By Elias Savada. This is a brutal horror film and not for youngsters, no matter how much it succeeds in its weird Freaky Friday way.” Recently, business visionary Elon Musk talked about one of his latest science projects, a Neuralink brain implant to “supercharge human communication.” Except there’s already a […]
Sad and Blue, Shiny and New: Daria Woszek’s Marygoround (Maryjki) (2020)
By Alex Ramon. The film by and large succeeds in putting “women’s different experience” centre screen.” “A passionate lover will fulfil your deepest desires. This week the world is yours. You will be the queen of your life. Don’t be afraid to be daring…” The recitation of a florid horoscope, […]
Remember When I Killed You, Darling? Darren Lynn Bousman’s Death of Me
By Thomas Puhr. Wicker Man retreads can be a lot of fun…. but Bousman lacks the compositional sophistication of an Ari Aster or the confrontational gender politics of a LaBute.” A husband and wife vacationing in Thailand wake up bruised, muddied, and lacking any memory of how they got back […]
A Rom-Com About Disconnecting…and an Alien Invasion: Alex Fischer and Eleanor Wilson’s Save Yourselves!
By Elias Savada. Well-crafted even for its seemingly lowish budget, the movie is a doozy of a down-to-earth apocalypse farce.” For American filmmaker Alex H. Fischer, the road from avant-garde short films to arthouse feature stretches but four years, although his commercial and music video work dates back at least […]
When Asylum’s Regained: Eva Mulvad’s Love Child (TIFF 2020)
By Ali Moosavi. Love Child is not so much a story about refugees and asylum seekers…. This is a film about love triumphing above all adversaries.” The subject of asylum seekers has come to the fore in recent years with refugees from war torn countries fleeing to the west and […]
Welcome to Jeremy Kasten’s Blu-ray Nightmare: The Dead Ones (Artsploitation Films)
By Elias Savada. From this long ago shoot in Kasten’s home town of Baltimore, the film reveals itself to be a nimble, fleet (73 minutes) and well-crafted entry.” Mix a touch of Sam Raimi low-budget horror with bizzarro inspiration from sleazemeister John Waters and what do you get? Perhaps The […]
Miranda July’s Latest Tonic: Kajillionaire
By Elias Savada. There are ample moments of lunacy and sentiment in Kajillionaire that will provide so crackling good amusement and uplift.” Miranda July’s new film is all about hard knock lives. The Dyne family – three dubious tricksters – are trying to make it through day by dreary day […]
A Surreal Soul to Sell: Jan Švankmajer’s Faust (1994)
By Jeremy Carr. Faust submits an unnerving introduction to a world defined by cumulative weirdness and instability, where physical transformation is a prevalent force engendering the potential for change….” From F.W. Murnau to Alexander Sokurov, adaptations of the Faust legend have been cinematically rendered by some of the medium’s supreme visionaries […]
Voter Suppression Strikes Back – All In: The Fight for Democracy
By Michael Sandlin. A crucial step-by-step guide to how the 1965 Voting Act in the United States has been gradually disempowered over the years.” Although All In at first appears to be just another by-the-numbers overly didactic documentary designed expressly for frustrated middle-class liberals, it would be grossly unfair not […]
Something for (Scaring) Everyone – The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film by Matt Glasby
A Book Review by Thomas Puhr. Glasby’s enthusiasm for and knowledge of the genre win out and supersede any of the shortcomings.” “Best of” lists are a tricky business. Undisputed classics are both impossible to ignore and difficult to approach from a unique angle. Conversely, unexpected additions to the canon […]