“Let your frenemy know how you really feel!” Warner Bros has released a fun “Valentine’s Day” promo spot for the new Tom and Jerry movie, a mix of live-action and old school animation. It’s arriving in theaters + on HBO Max later this month, and it looks like a clever and amusing update mixing cartoon…
Jonathan Demme’s “The Silence of the Lambs” introduces each of its main characters by showing them in their home or temporary habitat. We meet FBI cadet Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) while she’s training outside at Quantico, sprinting through the woods, a proper metaphor for her current existence and the event of her past that gives…
The low-budget, idea-driven corner of science fiction has become a crowded place recently. “Lapsis” is the latest entry worth seeing and arguing about. Written, directed, edited, and scored by Noah Hutton, and shot (by Mike Gomes) on location in New York City and in forests upstate, this is a rare American feature that not only dares…
Disney took a principled stand in erasing Gina Carano from its signature show, “The Mandalorian.” Or so the mega-company suggested by severing ties with Carano for her “abhorrent” message comparing Nazi Germany to attacks on conservatives today. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonLet’s take Disney at its word. It can’t continue doing…
A mouse orchestra. A crab giving advice on love. A boy who sings along to Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb as he delivers newspapers. Big musical numbers. Candy-colored oceanside architecture. Jamie Dornan. A screenplay by stars Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, who play two irrepressibly cheerful best friends who wander through it all. Josh Greenbaum…
★★★ Directed by: #TerrellWilliams Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonStarring: #ChristinaMancari, #JafethGarcia, #BobbyJRomay Short Film Review by Taryll Baker Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Lilly, living in a society that cages people like animals for not adapting to the new world order, is joined by…
★★★★ Directed by: #SimisolaoluwaAkande Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: #SimisolaoluwaAkanda Starring: #MaryamAhamdu, #AnjolauluwaAkande, #OluwatoyinAkande Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Film review by: Patrick Foley Whilst 2020 may have been a year when a desire for racial justice collided with institutional barriers like a…
Throughout “Barton Fink,” a film producer named Lipnick (Michael Lerner, in an Oscar-nominated turn) speaks of craving “that Barton Fink feeling” in a screenplay. Namely, an honest, sublime truth that’s lacking in the normal Hollywood fare. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWhat the fourth film from writer/directors Joel and Ethan Coen offers,…
Welcome to Movie DNA, a column that recognizes the direct and indirect cinematic roots of both new and classic movies. Learn some film history, become a more well-rounded viewer, and enjoy like-minded works of the past. This entry recommends movies to watch after you see the historical drama Judas and the Black Messiah. Biopics and other…
During Lunar New Year, a prosperous future belongs to those who eat their weight in luck. Diners slurp long noodles to ensure long lives and scarf down bone-in fish to swim to new fortunes. But the sweetest of these auspicious New Year dishes may be nian gao, a sticky cake eaten with the hope that…
Even in South Africa, African food is not the default. And in Cape Town especially, dining can be quite Eurocentric. Centuries of colonialism erased indigenous foods and entrenched the idea that European food is somehow superior. These effects are still found today, but a microbiologist turned ice-cream maker, Tapiwa Guzha, wants that to change. With…
As a lizard-loving kid growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, Greg Pauly sometimes found himself running an accidental rehabilitation center for wayward reptiles out of his parents’ house. One neighbor wasn’t particularly sold on the squamates that lived around her yard, he recalls, but her cats, Crackers, Peepers, and Stinkers, kept intercepting them…
Donna: Stronger than Pretty is a new film directed by Jaret Martino which depicts a fictionalized version of his mother, Donna. The film follows Donna through several decades of her life as she grapples with her expectations for her life, as well as the expectations of others and of society. After making a socially acceptable…
“This flavor is for my grandmother,” says Tapiwa Guzha, pointing to a rooibos and fennel granita on the menu at his ice cream store in Cape Town, South Africa. “She grew fennel in her garden.” Guzha is a microbiologist turned ice-cream maker who was raised to grow and eat fruit and vegetables straight from his…
“We have to show who’s in charge.” Magnet Releasing has unveiled a new official US trailer for the Danish action crime thriller Enforcement, originally known as Shorta in Danish. The film seems to almost be a Danish remake of Ladj Ly’s Les Miserables, about two cops who encounter vengeful locals that don’t like them. “I…
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…
“I am a career civil rights lawyer.” Dogwoof has revealed the first trailer for Philly D.A., a new doc made by filmmakers Yoni Broo & Ted Passon. This just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival as one long 110 minute feature film. However, the project is being sold/distributed as a series with 8x hour-long episodes…
My general issue with young adult (YA) romance films stems from them typically meshing a coming-of-age storyline with some fantastical premise to make the plot more interesting. I’d rather they pick just one of the two and commit to it. In the coming-of-age camp, I love Lady Bird, The Fault in Our Stars, and Perks…
2020 saw a lot of things. One of the more unexpected movements that came out of the year was the #FreeBritney movement that erupted, as the famed pop singer’s conservatorship for the past 12 years coming under severe scrutiny and cries for her freedom heard throughout the internet and outside courthouses. But what really is…
At well over 20,000 feet, Mt. Aconcagua is the tallest peak in the Americas. Nestled high in the Andes near the border of Argentina and Chile, it’s the highest mountain anywhere outside of Asia. To mountaineers, it’s not a very technical trek, in that it doesn’t require any specialized equipment to reach the summit. However,…
Propped high at the peak of Mount Gamsutlmeer in Dagestan, Russia, this abandoned ancient village is one of the oldest settlements in the region. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonIn the Gunibsky district of Dagestan lies Mount Gamsutlmeer, and at an altitude of roughly 4,600 feet (1,400 meters) above sea level resides…