Donnie Yen is one of the most prolific actors in Chinese cinema. Though modern American audiences are most familiar with Yen from his performance as Chirrut Îmwe in 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Yen’s been working in films… Read More ›
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“The Rising Sun” provides a glimpse into the lives of a nomadic breakdancing troupe.
The concept of a nomadic, bohemian lifestyle is undeniably alluring in its defying of conventional ideas of society regarding employment, responsibility, and family in order to create something unique and personal by throwing off the shackles of conformity to pursue… Read More ›
Disney’s “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” is too dour for Christmas, too artificial to feel magical.
The Nutcracker is a famous ballet known the world over for its delicacy and grace in performance and the beauty of Tchaikovsky’s music. In fact, it’s safe to say that more people are aware of the story in connection to… Read More ›
Make your reservations now for some “Bad Times at the El Royale”.
Writer/director Drew Goddard is no stranger to a good mystery. Having made his bones writing for shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Alias, he went on to write 2008’s Cloverfield and co-write 2012’s The Cabin in the Woods,… Read More ›
Film noir “The Lightest Darkness” toys with time and memory.
There’s something truly delicious about a film which toys with your expectations; a film possessing the temerity to state its own vision, even as it identifies the areas in which it knows the audience is looking. Rather than focus the… Read More ›
“The Darkest Minds” fails to deliver on its potential in its race to be a blockbuster.
Adapting novels into films is nothing new, but ever since Warner Bros. began the Harry Potter films, a near seismic shift occurred and the search for a new Young Adult box office dominator began. However, for every The Hunger Games,… Read More ›
A solid cast, script, and direction make for a fun “Ride”.
In today’s service-based economy, it’s all about creating the best experience for your customers in order for them to return. Gone is the authentic customer service experience, replaced with a script meant to feel honest. More often than not, we… Read More ›
Electrifying and poignant, “Five Fingers for Marseilles” explores the cost of violence on the soul.
With new movies coming available nearly every day, it’s nigh impossible to see everything. Where technology saves audiences the world over is in the unprecedented access that streaming offers through on-demand or digital services to films the audience might otherwise… Read More ›
“Camp Manna” is a solid addition to the pantheon of camp comedies.
Camp is a place of awakenings, a place of self-discovery through challenges physical and emotional. It’s where individuals have a chance to explore or even redefine themselves. Many of these journeys have been memorialized in film through favorites Meatballs, The… Read More ›
Director Jenni Gold’s “CinemAbility: The Art of Inclusion” examines the complex nature of disabled representation.
Without question, there’s something about storytelling that connects with audiences in a visceral way. A good story, no matter the medium, enables readers, listeners, or viewers to go on journeys of incredible fantasy or to observe moments of historical, even… Read More ›
Unfortunately, even inspired storytelling can’t help “Mermaid’s Song” sing on key.
The seaweed is always greener in somebody else’s lake; or perhaps in the case of Mermaid’s Song, the dust settles differently upon each poor family’s farm. Naturally, you can see that the saying isn’t quite as catchy as the one… Read More ›
Documentary “Susanne Bartsch: On Top” explores an enigma at the heart of nightlife culture.
As a young, queer individual, it’s imperative for myself to know the history that has made the queer community so strong today: the culture, the tragedy, the struggle, and in the case of queer New Yorkers in the 1980’s, the… Read More ›
Familiar and clichéd, “Mara” isn’t the stuff of nightmares.
The opening titles of Mara state that 40% of the world’s population suffers in some form from sleep paralysis, which seems like a generally applicable number. They soon follow it up with the idea that two thirds report having encountered… Read More ›
Unfortunately, technical prowess doesn’t outweigh narrative weakness with “Along Came The Devil”.
Horror films involving demonic possession seem to be one of the hottest trends in recent years. From the Conjuring series, the Insidious series, and the upcoming Suspiria remake, horror films about possession utilize supernatural elements recycled time and again in… Read More ›
Lauren Miller Rogen’s “Like Father” grounds an alt-romantic comedy with real emotion.
Netflix’s latest original film, Like Father, marks the feature directorial debut of Lauren Miller Rogen. It’s a dramedy addressing the detrimental impact of a life dissociated from others. A concept like this requires a balancing act of writing, acting, and… Read More ›
Noir and comedy intertwine for Jack Eve’s “Bees Make Honey”.
There’s no denying that writer/director Jack Eve’s got ambition. Watching a single frame of genre mash-up Bees Make Honey makes that abundantly clear. With bold strokes, Jack sets about combining aspects of straight period pieces and film noir mysteries, with… Read More ›
Netflix’s Martin Freeman-led zombie apocalypse feature ‘Cargo’ meanders narratively, reducing tension and emotion along the way.
For years now, zombie-related stories have been the rage on screens big and small. Whether telling the on-going story of a group of survivors (AMC’s The Walking Dead) or a one-shot of a father protecting his daughter (Train to Busan),… Read More ›
Duncan Jones latest film ‘Mute’ is a perfect fit for Netflix’s Instant offerings.
Writer/director Duncan Jones broke onto the scene with the 2009 underground hit Moon, which tracked lunar engineer Sam Bell’s (Sam Rockwell) last days of his three-year mission as his solitary life finally begins to take its toll. Unfortunately, Jones’s follow-ups… Read More ›
Sociopaths are all the rage in ‘Tragedy Girls’.
Last October audiences were inundated by interesting films that drew them in a multitude of directions. Blade Runner 2049, The Florida Project, The Foreigner, and The Square all hit cinemas small and large, so it’d be hard to blame anyone… Read More ›
Coming To Theaters: February 2018
If you found January’s cinematic offerings not to your tastes, then February is bound to bring you everything you could want and more. Kicking things off is Academy Award Winner Helen Mirren in the biography-horror Winchester, followed by the final tale… Read More ›