The word incredible comes to mind when thinking about Francesco Giannini’s The Hall. The relevancy of the film and the parallels it contains will hit hard. It is important to note that the version of the film I had the opportunity of seeing was not yet complete, the current pandemic delaying post-production. Though this did nothing…
There’s no wonder that Australians remain in awe of the iconic work of country music legend and cultural touchstone Slim Dusty; every aspect of his storied career, from his cow-punching stage name to his leisurely ‘Chips Rafferty‘ swagger and way of weaving bush ballads into our national identity, perfectly embodied the classic Australian story, the…
Jon Stevenson’s Rent-A-Pal examines the videotape dating culture of the 1990s in this retro horror film. The film follows David (Brian Landis Folkins), a lonely single guy taking care of his mother who has dementia. In an effort to find a relationship for himself, he joins Video Rendezvous, a dating service. When 6 months pass,…
Kicking off right after the Sydney Film Festival made their historic turn towards making their annual cinematic celebration a digital banquet, the Melbourne International Film Festival – cheekily credited as 68½ edition – gave an online platform to a myriad of international and Australian artists to make their worldwide and domestic debuts, whether it be…
The late Kiarostami’s protegé Ahmad Bahrami returns with The Wasteland (Dashte Khamoush), a moody drama following the plight of a bricklaying factory in the middle of Iranian desert backwater. source: Venice Film Festival As part of the 77th Venice Film Festival’s Orrizonti lineup, and one of two films representing Iran at the festival, Bahrami’s second…
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. I am going to preface my review of the broad culture-clash comedy Mambo Italiano by saying that I am Jewish and Italian, and yes, dinner with my family is…
I find Mulan to be a fascinating case study in terms of reviewing a film based on existing source material. Depending on how you grew up with the story, you could identify it as either the most enduring Chinese folktale of all time or as one of your favorite Disney movies. Which makes this live-action…
Opening this historic 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival is Andrea Segre’s Molecole, a haunting meditation on virus-lockdown Venice. As part of the Biennale’s Out of Competition slate, Molecole was presented as the pre-opening film of the festival, a fitting personal exploration of the stillness and absurdity of our times. source: Venice Film Festival Venice…
Director Jeff Orlowski is known for his acclaimed documentaries Chasing Ice and Chasing Choral, films which lucidly capture the rapid erosion of Earth’s glaciers and barrier reefs. For his latest feature The Social Dilemma, he focuses on our broken world once more but takes a step back in examining what could bring about the apocalypse….
Things have gone well past thinking of ending things in Blackbird, the latest from director Roger Michell. Lily doesn’t have long no matter what she does. She’s terminally ill, but instead of waiting for an unspecified expiry date she’s set one herself and gathered her family for one last get together. She’s feeling chill about it…
Welcome to 4:3 & Forgotten — a weekly column in which Rob Hunter and I get to look back at TV terrors that scared adults (and the kids they let watch) across the limited airwaves of the ’70s. This week’s movie is 1979’s The Darker Side of Terror. Some of the most effective horror films exaggerate contemporary societal…
Welcome to World Builders, our ongoing series of conversations with the most productive and thoughtful behind-the-scenes craftspeople in the industry. In this entry, we chat with cinematographer Michael Watson about balancing the unreal with the very real horrors of Lovecraft Country. You don’t have time to get comfortable. Lovecraft Country does not care if you’re…
Amazon Prime Video is the only streaming service with a cost that also gets you free shipping, and that my friends is a deal. They’re in the original programming game, but their biggest offering remains the ton of films available to watch anytime for Prime members. The complete list of new titles available to stream…
I think we can all agree that, so far, 2020 has been a whole thing. One casualty of the coronavirus is going to the cinema, and as a movie festival is pretty heavily reliant on that, I was resigned to the fact that MIFF wouldn’t happen this year. However, MIFF wasn’t going to deprive us…
Welcome to Horrorscope, a monthly column keeping horror nerds and initiates up to date on what to watch now. Here’s a guide to all the essential horror streaming in September 2020. Happy Halloween! Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonYes, that’s right, Halloween: the 61-day holiday that begins on September 1st and ends…
Hulu has been stuck in the third-place position when it comes to movie streaming behind Netflix and Amazon Prime because most people still see them strictly as a home for next-day television. They have movies, too, though, and more than a few of them are gems that make Hulu a destination beyond last night’s TV…
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 1st, 2020 which includes…
Some people spend their days arguing over the merits of Netflix, but the rest of us are too busy enjoying new movies, engaging series, and fun specials. It’s just one more way to re-watch the movies we already love and find new ones to cherish, and this month sees some of both hitting the service. The…
Welcome to 4:3 & Forgotten — a weekly column in which Kieran Fisher and I get to look back at TV terrors that scared adults (and the kids they let watch) across the limited airwaves of the ’70s. This week we head to a remote island alongside celebration, murder, and Five Desperate Women. Aaron Spelling was always best…
The name’s Bond. Bondathon. With twenty-four official James Bond films to conquer before No Time To Die hits theaters, Bond fan Anna Swanson and Bond newbie Meg Shields are diving deep on 007. Martinis shaken and beluga caviar in hand, the Double Take duo are making their way through the Bond corpus by era, so…
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 August 25th, 2020 which includes…