As someone who once lived in The Big Apple, I know a thing or two about dating within its whimsical-yet-chaotic parameters. From trying to have smooches on the subway to debating your dinner on the busy sidewalks of St. Mark’s,… Read More ›
romance
Bobby Farrelly’s “Driver’s Ed” forgets to disengage the brakes on the comedy. [TIFF]
The Farrelly brothers should be rather synonymous with crude, hilarious, and downright ingenious comedy, but something between the late ‘80s to early ‘00s and now has changed and that brand of sexualized, crude, frankly dumb comedy no longer is what… Read More ›
Mac Eldridge and Tom Dean’s “Charlie Harper” is a volatile romance that hits like a truck. [TIFF]
Tom Dean (writer for short Photo of the Day and Carolina Caroline, another TIFF 25 title) and Mac Eldridge co-direct their second project and first feature together, the heart-breaking, gut-punching young romance Charlie Harper. The film is a fly-on-the-wall story… Read More ›
Chandler Levack’s “Mile End Kicks” tangles with the struggles of early adulthood against the Montreal grunge scene of the 2010s. [TIFF]
Chandler Levack (I Like Movies) is back with her sophomore feature and Mile End Kicks makes one wonder what horrible tragedies and injustices Chandler went through herself or if there are a lot of creative liberties being taken in her… Read More ›
“Better Off Dead” has a first-time 4K UHD edition, so you better have your two dollars handy.
The cult classic Better Off Dead (1985) has finally received an upgrade with its new 4K release and for longtime fans as well as newcomers, the question naturally arises: is this new edition worth the jump from the previously available… Read More ›
Make plans for a “Future Date.”
Depending on who you ask, the answer to the question “what is best in life?” will range from inner peace to financial prosperity to crushing your enemies and hearing the lamentations of the women. The last one is more for… Read More ›
One of Jacques Audiard’s early hits, the unique romantic thriller “Read My Lips”, comes home to Blu-Ray, courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
Before he brought us the polarizing 2024 crime musical Emilia Pérez, the Palme d’Or winning 2015 Dheepan, and the 2009 critically acclaimed gangster film A Prophet, director Jacques Audiard brought us the complex romance thriller Read My Lips in 2001…. Read More ›
Stop-motion gothic romance “Corpse Bride” will have you saying “I do” to its first-time 4K UHD edition.
Filmmaker Tim Burton means different things to different people thanks to his varied career in live-action and stop-motion (sometimes in the same picture) spanning more than four decades. From his first feature, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985), to producing Henry Selick’s… Read More ›
Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill and Won’t Give Up the Ghost: Modern gothic drama “Went Up the Hill” explores grief and codependency.
The gothic ghost story subgenre explores new avenues in Went Up the Hill, a meditative and moody drama from director Samuel Van Grinsven. Set in New Zealand’s South Island, Went Up the Hill takes after its gothic predecessors by setting… Read More ›
“Materialists” Blu-ray Giveaway
Writer/director Celine Song broke our hearts in 2023 with Past Lives and returned to theaters this year with another romantic drama, Materialists, possibly to do the same. If watching Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal in a love triangle sounds like… Read More ›
Micro-feature “Good to See You” rides French New Wave like the 7 Line.
There are few places more wonderful in the world than Central Park in New York City, and Good to See You (2025), the newest independent micro-feature from writer/director Jonah Feingold (At Midnight; EXmas) is on a mission to make sure… Read More ›
Meta movie “I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn” is the rare one that hits you in the feels. [Fantasia]
There is something special about movies that are love letters to filmmaking, genres, and low-budget movies — it is just such a niche topic to touch upon but, when done right, it can be a cinephile’s perfect movie. Thankfully, Kenichi… Read More ›
Amid clunky execution, fantasy rom-com “ChaO” reminds that we are forever our own storytellers. [Fantasia]
We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams;— World-losers and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world… Read More ›
Get ready to throw down in “The Forbidden City.” [Fantasia]
Since Cain slew Abel, it’s believed that humanity has continued to find ways to betray itself, regardless of the cost. As such, stories have found ways to exploit this element of the human condition as a means for narrative catalyst,… Read More ›
“Oh, Hi!” utilizes its cringe and charm well for a generation-defining rom-com.
Sophie Brooks (writer, story, producer, director) and Molly Gordon (lead, producer, story) took on several roles to bring arguably the most millennial/Gen Z movie imaginable. The film works so flawlessly well but is sure to get under the skin of… Read More ›
The Criterion Collection restores Mike Nichols’s “Carnal Knowledge” in 4K UHD and Blu-ray.
Mike Nichols can be described as one of the best 21st century directors with titles under his belt like Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf? (1966), The Graduate (1967), Working Girl (1988), Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), and Carnal Knowledge (1971), so… Read More ›
“Honeko Akabane’s Bodyguards” walks the fine line between manga art direction and reality, bringing some fun along with it. [Fantasia]
Trigger Warning: An extended introduction sequence includes frequent brief flashing effects that may be difficult for photosensitive viewers. What does it mean to be a hero? Stories from around the world and throughout time try to navigate this question. Few… Read More ›
Sci-fi fantasy “Rewrite” encourages a re-evaluation of what people expect from time loop stories. [Fantasia]
Each story — the ones we tell ourselves that make up our reality and the ones that creatives make for the books, shows, and films we ingest — is a matter of perspective and, frequently, the audience is rarely asked… Read More ›
“Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” strikes all the typical Austen rom-com notes.
Back in 2013, Director Jerusha Hess brought to life the silly world of Shannon Hale’s novel Austenland. In it, Jane Hayes (Keri Russell), a 30-something fangirl for the works of Jane Austen, travels to a British resort themed to the… Read More ›
A dreamlike odyssey of sex, drugs, and self-discovery, Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” is available on home video from A24.
The Beat Movement was a literary alliance started by a group of authors in the 1950s which included William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch), Allen Ginsberg (Howl), and Jack Kerouac (On the Road). The Beat subculture focused on dismissal of standard… Read More ›