According to the press notes for Call for Dreams, Israeli director Ran Slavin started the project in pursuit of a “new cinematic form.” Slavin began with the idea to collect dreams from strangers that he could use as inspiration for… Read More ›
thriller
Writer/director Patrick Picard’s “The Bloodhound” is the best unfaithful adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe you can experience at home.
“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heaves, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and… Read More ›
Jacob Gentry’s jazzy tech noir “Broadcast Signal Intrusion” takes us down a rabbit hole. [SXSW Film Festival]
Imagine being in the middle of a favorite television program, only to have your television hijacked by unwanted and disturbing images. While the interruption doesn’t last long, what appeared on screen you can’t unsee. While this sounds like an old… Read More ›
“Nobody” brings comfort like family.
Audience expectations are killer. They will ruin you every time, which is often why the marketing has to work so hard to manage them. A little tease here, a little explanation there — just enough to get folks interested without… Read More ›
If you can stomach it, “Violation” from writing/directing team Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer has something worth hearing.
**Trigger Warning: Discussion of topics surrounding sexual assault** There’s this strange sort of thought process that goes into the writing of the stereotypical rape-revenge film. Woman (always a woman, because that’s totally not something that ever happens to a man,… Read More ›
Liberate tutemet ex inferis. “Event Horizon” Collector’s Edition coming from Shout! Factory.
Have you taken time to praise our lord and savior Paul W.S. Anderson today? For his truth and wisdom are great and mighty, and his camp polished and lively. For he…also made the Resident Evil movies, and that’s pretty cool,… Read More ›
Powered by Andrea Riseborough, “Here Before” will catch you completely off guard. [SXSW Film Festival]
Andrea Riseborough. That’s it; that’s the review. …okay fine, I’ll say more. If there’s anyone who has been a film festival genre darling in the past couple years, it’s been Andrea Riseborough. Her transformation from British prestige drama actress to… Read More ›
“In The Land of Lost Angels” is an indisputable debut for writer/director Bishrel Mashbat.
When one looks back on a director’s early works, you can usually see the beginnings of whatever will become their signature POV or narrative approach. In The Land of Lost Angels is the first feature film from writer/director Bishrel Mashbat,… Read More ›
Action/adventure flick “Burn It All” trips and stumbles over its stiff dialogue, making it difficult to take the story seriously.
Like a well-choreographed action sequence, movies have a lot of moving parts. While certain aspects of a film might not fall into place, the film may do so well in other areas that it turns out alright in the end…. Read More ›
Director Natasha Kermani’s new film is both “Lucky” and good.
A lot of critics like to proclaim that women filmmakers are “on the rise” in Hollywood, but I find that wording to often feel degrading and lack accountability in the system. It’s not that women are suddenly deciding to become… Read More ›
Akira Kurosawa Series: A Look Back on “Stray Dog.”
By the end of Akira Kurosawa’s 1949 detective drama, Stray Dog, there is not a character that escapes the fray without rolling around in the mud, figuratively and literally. Every decision has consequences, and every action has a reaction. Some, more… Read More ›
Arrow Video’s HD restoration of director Park Chan-wook’s “JSA: Joint Security Area” is an opportunity to learn from the past.
One of the great things about boutique distributors like Criterion, Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome, and others is that whether a film is lost or beloved, they find new life via a new release. Even though the major studios are starting to… Read More ›
Can you find the real “Archenemy” when the film comes to home video?
The deconstruction and evaluation of superheroes in cinema and television didn’t begin with Zack Snyder or Eric Kripke, though they are the ones most widely known for it at the moment. Their stories take a darker look at the notion… Read More ›
“Prisoners of the Ghostland” brings new meaning to the phrase “balls out” in its post-apocalyptic action/adventure tale. [Sundance Film Festival]
A nameless stranger. A damsel in distress. A suicide mission that no one but the best can handle. These three requirements appear in countless stories, from gunslinger westerns of the East to the samurai tales of the West, each possessing… Read More ›
Eco-disaster “Greenland” is a thrilling, emotionally engaging film that puts character over spectacle.
Every so often, Hollywood attempts to recreate the 1970s by releasing another high-concept disaster movie that vies to emulate the silly, yet thrilling fun of films like The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and Earthquake, putting high-profile, ensemble casts in… Read More ›
Writer/director Ben Hozie’s “PVT Chat” demonstrates admirable skill, creativity, and resourcefulness despite other shortcomings.
From writer and director Ben Hozie, PVT Chat is a story of urban loneliness and isolation along with lust and obsession. Peter Vack acts in the role of Jack, an online gambler who feels internally empty and without any clear… Read More ›
Psychological thriller “The Night” masters the familiar haunted hotel setting with technical excellence.
Kourosh Ahari’s psychological thriller, The Night, is a stellar example of a film that may not have the next best original ideas within its genre, but is so well done that it is nonetheless entertaining and worthwhile. Despite a handful… Read More ›
Be careful out there. If you “Flinch,” you’ll catch a bullet.
If you’re familiar with Cameron Van Hoy, it may be because of his work as Eddie Alvarez in STARZ’s Crash or as Deputy Duke in the hilarious slasher-comedy Tragedy Girls (2017). With luck, thanks to his feature-length directorial debut Flinch,… Read More ›
A true story, “The Mauritanian” presents the moral failings of a country who mistakes vengeance for justice.
… We think of justice as a quality that may exist in a whole community as well as in an individual, and the community is the bigger of the two. Possibly, then, we may find justice there in larger proportions,… Read More ›
If “‘Wolfenstein’ in the Pacific Theater” meets “Overlord” sounds enticing, check out director Roseanne Liang’s “Shadow in the Cloud.”
It’s a tough conversation, but one that needs to be addressed head-on before jumping into actually talking about the film itself. Shadow in the Cloud, despite its best efforts, is written by Max Landis. Landis, the son of veteran filmmaker… Read More ›