Memories of Murder Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: The South Korean Zodiac
By Mat Brewster |
A woman has been brutally raped and murdered. Her body was shoved into a drain ditch. Detective Park Doo-man (Song ...
Read More History Is Made at Night (1937) Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Love Crosses the Atlantic
By Kent Conrad |
Director Frank Borzage, who grew up with Hollywood, making (and acting in) silents from 1916 and remaining active up to ...
Read More Annie Get Your Gun Blu-ray Review: Shoots a Few Blanks but Hits the Overall Target
By Steve Geise |
Prior to its release this week, this classic MGM movie adaptation of an American musical theatre staple has never been ...
Read More Nobody (2021) Movie Review: Bob Odenkirk Is a Somebody in the Action Genre
By Gordon S. Miller |
As the movie opens, Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) looks like he's been though something. Handcuffed by police, his face is ...
Read More Clapboard Jungle Movie Review: A Brutally Involving Document
By Davy |
I don't have personal experience, but I've seen and heard enough to know that the film business can be a ...
Read More Perdita Durango 4K Ultra HD Review: An Evil, Evil Love Story
By Kent Conrad |
An important key to understanding Perdita Durango, the character: her boyfriend is a bank-robbing Santeria priest who, in front of ...
Read More Death Has Blue Eyes Blu-ray Review: It’s a Mastorakis Mess
By Mat Brewster |
Greek writer, producer, director Nico Mastorakis has had a long, strange career. He started out as a reporter, becoming the ...
Read More Broadway Melody of 1940 Blu-ray Review: De-Lovely
By Steve Geise |
The obvious draws for this classic MGM musical are the star turn by Fred Astaire and the songs written by ...
Read More SXSW 2021 Movie Review: The Spine of Night
By Gordon S. Miller |
The Spine of Night by co-writers/co-directors Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King is a fantastic fantasy film featuring animated imagery ...
Read More Moffie Movie Review: A Dive into the Underworld of Chauvinism
By Matthew St.Clair |
Moffie, the latest effort from South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus, isn’t a horror movie. However, it almost feels like one. ...
Read More The Invisible Man Appears Blu-ray Review: It Can Finally Be Seen
By Mat Brewster |
Why is it that in seemingly every depiction of an invisible man in the movies, the ability to turn invisible ...
Read More Lynyrd Skynyrd: Live at Knebworth ’76 DVD Review: A Day the Giants of Southern Rock Held Their Own Against the Stones
By generaljabbo |
On August 21, 1976, Lynyrd Skynyrd were part of a star-studded lineup at the third annual Knebworth Festival in England. ...
Read More SXSW 2021 Movie Review: The Sparks Brothers
By Gordon S. Miller |
Edgar Wright's The Sparks Brothers is a loving biography that tells a story of persistence and resistance as Ron and ...
Read More 2021 Oscar-nominated Live Action Short Films Review
By Gordon S. Miller |
On April 2, 2021, THE 2021 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS will be available in over 200 screens across 50+ theatrical ...
Read More 2021 Oscar-nominated Documentary Short Films Review
By Darcy Staniforth |
On April 2, 2021, THE 2021 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS will be available in over 200 screens across 50+ theatrical ...
Read More 2021 Oscar-nominated Animated Short Films Review
By Gordon S. Miller |
On April 2, 2021, THE 2021 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS will be available in over 200 screens across 50+ theatrical ...
Read More The Greatest Show on Earth Blu-ray Review: The Show Must Go On… and On… and On
By Jack Cormack |
Epic corn was director Cecil B. DeMille’s metier, and The Greatest Show on Earth (1952; 152 minutes), his circus opus ...
Read More Earwig and the Witch Blu-ray Review: A Lesser Effort from Studio Ghibli
By Mat Brewster |
Famed Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement in August of 2014. As he was the co-founder and main creative ...
Read More Secrets & Lies Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Cinema at Its Best
By Davy |
Legendary British director Mike Leigh is one of cinema's greatest and most profound humanists. He crafts beautifully painful portraits of ...
Read More SXSW 2021 Movie Review: Udo Kier is Flawless in ‘Swan Song’
By Matthew St.Clair |
Over the course of his career that spans almost six decades, German actor Udo Kier has been one of those ...
Read More Céline and Julie Go Boating Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Long, Strange, Riveting Film
By Mat Brewster |
Julie (Dominique Labourier), a young woman with big, curly red hair, sits on a park bench distractedly reading a book ...
Read More The Yellow Wallpaper (2021) Movie Review: Beautiful but Lacks the Horror
By Darcy Staniforth |
In 1890, Charlotte Perkins Gilman penned her story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This feminist tale documents a woman named Jane’s battle ...
Read More Damn Yankees Blu-ray Review: Lola Wants (and Gets) 4K
By Elizabeth Periale |
How much do you love your favorite baseball team? Or, more accurately, how much do you hate the New York ...
Read More SXSW 2021 Movie Review: Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free
By Gordon S. Miller |
Mary Wharton's Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free opens with title cards revealing in 2020 a collection of 16 mm ...
Read More Born to Lead: Jim Calhoun Movie Review
By Rons Reviews |
As we head into the 2021 NCAA Men’s basketball tournament, it seems like a perfect time for the documentary, Born ...
Read More SXSW 2021 Movie Review: Alien On Stage: Unlikely Heroes Played by Even Unlikelier Heroes
By Mark Buckingham |
The movie Alien is defined by a number of characteristics -- high tension, elaborate special effects, a grim tone, and ...
Read More SXSW 2021 Movie Review: ‘Language Lessons’ Reminds Us of the Value of Connection
By Matthew St.Clair |
Given how it’s been a year since the COVID-19 pandemic happened, the thought of watching an entire film involving people ...
Read More Baby Doll Blu-ray Review: Let’s Play House, Baby
By Jack Cormack |
Scripted by playwright Tennessee Williams, who got sole credit for this adaptation of two of his shorter plays, “Twenty-Seven Wagons ...
Read More SXSW 2021 Movie Review: ‘See You Then’ Is a Vital and Intimate Telling of Womanhood
By Matthew St.Clair |
For a short, 74-minute movie about two old flames reuniting over the course of one night, See You Then manages ...
Read More SXSW 2021 Movie Review: ‘Potato Dreams of America’ Is Imaginatively Profound
By Matthew St.Clair |
Queer youth goes on a journey of self-discovery while concealing their identity out of fear. A simple story that we’ve ...
Read More Southland Tales Blu-ray Review: Strange but Strangely Compelling
By Kent Conrad |
Stepping in through the door right when the millennium was opening up and carrying with it a sense of doom ...
Read More Touki bouki Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Deserves to be Seen and Discovered
By Davy |
I must admit that African cinema usually goes way over my head. I mostly gloss over it in favor of ...
Read More Crossfire (1947) Blu-ray Review: Film Noir with a Message
By Mat Brewster |
Crossfire, Edward Dmytryk's 1947 film which crosses classic noir tropes with an anti-racist message, is now getting a nice-looking Blu-ray ...
Read More The Parallax View Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: The Second Entry in Pakula’s Political Paranoia Trilogy
By Gordon S. Miller |
Based on Loren Singer's 1970 novel of the same name, Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View is the second entry ...
Read More On-Gaku: Our Sound Movie Review: A Lo-fi Delight
By Mat Brewster |
On-Gaku: Our Sound is a lo-fi animated treat from director Kenji Iwaisawa about a trio of high school delinquents who ...
Read More Smooth Talk Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Teen’s Roller Coaster Ride from Innocence to Harsh Reality
By Elizabeth Periale |
1985's Smooth Talk, directed by Joyce Chopra (Murder in a Small Town, The Lemon Sisters, Blonde), follows restless teenager Connie ...
Read More Laurel or Hardy: Early Solo Films of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy Blu-ray Review
By Gordon S. Miller |
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are a legendary comedy duo that had international success with both their silent and sound ...
Read More The Vigil Movie Review: A Minimalist Exercise in Paralyzing Grief
By Matthew St.Clair |
A limited setting, an ominous score, and a “things go bump in the night” storyline. All are three simple yet ...
Read More Crisis (2021) Movie Review: Surprisingly Disappointing
By David Wangberg |
With heavy inspiration drawn from movies like Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, Nicholas Jarecki’s Crisis takes a look at America’s addiction to ...
Read More On Moonlight Bay Blu-ray Review: Day and MacRae Play on the Bay
By Steve Geise |
Booth Tarkington is most famously remembered as the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice ...
Read More Lady Sings the Blues Blu-ray Review: Good Morning Heartache
By Jack Cormack |
Allow me to state this upfront: In Lady Sings the Blues (1972; dir. Sidney J. Furie), Diana Ross gives a ...
Read More Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob DVD Review
By Shawn Bourdo |
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided the writer with a free copy of the DVD reviewed in this Blog Post. The ...
Read More Chop Shop Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Miracle of Independent Cinema
By Davy |
With his wonderful 2005 Man Push Cart, filmmaker Ramin Bahrani beautifully captured the grim circumstances of being an immigrant in ...
Read More Man Push Cart Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Essential Cinema
By Davy |
Foreigners in a foreign land express the often grim, depressing, but sometimes hopeful studies of immigrants desperate to survive a ...
Read More JSA: Joint Security Area Blu-ray Review: Death on the DMZ
By Kent Conrad |
There's only one place along the Korean DMZ that soldiers from the North and South stand across from one another, ...
Read More Pretty in Pink (35th Anniversary) Movie Review: Still Pretty, Still (Very) Pink
By Elizabeth Periale |
Pretty in Pink turns 35 this year. It was a peak '80s film - featuring teen romance, members of the ...
Read More Mandabi Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Unexpected Money Leads to Lots of Problems
By David Wangberg |
One of the things that Ousmane Sembène’s second feature film does that so few films do is, take lesser-known actors ...
Read More San Francisco Blu-ray Review: The King of the Barbary Coast Finds His Queen
By Jack Cormack |
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 is the backdrop for this handsomely mounted 1936 MGM production, which spends far too ...
Read More The Last Starfighter Blu-ray Review: Tailor Made for 1980s Gamers
By Mat Brewster |
As a kid growing up in the 1980s, I loved video games. In the summer, my cousins and I would ...
Read More Malcolm & Marie Movie Review: A Frustratingly Distressing Acting Showcase
By Matthew St.Clair |
Malcolm & Marie, the new Netflix drama starring John David Washington and Zendaya as our titular couple whose relationship is ...
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