For her first feature script, Joanne Sarazen (I Came Here Alone) nails the endless pain and difficulty of a parental toxic relationship: the way the parent, an incubus born of weaponized love, cycles through terrible behavior after terrible behavior, pulling… Read More ›
VOD
Ready for home viewing, “The Rhythm Section” is an interesting twist on the spy thriller whose sum is rarely as strong as its parts.
Sometimes, no matter how many strong pieces a story has or how fantastic of a cast and crew, it doesn’t gel as expected. This is the case with The Rhythm Section, a film starring Blake Lively (All I See Is… Read More ›
“The Wretched” is a nuts and bolts monster movie, and it delivers.
The horror genre is arguably the most diverse genre in Hollywood when you take into consideration of all the sub-genres that it offers. Slasher, zombies, paranormal, and psychological are all prime examples of sub-genres of horror movies, but one should… Read More ›
Discover surrealist artist Reine Paradis in the VOD documentary “Queen of Paradis.”
The tale of Reine Paradis begins with the story of how the French-born artist came to the United States to pursue her dream of being an artist. After being fired as a photographer’s assistant, she had to make a decision,… Read More ›
Justin Kurzel’s rendering of Ned Kelly and his gang in “True History of the Kelly Gang” sizzles with punk rock energy.
Every culture has their notorious outlaws, and in Australia, probably no such figure looms larger than bushranger Ned Kelly, who famously wore a suit made of bulletproof armor during his last standoff with local authorities. While at least 10 movies… Read More ›
“Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All-Time, Vol 1” is an informative, if imperfect, beginning of a cult film documentary series.
If you’ve ever felt lost, unseen, unacknowledged, or just generally without people, chances are that something came into your live and turned all of that around. We’re not getting into something as deep as religion, but, for many, the art… Read More ›
Neo-western “The Quarry” plays by its own rules.
Adapted from Damon Galgut’s 1995 novel of the same name, director Scott Teems’s film The Quarry comes to you as a gritty, grim, and bleak Neo-Western thriller. With a screenplay co-written by Teems and Andrew Brotzman, this feature exemplifies shades… Read More ›
The Cine-Men Minisode
In this brief minisode, hosts Darryl Mansel and Douglas Davidson discuss the challenges that cinema currently faces: theater closures, shifting release dates, and a focus on VOD. If you missed of the last 27 episodes, you can jump right on… Read More ›
Brazilian director Fernando Grostein Andrade’s coming of age film, “Abe”, is a love letter to all kids who don’t know where they fit in.
Growing up is confusing for the average pre-teen boy, but Brooklyn-born Abe (Noah Schnapp, Stranger Things) has more of a task than most. Born out of a cross-cultural marriage, Abe describes his identity as Palestinian Muslim/Israeli Jewish/American Brooklyn/and Gryffindor. Family… Read More ›
Thriller “Sea Fever” unsettles, yet is somehow optimistic.
When writer-director Neasa Hardiman originally crafted the new suspense-thriller, creature-feature hybrid Sea Fever, it is highly unlikely that she could have forecasted its remarkable relevance to the current state of the world. With the pandemic of COVID-19 impacting the daily… Read More ›
Novel adaption “The Lost Husband” cleverly sidesteps typical finding oneself tropes.
Published in May 2013, Katherine Center’s novel The Lost Husband is the basis for the second feature film from director Vicky Wight (The Volunteer) and is the latest novel-to-screen adaption to entertain audiences. With a premise focused on a newly-widowed… Read More ›
The minimalism in indie drama “Stray” is both its greatest strength and weakness.
Writer/director Dustin Feneley’s feature film debut, Stray, is a bold swing. An exercise in minimalism, the dialogue is scant, pans are few, scoring is largely absent, and narrative points are inferred more than directly stated. Aspects of this does translate… Read More ›
Feminist folktale horror film “The Other Lamb” is resonant and memorable, but loses itself in symbolism.
If Céline Sciamma’s recently-released Portrait of a Lady on Fire paints a picture of female community and camaraderie at its best, honing in on the lives of women as they create space for each other outside of patriarchal society, then… Read More ›
Dark satire “Vivarium” examines the nuclear suburban family to varying degrees of success.
Considering the entire globe is almost totally under house arrest, the arrival of Vivarium might seem like the worst idea in the world. Focused on a couple whose house-hunting gets them stuck in suburbia, all alone, would be bad enough,… Read More ›
Coming of age tale “Banana Split” balances comedy and romance to create a unique tale.
With the right amount of comedy and romance and the vibe of a coming of age tale, Banana Split is a poignant and profoundly resonating story that’s about the struggles of friendships and the overall impact they will have on… Read More ›
Thoughtful, smart, and executed with precision, “Blow the Man Down” is just the film to help weather the home entertainment storm.
There is nothing more dangerous than the female of any species. They possess the ability to grant life, yet will also bring forth the full weight of their wrath if needed. It’s the lioness who hunts for the pack, the… Read More ›
Bold political thriller “Run This Town” speaks to millennials and Gen Z’s entering the workforce, posing complex questions about integrity and corruption.
Although we’re just two months into the new year, 2020 has already seen the landmark trials of two immensely powerful figures who were both accused of abusing their power in different ways: President Donald Trump, who was acquitted by the… Read More ›
Unconventional and super trippy, “The Wave” is an unexpected time travel comedy.
Time travel movies are, honestly, very hit and miss. Granted, there are exceptions (i.e., Terminator or Back to the Future), but time travel seems to get a bad rap, and for good reasons, because it could be considered Hollywood’s way… Read More ›
Despite a subversion of genre tropes and bevy of homages, Jennifer Reeder’s “Knives and Skin” isn’t as sharp as it aims to be.
The textbook definition of “teen movie” has taken a sharp left turn in the past decade. Gone are the days of lighthearted slapstick comedies à la American Pie and Superbad, or the mushy romance films like She’s All That and… Read More ›
Sci-fi drama “Anya” is a thoughtful and nuanced exploration of a complex contemporary issue.
A science-fiction love story can go either way. It could be a Passengers (2016) or it could be a About Time (2013), which may not be a true science-fiction movie, but it’s infused with time travel so we’ll call it… Read More ›