In 1609, the flagship of the Virginia Company, Sea Venture, was blown miserably off course by a brutal summer hurricane that wrecked the ship near a tiny island, some 700 miles off the Virginia coast. Fortunately, no lives were lost. Unfortunately, the island offered not a drop of fresh water. Today, that island is among…

Another social media cautionary tale! This amusing, wacky animated short is a personal project from Berlin-based animation filmmaker Cornelius Joksch and it’s another fun story that’s criticizing the tragic lives of people obsessed with their social media presence. Cornelius makes his own short films and illustrations, but also works for brands and studios. Oh, Darling!…

Crossing the Streams is a series of columns spotlighting all the offerings hitting the big streaming services each month. This time we’re checking out the new Netflix arrivals for April 2021, including a new fantasy series, new movies with Idris Elba and Melissa McCarthy (not together), and more! Keep reading to see what’s new on…

It’s a timely release for a horror film like Agoraphobia, after most of the world has been confined to their homes for much of the last year. Written and directed by Lou Simon, this film tells the story of Faye (Cassandra Scerbo), an agoraphobic woman who is moving into her recently deceased father’s home to…

In good years, fall and winter thunderstorms drench the deserts east of the Mediterranean. In early spring, the soil cracks in some places, the swelling signs of desert truffles below. An age-old harvest begins. In the Middle East, humans have foraged these unique mushrooms for millennia, scanning broken earth for protein-rich knobs to eat, sell,…

Savvy readers long ago stopped trusting fact checking services, and for very good reasons. Sites like Snopes.com often go to comical lengths to either downplay Democrats who twist the truth or pretend Republicans actually lied when reality tells a different story. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonHere are two quick examples. The…

As someone who has visited the Arctic Circle city of Tromsø, Norway not once, but twice (it’s beautiful and charming, and they run a great Midnight Sun Marathon), I am not unfamiliar with Roald Amundsen. A statue of him stands in the middle of Tromsø just outside their Polar Museum, which chronicles the history of…

This bronze statue of the now-extinct great auk overlooks the impressive sea cliffs where these birds once nested. The statue in the Reykjanes peninsula was created by the artist Todd McGrain. It is one of several works that he has done as part of his Lost Bird Project. The series includes sculptures of several extinct…

The Lares hot springs in southern Peru are made up of outdoor pools surrounded by tall stone walls, grassy fields, and outdoor showers. The natural hot springs have been used by locals in practices that extend back to pre-Columbian civilizations. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonLares is a small town in the…

Night had fallen on Mahebourg, a bustling trade town on the southeast coast of Mauritius, when what would come to be called the “people’s factory zone” met for the first time. It was an enterprise born of necessity: A crisis was unfolding only a few miles offshore, in the pristine waters from which many of…

During the darkest parts of the winter, most locals dwell inside. But when the sun returns and the days get longer the ice road is a perfect spot to recharge the batteries. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonSweden’s Luleå archipelago formed during the last ice age, and is made up of a…

A man does what we all dream of doing in The Outside Story, the feature debut of writer/director Casimir Nozkowski. Okay, it’s literally just going outside and running into people, but how many of us can do that right now? Not many! Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonIn the before times, some people…

Ruiguang Pagoda, also known as the Auspicious Lustre Pagoda, is the earliest pagoda built in what is now known as the Panmen Scenic Area of Suzhou. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe pagoda was built in 247 CE during the reign of King Chiwu Sun Quan in honor of his mother. At…

The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum is a decidedly understated independent institution compared to the grand federal repositories of his successors. The quiet, one-room exhibition on the second floor of the Forbes Library is perhaps in line with the 30th president’s reputation as the reserved “Silent Cal.”  Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong…

Emerald Fennell jumps on the phone from England the day after winning a Writers Guild award for Best Original Screenplay for “Promising Young Woman.” A week earlier, she’d been nominated for three Academy Awards for the film—her first feature—for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. While we’re talking, news breaks that she’ll write…

★★★★ Directed by: Piero Cannata Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: Piero Cannata Starring: Daniele Marotta, Monica Zanforlin, Marilea Vaglica Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Film Review by: Vikas Yadav A screenwriter plays with his characters in the same way a kid plays with…

Welcome back to the newest, and at times goriest, column here at Film Inquiry – Horrific Inquiry. Twice a month, I will be tackling all things horror, each month bringing two films back into the spotlight to terrify and frighten once more. And occasionally looking at those that could have pushed the envelope further. Join…

“This is unnatural, we gotta tell someone.” “No, we can’t!” “Why not…?” “Because they’ll take it away from us!!” Time to catch up with this clever sci-fi short film titled Burnt Grass, which originally premiered in 2014 at the Toronto Film Festival. Thanks to a bump from Short of the Week, it’s now available to…

The conventional movie monster is a frightening, ravenous, carnivorous beast that devours anything — and everything — in its path. It might have tentacles, or it might drip with putrid slime. It might be thunderous and fast as lightning, or it might creep up on you without a sound and whisk you away into the…

The Grand Jury award for this year’s SXSW went to The Fallout, a film that takes your typical coming-of-age story and re-tells it through a traumatic lens. With Jenna Ortega carrying the entire weight of the story on her shoulders, this feature directorial debut by Megan Park is an honest, devastating portrait of a reality…

While many may expect the zombie apocalypse to emerge through an unexplainable virus at the borders of CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta, GA, Witness Infection, from Andy Palmer, is here to make you think otherwise. And not only does it cause viewers to reconsider the origin of the apocalypse, but the limited range of space and…