When Yon Shimizu heard the news that Japanese forces had bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he was on his hands and knees, scrubbing his family’s linoleum floor. Living in a rented house in Victoria, British Columbia, with his sister, two brothers, and their widowed mother, he was listening to the radio while completing his…
As drivers near the corner of Mountain Road and Emerald Valley Lane in Bernards Township, they’ll come upon a tree that rises from the brush. At sunset, it becomes a dark silhouette against the field that stretches behind it. Known as the Devil’s Tree, the oak is believed to have sinister powers, cursing anyone who…
★★★ Directed by: Nathalie Moreira Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho Marathon,,Film Review by: ,,Jason Knight The 8th of December 2020 will mark the fortieth anniversary of John Lennon’s passing. Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Lennon was an English singer, songwriter and peace activist and known…
Watching Harry Macqueen’s sophomore film Supernova is like hugging someone you love for the last time. It is a warm, rapturous embrace, but one that is filled with immeasurable sadness. It is not a SUPERNOVA or hard-edged experience, but a pleasant one; so pleasant, in fact, that you never want it to end. It is…
Premiering this weekend at the 2020 Sitges Film Festival, The Old Ways, from director Christopher Alender, is a horror film that takes you below the equator and into the jungle of forgotten traditions. Cleverly balancing the elements of horror with its deeply relevant and urgent themes, The Old Ways is sure to satisfy both viewer…
Philippe Lacôte’s Night of the Kings follows a young pickpocket in his first night at the “MACA”, one of the main prisons in Abidjan, the largest city in the Ivory Coast. As the Ivory Coast’s entry for International Feature Film at this upcoming Academy Awards, Night of the Kings has the power and storytelling to…
Jumbo will go down in film history, somewhat unfairly, as the movie in which Noémie Merlant fucks an amusement park ride. The film, a French-Belgian co-production I saw at Nightstream’s Virtual Film Festival, has a funny premise, but there’s real pathos beneath that conceit, coaxed out by Merlant’s graceful performance and beautiful, measured direction from…
“Each one of these stones from darker worlds has its own story. And the bigger ones have changed entire landscapes.” Apple has unveiled the first official trailer for Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds, the latest documentary made by Werner Herzog, and co-directed by volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer (also seen in Into the Inferno). This recently premiered…
Thanks to its long history, the city of Rome is full of archaeological remains from many different eras. While the most famous ones, like the Colosseum or the Pantheon date back to the golden age of the Roman Empire, the city dates back many centuries. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe traditional…
“Imagine if it were like that with everything that’s beautiful. One minute it’s there. And then it’s gone.” Peccadillo Pics in the UK has released a UK trailer for the German coming-of-age / sexual awakening drama Cocoon, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. Kreuzberg is Nora’s microcosm. The silent observer, she’s…
French Exit, from director Azazel Jacobs, is a film I shouldn’t like, yet can’t resist. There’s a quirky awkwardness interwoven throughout the film’s premise and character interactions that lends itself to a strange, unique narrative. The appeal to separate one’s self mirrors the high-class society that has turned its back on the fallen family, whose…
Churches are usually filled with decades and possibly centuries-old items and decorations. Typically these depict biblical scenes and saints. However, at the St. Petri Cathedral in Malmo, a pair of stained glass windows have a very modern appeal. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe project was a collaborative effort between the church,…
Hollywood and the press are working hand in hand to bring greater diversity to filmmaking. To a point, that is. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences tweaked the iconic Oscar rules to ensure films offer richer representation than ever before. Actors are trying to do…
The first utility poles in America weren’t really supposed to be there. It was 1843, and telegraph inventor Samuel Morse was granted $30,000 by the U.S. Congress to construct a line that could send messages more quickly than had ever been possible before. Morse started by trying to bury the cable to carry the messages…
October is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as “31 days of horror.” Don’t bother looking it up; it’s true. Most people take that to mean highlighting one horror movie a day, but here at FSR, we’ve taken that up a spooky notch or nine by celebrating each day with a top ten list. This article about…
The Nanhai One, (South China Sea No. 1) is a Chinese merchant ship that sank during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 CE), possibly due to a storm. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonIt was found in the South Sea in 1987 by a British maritime exploration team while searching for the wreck of the 18th-century…
There’s a lovely little old-school manual typewriter in “Martin Eden,” director Pietro Marcello’s adaptation of Jack London’s semi-autobiographical novel. The protagonist of the title sits behind the mechanical device while transferring his innermost thoughts to the page. As Martin (Luca Marinelli of “The Old Guard”) hammered away at the keys, I was reminded how much…
“Any comic who says they’ve never bombed onstage, they’re not being real about what we do.” – Cedric the Entertainer Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonSome fathers and sons bond through sports. Some bond through fishing. Some bond about books, cars, opera. It doesn’t matter, as long as bonding happens! In “The…
“I don’t know where all the bad blood came from…” Circle & Square Films has released a promo trailer for The Letter, a doc from Kenya that is screening at film festivals this fall. This originally premiered at the IDFA Doc Festival last year, and is still looking for a release – but this trailer…
On a warm day in February 2018, a nimble 63-year-old named Oumarou Alim leads the way through the dramatic stone caves of Mount Djim, a rocky peak in the Central African nation of Cameroon. Holding up an arm with a flourish, he declares that this cave “holds the traces of those who came before us.”…
“If we kidnap you, and forbid you to sleep, what happens with your mind?” Epic Pictures has released an official US trailer for a dark psychological thriller titled Sleepless Beauty, from Russian filmmaker Pavel Khvaleev. It just premiered at the Imagine Film Festival, and arrives on VOD in the US in November. A girl named…