Something of a blast, John Landis’ 1981 horror comedy is one of these few films that gets just about everything right. Written in the 60’s, after an experience while working on WWII action movie Kelly’s Heroes, Landis had shelved the result while his own stature grew via hits like Kentucky Fried Movie, Animal House and […]
An American Werewolf in London
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. Life in the 21st century is more like being on the phones and laptops with no human interaction whatsoever. Even passing by restaurants, you find people staring at the blue screen more often than using words. It’s sad but becoming our reality. And things can only change if we […]
Benediction is the story of English poet, writer and soldier Siegfried Sassoon. He was decorated for bravery on the Western Front, and went on to become one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry vividly described the horrors of the trenches while satirizing the patriotic pretensions that Sassoon believed were responsible for a fueling […]
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. A true artist never connects with the real world. In fact, he/she creates one’s own where all others can join in to admire the brilliance of their craft. Louis Wain (Benedict Cumberbatch) is extremely talented. He is qualified to do all sorts of jobs, if he wishes to. His […]
TIFF 2021: “The Electrical Life of Louis Wain”
What a strange and unusual film. Somewhere vaguely in Europe, mid-20th century, Albert is employed to look after Mia. Mia, just a ten year old girl, us forcibly shut-in, even the apartment’s shutters stay closed, casting a gloomy, and often creepy, atmosphere over the apartment’s two solitary dwellers. Despite the isolation, the two are not […]
Well damn. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Joe, a disgraced cop who’s been busted down to dispatch duty, manning the 911 desk until he can clear his name. On his last shift before he’ll get his day in court, he takes a call that will change his life. On the other end of the phone, Emily whispers […]
Well that was unexpected. Director Michael Pearce takes a sci-fi action thriller road trip movie and subverts your every expectation, giving us panicky thrills of another kind. Malik Khan (Riz Ahmed) is a Marine who’s been working back to back top-secret missions, too busy saving the world to see his sons, who live with their […]
Cutting out the cancer. So this is about a woman named Madison (Annabelle Wallis). She has the worst sleep paralysis of all time because she slips away to another place entirely and witnesses gruesome murders. They’re not just bad dreams, though, they are actually happening. I knew three things about this going in: 1. This […]
The Seattle Supernatural Slasher – Malignant (2021)
TIFF: Ruth Paxton’s flinty first feature uses horror expectations to tell an uncomfortable character-centric story.
‘A Banquet’ Review: Overstuffed and Underfed, This Chilling Debut Bites Off More Than It Can Chew
The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off with a rocky start. However, the first films to initiate the festival were anything but disappointing. As in Heaven (Du som er i himlen), Tea Lindeburg’s directorial debut, was nothing short of an artistic dream. On a farm in the 1800s, a young 14-year-old girl named Lise (Flora […]
‘As in Heaven’ Review: “The Curse of Femininity”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 5 out of 5. There are always moments when we think we are misunderstood, blamed and judged for something we had nothing to do with. Also, people think if we are emotional, loud and extremely cheerful or angry from the outside, we are bad and should be ignored. Evan Hansen (reprising his role […]
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 5 out of 5. Japanese cinema is always exquisite, deep and insightful. It knows how to play with words and carefully translate them into actions. And actors? Oh boy! How marvelous they all are. If you find me exaggerating, then you probably haven’t seen “Drive My Car” yet. Yusuke and Oto are a […]
Toward the end of Noah Baumbach’s 2019 film “Marriage Story,” Charlie, played by Adam Driver, breaks into an emotional rendition of Sondheim’s “Being Alive” from the musical “Company” while at a restaurant with friends, facing the dissolution of his marriage. It’s a beautiful scene—my favorite in the entire film, actually—and one that made me immediately […]
Guy is not the kind of character you’d usually want to play in a shooter game. In fact, he’s not the kind of character you’d normally be able to play at all. Guy is a non-playable character, or NPC, a background figure created to populate a video game’s environment, whether to just provide atmosphere or […]
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 8 out of 10. SPOILERS! What the hell has happened? I myself am a man strongly averse to sci-fi ever since the innocent first days of my life – and proud of it ever since. Now look at the blog: Arrival, Children of Men, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, even The Prestige! And […]
Brazil: The Absurdity Of Oppression
Sometime last year, in the early throes of quarantine, I watched the 1992 film “Candyman” for the first time, in preparation for Nia DaCosta’s new take on the story, which was delayed multiple times from its original June 2020 release date due to the pandemic. I pressed play sometime after midnight, which was a mistake—something […]
Title – Val (2021) Director – Ting Poo & Leo Scott (feature debuts) Cast – Val Kilmer, Jack Kilmer Plot – An exploration of the life and times of Val Kilmer, utilizing countless hours of footage the ailing performer shot across his journey as both an upcoming actor and one of the hottest stars in Hollywood. […]
Why are sci-fi/private detectives are such a common breed? Sure, Blade Runner and its sequel made a nice job of updating Hammett and Chandler to the 21st century but both films flopped hard on release. Their cult status, however, seems to ensure that there’s a steady stream of mob bosses presiding over augmented realities, film […]
How much is a human life worth? As a philosophical question, it’s emotionally fraught and almost unbearable to contemplate. Can you put a dollar amount on a life? You can, actually. Uncomfortably. And people have. They do it all the time. You may even know how much yours is worth in the event of your […]
I remember seeing a quote from one of my favourite directors, Jim Jarmusch. He is an inspiration of mine and there was an article with him released back in 2004. The article was about his golden rules of filmmaking. They included: Rule #1: There are no rules. There are as many ways to make a […]
