discussing the director’s cut of Christophe Gans’s fantastical hodgepodge of… Read More ›
Documentarian Julien Faraut successfully preserves the incredible story of the 1964 Japanese volleyball team, even if the presentation lacks the energy the true story deserves. [North Bend Film Festival]
Storytelling is all about execution. You can have the most fascinating, compelling, edge-of-your-seat concept, but, if the execution flounders, nothing else matters. Take the story about the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo which saw the introduction of volleyball as an… Read More ›
The Criterion Collection edition of writer/director Olivier Assayas’s Irma Vep is two-discs packed with enticing materials.
Writer/director Olivier Assayas’s Irma Vep is many things at once. It’s a comedic look at the making of a film, capturing the swirling chaos as various departments and personalities come together to create art. It’s a dramatic piece exploring how… Read More ›
Writer/director Djibril Diop Mambéty’s “Touki bouki (Journey of the Hyena)” finally gets a solo Criterion release.
Since its inception, The Criterion Collection has become both preservationist and distributor of arthouse cinema (with a few exceptions for more populist material (what’s up, Armageddon?)). In keeping with this, they’ve partnered with Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project on three… Read More ›
French Western “Savage State (L’état Sauvage)” is a stark, quiet, introspective tale of survival. [Fantasia Film Festival]
Fantasia Festival has provided a bevy of opportunities to showcase some truly great genre films, primarily focusing into the sci-fi/horror route of things. The grisly, spooky, and downright weird have been on full display since the start of the festival,… Read More ›
Following the fish-out-of-water rom-com formula, “A Mermaid in Paris (Une sirène à Paris)” is a dazzling visual treat. [Fantasia Film Fest]
Multi-talented writer and director Mathias Malzieu, who is known for his success as a novelist and musician as well as filmmaker, returns to this year’s virtual Fantasia Film Festival with a delightful grown-up fairytale. Malzieu’s previous animated film, Jack and… Read More ›
Though you may weep, be not afraid to embark on “Marona’s Fantastic Tale.”
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 ›