There’s no denying that female directors are making a name for themselves as of late, and quite frankly it’s absolutely beautiful to see. If there’s anyone that deserves major credit, it’s Ana Asensio. Not only is Most Beautiful Island a powerhouse of a directorial debut, but Ana also produced, wrote, and starred in this 80…
Drama
FANTASIA 2017: SUPER DARK TIMES is a Super Great Debut
Film debuts can usually be uneven, but exciting films. I love watching a young filmmaker find their voice, while taking big risks that you might not see from a seasoned director. Kevin Philip’s Super Dark Times is one of those debuts that takes a lot of risks, but does it with so much confidence that…
Sunday Squabble: Arrow’s Release of DONNIE DARKO is a Great Edition of a Great Film… or is It?
Friday Fights getting posted on Sundays seem to be a thing lately. Fridays get crazy, then Saturdays follow suit. In this week’s case, I had this almost set Friday night, then finished it yesterday, then my computer died. When I turned it back on, it reverted to an unedited version… so, I’m finally almost done…
Scandal Always Followed LULU BELLE
Lulu Belle is a quintessential 1940s era film. Dorothy Lamour shines as the titular nightclub singer who gets swept off her feet by a young attorney (George Montgomery). The attorney, George, throws away everything for Lulu, but Lulu’s actions drive him to do the unthinkable, and he lands himself in prison as a result. Dorothy…
LIVE CARGO Comes Out of Nowhere and Slaps Us All Upside the Head
There is a numbness and emptiness to the acting in the early go of this film and rightfully so. Trying to overcome the tragedy of their lost newborn child, a young couple goes away to a small Bahamian island where Nadine (the beautiful grieving young wife played by Dree Hemingway, model turned actress and granddaughter…
DOOBIOUS SOURCES is a Different Take on the Stoner Comedy
This is Zorn Tappadapo (Jason Weissbrod), the producer and cameraman of Instant Karma news team. This is Reginald “The Reg” Block-Hunsleigh (Jeff Lorch), the face of the Instant Karma team. Doobious Sources features the duo freelancin’ and freewheelin’ to score some big scoops to sell to local TV stations. Their methods aren’t always on the…
Why Noah Baumbach’s WHILE WE’RE YOUNG Never Made Any Noise
One of the pleasures of Noah Baumbach’s work is how rooted it is in in character. Films such as Greenberg and Frances Ha are about flawed, often selfish individuals, but Baumbach doesn’t glorify their shortcomings or hold them in contempt. Instead, he acts as an observer and doesn’t try to keep his audience at a…
Have Your Turkey and Eat it Too: Not Much Fighting from the Gang When it Comes to KRISHA
Thanksgiving isn’t usually associated with having a wide spate of seasonal entertainment. It’s not Christmas, after all, or even Halloween, both of which are prone to month-long cable TV marathons and special theatrical releases. It’s a holiday that lacks the pomp and circumstance on a pop culture scale. As a society we’re content to gather…
Ithaca Fantastik’s Bollywood Zombie Extravaganza
When I saw this in Ithaca Fantastik’s programming, I thought “Bollywood zombie movie – I know exactly what that’s going to be.” I’m telling you now, there’s no way to know what you’re getting into with this – it’s so many movies wrapped into one it’s insane. And while it was a bit too childishly…
Grant, Sinatra, and Loren Star in the Classic THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION
The film industry loves romance. Love infiltrates every genre. It’s in big budget action and in small budget horror. It’s in comedies of all shapes and sizes (not just the ones with a “rom” tacked on front). The near-universal applicability of this tango between two people isn’t surprising, or even a bad thing, as it’s…
31 Days, Day 26: Johnny Galecki Pukes Out an Adorable Pet Creature in THE MASTER CLEANSE at BHFF
Winner of Brooklyn Horror Film Fest’s “Best Effects” award, The Master Cleanse, has a star studded cast that includes Johnny Galecki, Anjelica Huston, Oliver Platt, Anna Friel, and Kyle Gallner. On top of the incredible effects and amazing cast, the film also has a great script, a fantastic sense of humor, and legitimately great cinematography.…
31 Days, Day 10: PUFF 16’s Best of the Fest… Part One
Screened at PUFF along with another very cool short film called Mindless, which as far as I can tell has no web presence other than a handful of reviews and this IMDb page, which is a shame because it’s quite good. We Go On is the highlight of the feature films at PUFF this year…
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon…
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon is an appropriately mouthful of a title; the film it reveals is equally awkward to get around, a lumbering 113 minute slice-of-life comedy that knocks about here and there before finally running the credits. Junie Moon (Liza Minnelli), Arthur (Ken Howard), and Warren (Robert Moore) are buddies…
SING STREET: No Woman Can Truly Love a Man Who Listens to Phil Collins
So, there’s this girl. You find her captivating. She tells you she’s a model, so you tell her that you are in a band and would love to have her in your music video. Of course, you don’t actually have a band, nor do you play any instruments. This is not a problem for you,…
Stream the Works of Justin’s Cousin
My cousin Jen was the biggest film geek I knew growing up, with her walls covered in posters of films like Pulp Fiction and The Long Kiss Goodnight. She ended up in a film program at college that ultimately lead her to become a strong filmmaker working in the corporate world. However, before she went…
Humble Beginnings, Part 1: Meet the Hillmans
To truly understand how a genre or subgenre works within the confines of it’s medium, one must start at the very beginning. I would like to give you a full look at how Giallo works by looking at the movies that go a shape it stylistically. And the first place to start is the ancestral…
A Few Quick Picks
With little to no fanfare, here are just a few quick picks that we recommended in the world of streaming… He Never Died has recently been added to Netflix. It is really an action drama at it’s heart, though I’ve seen it classified as horror, thriller, and even comedy. None of those labels is really…
Streaming is DOPE
Continuing with last week’s theme of Black History Month, this week’s Stream a Little Stream will begin my favorite non-Star Wars film of 2015, DOPE, just added to Netflix. This film is a hip hop film, a punk rock film, a coming of age story, and comedy all in one. It takes on some very…
Punk Rock in the Ghetto
What makes a movie punk rock? One could easily argue that punk movies are a specific genre onto themselves, but there’s no simple definition of what makes a punk movie. Is a punk movie simply a film with punk rockers in it? Does it need to have specific punk rock themes? Does a punk movie…
The Devil Inside…
… or How Netflix Exposed My Inner Demons There is a devil inside all of us. Even the good natured, the devout follower, and the purest of heart has this devil buried somewhere below. And if we watch closely, sometimes it will peak its head for brief moments… though, sometimes we need not watch too…
True Ethical Dilemma
As someone who considers himself a sociologist, it’s probably not surprising at all how extremely fascinating I found my first viewing of The Purge. The stratified system of gender, race, and class is present in virtually all of the themes of the film. From the mass execution and complete disregard of the homeless to interesting…