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The World in His Arms Blu-ray Review: Swashbuckling Gregory Peck

Last week I watched three films that are part of Kino Lorber's ongoing Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema collection. After ...
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Marriage Story Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Emotionally Brutal and Full of Life

I'm not an expert on marriage, but seeing many films about it, I guess I can at least say that ...
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The Mad Fox Blu-ray Review: Kabuki-styled Cinematic Fantasia

Tomu Uchida is not one of the big names of Japanese cinema in the West, even though he had been ...
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Murder by Decree (Special Edition) Blu-ray Review: Fogbound

Murder by Decree is one of the better Sherlock Holmes movies. Directed by Bob Clark, it features an all-star cast. Christopher ...
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This Island Earth Blu-ray Review: Highly Recommended for the Sci-fi Film Buff

Based on Raymond F. Jones's 1952 novel of the same name, which appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories as a trilogy of novelettes: ...
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Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema IV Blu-ray Review: Too Much Melodrama, Not Enough Noir

For Part IV of their Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema series Kino Lorber Studio Classics is releasing three films from ...
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The Old Guard Movie Review: An Insightful Thrill Ride

Unlike usual film adaptations of comic books, it's hard to necessarily label The Old Guard as a superhero film. It does feature ...
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America as Seen by a Frenchman Blu-ray Review: A Fascinating Snapshot in Time

I've been lucky enough to have done a bit of traveling in my life. I've lived in France, Belgium, and ...
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Blood Tide Blu-ray Review: Fun and Monsters in the Greek Sun

Can I consider myself a fan of a filmmaker after hating one of his films, liking another one, and kind-of ...
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Solid Metal Nightmares: The Films of Shinya Tsukamoto Blu-ray Box Set Review

If you've seen one Tsukamoto film, you definitely haven't seen them all, as evidenced by this amazing new box set ...
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Relic (2020) Movie Review: Gritty Familial Horror with Supernatural Elements

Relic is a rare example of an atmospheric horror film that opts for sadness rather than scares. While it does present ...
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Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo Movie Review: A Complex and Compelling Story

As a culture, we love all kinds of stories. Stories of people coming from nothing to achieve great success. Stories ...
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Inferno of Torture Blu-ray Review: Torsos, Tattoos, and Torture

Inferno of Torture is the third of Teruo Ishii's ero-guro (erotic grotesque) films that have recently been released by Arrow Video. Orgies ...
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The Flesh and the Fiends Blu-ray Review: Selling Corpses in Scotland

For centuries the science of anatomy lagged behind other fields of study due to cultural norms and religious beliefs concerning ...
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The Truth (2019) Movie Review: Truthfully Middle-Ground

In a way, The Truth feels like a spiritual sequel to Clouds of Sils Maria. Another film distributed by IFC Films dealing with ...
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Urban Cowboy Blu-ray Review: The Devil Should Have Gone Down to Texas Instead

Urban Cowboy (1980) is one of those faddish films that has aged poorly. John Travolta plays Bud Davis, a country boy ...
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Narrow Margin (Special Edition) Blu-ray Review: Strangers on a Canadian Train

Journeyman Peter Hyams performs triple duty (director, cinematographer, and screenwriter) on enjoyable albeit formulaic thriller Narrow Margin (1990), a remake of The Narrow ...
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Athlete A Movie Review: Moving Documentation of an Immense Tragedy and a Gargantuan Triumph

Written by Ram Venkat Srikar The greatest achievement of any great documentary is that it can actually change lives. Indirectly, ...
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Suzi Q Movie Review: Looks at the Groundbreaking Career of Rocker Suzi Quatro

Australian director Liam Firmager spent four years working on Suzi Q, the definitive documentary of Detroit-born rock star Suzi Quatro, who rocketed ...
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House of Hummingbird Movie Review: A Coming-of-Age Story with Peculiar Wings

The aptly titled House of Hummingbird follows 14-year-old Eun-hee (Park Ji-hoo) as she tries to fly her way through life without a ...
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Cinema Sentries

Portrait of a Lady on Fire Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Burning Bright

Writer/director Celine Sciamma's latest film is both exhilarating and depressing: spellbinding because of its absolute excellence and disheartening because it ...
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Disclosure (2020) Movie Review: Emotionally Informative

Disclosure is a look at the way the trans community is represented in the media told through the voices of artists ...
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The Cameraman Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: A Star Begins to Fade

Although a talented filmmaker, Buster Keaton wasn't a great business man and his box-office struggles caused him to sign on ...
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White Fire, The Wind, and Why Don’t You Just Die! Blu-rays Review: Three from Arrow Video

As the world continues to move towards consuming media through an increasing number of streaming platforms, there is a niche ...
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The Short History of the Long Road Movie Review: A Subversive Portrayal of Adolescence

The Short History of the Long Road is a simple, slice-of-life road movie that takes some jarring U-turns. What starts off as ...
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Babyteeth Movie Review: Melancholia and Merriment Go Hand-in-hand

Written By Ram Venkat Srikar It's been a while since I shed a tear while watching a movie. With Babyteeth, though, I ...
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Hot Docs 2020 Review: All That I Am

Imagine being six years old and the stepfather who is supposed to provide for you and protect you, repeatedly violates ...
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Friday the 13th (40th Anniversary) Steelbook Blu-ray Review: There Was This One Time at Camp Crystal Lake…

Confession time. The Friday the 13th franchise is one that I've largely ignored my whole life. Call it snobbery, call it what ...
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Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966) Blu-ray Review: Love and Madness

Morgan is going mad. Or maybe he was always a little mad, but it became too much and wasn't as ...
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7500 Movie Review: Largely Free of Turbulence

Written By Ram Venkat Srikar Unlike other movies based on flight-hijacking - Air Force One, Passenger 57, Operation Thunderbolt, or say Non-stop - in which ...
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Lonely Are the Brave Blu-ray Review: The Last Cowboy

Based on Edward Abbey's novel, The Brave Cowboy, Lonely Are the Brave (1962) came and went without a fuss. Now known as Kirk ...
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Cinema Sentries

Tex Avery Screwball Classics Volume 1 Blu-ray Review: A Must-Own for Animation Fans

When it comes to the work of legendary animation director Fred “Tex” Avery, the stories typically show order giving way ...
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Cinema Sentries

Pretty in Pink Blu-ray Review: A Pretty Influential Portrait of Teenage Culture

Okay, let's just get this out in the open. The whole "boy falls in love with girl, girl falls in ...
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An Unmarried Woman Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Bold and Groundbreaking

As I mentioned in my Pick of the Week recently, the 1970s were a very pivotal time for women. There was the ...
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Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema III Blu-ray Review: Gambling, Murder, and Back Alley Adoptions

If you are a fan of film noir, I hope you've been paying attention to Kino Lorber, the boutique video ...
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Mirador Movie Review: Captures the Ethos of Camaraderie

Written By Ram Venkat Srikar In Spanish, Mirador means "lookout." The word has multiple connotations. Alertness, observation, prediction, or a person assigned ...
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The Booksellers DVD Review: Like a Good Book, You Won’t Want It to End

Calling all bibliophiles - The Booksellers is a documentary that you won't want to miss. And like a good book, you won't ...
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The Woman Blu-ray Review: Dares to Depict the Dark Side of the American Family

On one side, I see why most people don't hold kindly to "torture porn", the infamous phase of the horror ...
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Sixteen Candles Blu-ray Review: A Problematic but Worthwhile Film

As someone who grew up in the 1980s, the films of John Hughes, especially the teen comedies he wrote during ...
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Elvira: Mistress of the Dark Blu-ray Review: A Delightfully Silly Flick

With Elvira's Movie Macabre (which ran from 1981 to 1986), its icon and pop culture mainstay Elvira (a.k.a Cassandra Peterson) immediately became ...
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Western Classics I Blu-ray Review: Dust, Grit and Cowboys A-Plenty

The western is a uniquely American film genre. It tells stories of cowboys and natives, of a country lighting out ...
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Escape from L.A. Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Review: A More Expensive yet Inferior Remake

Director John Carpenter developed a cult following among horror and science fiction fans from his work in the 1970s and ...
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Sound! Euphonium: The Movie – Our Promise: A Brand New Day Blu-ray Review: One More Year of Music

Does anything one does in high school matter? At the time, it seems all dreadfully important, and some people see ...
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Spring Night Summer Night Blu-ray Review: An Honest Portrait of Small Town Woes and Broken Dreams

What I truly love about Independent film is the attention to people and places, and the issues that take place ...
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Universal Horror Collection Volume 5 Blu-ray Review: Woman Versus Beast

Horror movies often manifest from a culture's deepest and darkest fears. It is no coincidence that Godzilla was born in Japan only ...
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The Deeper You Dig (2020) Movie Review: An Effective DIY Thriller

In the world of filmmaking, it's not rare to see siblings make movies together (the Coen brothers, for example). Nor ...
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Cinema Sentries

The Invisible Man (2020) Blu-ray Review: We Needed to See More of Him

It’s been twenty years since director Paul Verhoeven gave us Kevin Bacon as Hollow Man, which allowed Bacon to return ...
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Tommaso Movie Review: A Humanistic Drama That’s Devoid of the Drama

Written By Ram Venkat Srikar In 2007's Mr. Bean's Holiday, Willem Dafoe played Carson Clay, a filmmaker whose film ‘Playback Time' premieres ...
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Beanpole Blu-ray Review: Love and Suffering in Post-War Russia

It seems a rare thing these days where a movie about war is able to make an effective statement. War ...
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Shirley (2020) Movie Review: Seriously Great

Shirley Jackson (Elisabeth Moss) has just become one of the most talked-about writers of her time, with the publishing of ...
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