Over the past several weeks and ongoing, there have been many movies made available via streaming that normally would never see the light of day inside a movie theater. I am a strong supporter of the theater experience, but even I have to admit that the creation of widely available virtual cinema screenings of rare…
The balance of power and the legitimacy of violence has been shifting for some time throughout the world and the challenge of defining illegal force has been building, growing into a cry for change. As citizens of a state, country, or republic, we give the power to the institution, yet we have no power to…
In the No Time To Die Countdown, Jake Tropila takes a look back at every Bond film – official and unofficial – in anticipation of the release of the latest entry. I’ll be the first to admit that these Bond revisits have been largely agreeable affairs, bordering on being excessively effusive in praise. Sure, things…
A couple of years ago, I learned that The Karate Kid would be rebooted as a television series. Like others of a certain age that grew up with a particular property, I had my doubts. Rebooting or bringing back a franchise, whatever you want to call it, is a risky move. You have to appeal both to…
At several points, while watching Repossession, the work of co-directors Ming Siu Goh and Scott C. Hillyard, I had to ask myself: “Did that really just happen?” These lapses in the understanding of timeline and plot seem at times intentional – often during unexpected flashback sequences that suggest something is amiss with the outwardly straightforward…
As Abraham Lincoln once famously said, don’t believe everything you read on the internet. You have to be savvy in the Information Age, and the garish katzenjammer of fake news, clickbait and “alternative facts” makes a battle out of separating the wheat from the chaff. I’m skeptical about a lot of things on the world…
There’s a monster afoot (apaw?) in The Wolf of Snow Hollow, the latest from writer/director Jim Cummings. John already had enough going on before people started getting ripped apart. A sobriety battle, an aging father, and the joys of a teenage daughter were keeping him plenty busy, then strange murders started happening in his otherwise quiet town….
Acting is an art form, and behind every iconic character is an artist expressing themselves. Welcome to The Great Performances, a bi-weekly column exploring the art behind some of film and television’s greatest characters. This time, we turn the spotlight to Will Smith’s breakout role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Will Smith starred in The…
Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video that explores the “first feature-length mashup,” Dinosaur Hunters. Dinosaur Hunters makes good on the implicit pitch of late-career films like The Expendables. Namely: wouldn’t it be great if all the action movie stars from…
Movies love the movies. From Man with a Movie Camera to Schizopolis, many iconic films are drenched in cinephilia and self-referentiality. But no movie loves movies as much as Film Title Poem, a 67-minute experimental traversal of film history, both canonical and personal, entirely by way of title cards. Watching Jennifer West’s Film Title Poem…
Oh no, not a reboot of an existing universe with a female-centric spin. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, except that it’s a well-trod and fraught approach, one with naysayers coming from all sides. When it’s not the vocal few who seemingly hate women in their universes (gag me) torpedoing a perfectly fine movie…
The kids are not all right in Spontaneous, the directorial debut of Brian Duffield. They’re not okay because a bunch of high school kids are blowing up. Popping, as one character puts it as if a mysterious illness is spreading and causing the messy tragedies. In the meantime, they’re still teenagers, blithely going about their business…
Streaming might be the future, but physical media is still the present. It’s also awesome, depending on the title, the label, and the release, so each week we take a look at the new Blu-rays and DVDs making their way into the world. Welcome to this week in Home Video for September 22nd, 2020! Our pick…
Video Dispatches is a regular column covering recent home video releases. Alphabet City (1984) – Fun City Editions Alphabet City (1984) – Fun City Editions Fun City Editions (FCE) is a new boutique label working under Vinegar Syndrome that purports to be “focused on reissues of maverick repertory cinema and music that can best be…
Since its premiere on Cartoon Network in 2014, We Bare Bears showed the more playful side of modern interaction, be it meme culture, dating, creating a viral social media presence, or simply making new friends all through the eyes of three unlikely characters; Grizz, a happy-go-lucky brown bear, along with his brothers Panda, a love-sick…
We are drawn to new films for a variety of reasons. Many times, the pull is a particular actor or director whose work we idolize and anticipate. For others, it is the subject matter that is appealing, dramatized insight into politics, stories, and viewpoints. For others, it is simply the similarities to old films that…
Double Take is a series in which Anna Swanson and Meg Shields sit down and yell at each other about the controversial, uncomfortable, and contentious corners of cinema. And when it comes to controversial, uncomfortable, and contentious, there is only one holy grail, and it’s covered in glitter, champagne, and [redacted]. Joined by fellow trash…
In the No Time To Die Countdown, Jake Tropila takes a look back at every Bond film – official and unofficial – in anticipation of the release of the latest entry. With Connery officially bidding the franchise adieu for a second time, Broccoli and Saltzman had no choice but to recast 007 yet again. Many…
It’s hard to think of a more fitting title for Chinese filmmaker Song Fang’s sophomore feature than The Calming. A spiritual sister to Chantal Akerman’s classic portrait of female solitude, Les Rendez-vous d’Anna, The Calming follows a recently single woman filmmaker as she travels around China, Hong Kong, and Japan, showing her work and stopping…
Queerly Ever After is a bi-monthly column where I take a look at LGBT+ films that gave their characters a romantic happily-ever-after. There will be spoilers. Also, don’t forget to buy your Queerly Ever After merch right here. In Say Yes, a woman, Lily (Leah McKendrick), dying of cancer decides that she wants her husband…
Even from the very first scene, 180° Rule is lathered with a sense of dread and unease, setting the stage for a divisive exploration of both grief and atonement on the background of customary Iranian traditions. Farnoosh Samadi’s first feature is a technically impressive debut but unfortunately falls short of being an accomplished piece of dramatic…