In June of 1987, Walter “Johnny D” McMillian was arrested by Sherriff Tom Tate of Monroeville, Alabama, for the murder of eighteen-year-old Ronda Morrison. The case had been unsolved for a year and Tate was keen to close it. Placed… Read More ›
Warner Bros. Pictures
Director Clint Eastwood raises the question of social justice in “Richard Jewell,” now available on home video.
In 1996, during the Summer Olympic games, a bomb went off in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, killing one and hurting many others. Though it was security guard Richard Jewell who found and alerted police to a suspicious package at the… Read More ›
“Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” takes these broken wings and learns to soar.
The last time audiences saw Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, she was being freed from Black Gate prison by The Joker (Jared Leto) in David Ayers’s Suicide Squad. That was in 2016 when hopes were high that a group of DC… Read More ›
“Doctor Sleep” called in your prescription for Mike Flanagan’s director’s cut. Watch it stat.
There’s something about Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Shining that’s gripped audiences for nearly four decades despite factors which one might presume would detract from its popularity. Kubrick quite famously tortured Shelley Duvall on set to a… Read More ›
Edward Norton’s passion project “Motherless Brooklyn” is now available on home video.
According to actor/writer/director Edward Norton, his relationship with Jonathan Lethem’s 1999 novel Motherless Brooklyn began before the book hit shelves. As he explains in the featurette “Making-Of: Edward Norton’s Methodical Process,” he was tipped off by a friend about the… Read More ›
Is it real? Or is it just fantasy? Dig into the bonus features of “Joker” on home video to find out.
At the time of this writing, director Todd Phillips’s Joker is the highest grossing R-rated film of all time, has earned two Golden Globe wins for Best Actor in A Drama Motion Picture and Original Score with two individual nominations… Read More ›
The home release of “It Chapter Two” includes a full curtain pullback worth checking out.
“You’ll Float, too.” Three innocuous words infused with horrible terror thanks to Stephen King’s 1986 novel It. Then, in 1990, a television mini-series adapted from the book shifted the way the average person looks at clowns, thanks in large part… Read More ›
Novel adaptation “The Goldfinch” is beautifully constructed and executed, yet feels somehow disconnected.
Published in 2013, Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch went on to earn best-selling status, along with the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014. It’s a book that — it seems — entranced readers, including future cast member Sarah Paulson (Ocean’s… Read More ›
“The Curse of the Monkey Bird” pairs the familiar with the modern for an undeniable fun Looney Tunes adventure.
A pig and a duck ride an elephant into the jungle. No, this isn’t the set-up for a joke, it’s the basis for The Curse of the Monkey Bird, the latest in a series of Looney Tunes cartoons set for… Read More ›
Memoir adaptation “Blinded by the Light” puts a Springsteen soundtrack to a journey of self-identity.
When people talk about something being “timeless,” what do they mean? Are they referring to the aesthetic? To the sound? What about the structure? It’s all of these things and none of these things as timelessness refers to the innate… Read More ›
By blending traditional art styles with modern animation, the Chinese folktale “Legend of the White Snake” takes on a new life in the GKIDS release “White Snake.”
If you’re unfamiliar with the “Legend of the White Snake,” it’s an ancient Chinese folktale dating back centuries. Rooted in oral history, the tale has been translated into song, print, television, and film many times over. In it, a human… Read More ›
Now available on home video, Andrea Berloff’s adaptation of DC Vertigo limited series “The Kitchen.”
In November 2014, the first issue of DC Vertigo’s The Kitchen ran. Created by Ollie Masters and drawn by Ming Doyle, the story followed three women trying to survive in 1970’s mobland New York. With the desire for stories from… Read More ›
Director Mike Flanagan makes “Doctor Sleep” his own while keeping pace with Kubrick and King.
Doctor Sleep marks the fifth major adaption of a Stephen King work in 2019 alone, joining the theatrically released Pet Sematary and It: Chapter Two, Netflix’s In the Tall Grass, and Hulu’s original series Castle Rock. Adapting King novels and… Read More ›
Despite the trappings of a thoughtful noir, Edward Norton’s “Motherless Brooklyn” adaptation doesn’t seem to coalesce.
The cinematic adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s book Motherless Brooklyn by Edward Norton (Keeping the Faith) possesses all the hallmarks of a great noir: mystery, a dame in trouble, and a gumshoe in over his head. When you add in a… Read More ›
“Motherless Brooklyn” possesses a strong statement on gentrification, which is mired by cliché noir tropes and bland filmmaking. [Film Fest 919]
Being from Durham, North Carolina, I have seen a lot of changes happen in my city over the last few years. Durham kept a large, mostly black, working-class population due to the employment of so many citizens at the tobacco… Read More ›
“The Wizard of Oz” 4K remaster makes the magic come alive once more.
Considered one of the greatest films in American cinema history, Victor Fleming’s The Wizard of Oz has delighted audiences since it first premiered August 15th, 1939. Not many films, let alone adaptations, can say they carry that kind of esteem,… Read More ›
Feeling brave? You can welcome “Annabelle Comes Home” into your own now.
When you hit the seventh installment of a series, you’re either scraping the bottom of the barrel or hitting your stride. What began with co-writers Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes and director James Wan in 2013’s The Conjuring is… Read More ›
“Joker” is an absolute mind-screw in the best and worst ways.
Since director Todd Phillips’s Joker premiered at the 76th Venice Film Festival in August 2019, it’s been mired in controversy. Some hailed the film as an absolute masterpiece of filming, evoking elements of director Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Others called… Read More ›
Can you solve the Faun’s three challenges? With the new 4K UHD home release of “Pan’s Labyrinth” you can.
Though Oscar-winning writer/director Guillermo del Toro’s been working since the mid-’80s, the majority of audiences know him as the director of either Hellboy (2004), Pacific Rim (2013), and The Shape of Water (2017). In cinema-focused circles, however, del Toro’s more… Read More ›
Remember the three rules when you pick up the new “Gremlins” home release, now in 4K UHD.
Before The Nightmare Before Christmas started the argument over whether it was a Halloween or Christmas movie, there was Gremlins. Considered a classic ‘80s film, the Joe Dante-directed (Innerspace), Chris Columbus-written (The Goonies) holiday nightmare is celebrating its 35th anniversary… Read More ›