By Chris Neilan. Directors who blend genre elements with an arthouse sensibility are rarely short of fans or plaudits. Take new darling of the American independent scene Jeremy Saulnier, whose career-making sophomore feature Blue Ruin (2013) applied a realist monkey-wrench to the nuts and bolts of the revenge thriller. Or […]
Irreverent, and Set in ’78: Carnage Park
By Elias Savada. With big nods toward Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs), Wes Craven (The Hills Have Eyes), and Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia), twenty-something writer-director Mickey Keating has chomped down on a big slab of 1970s grindhouse meat and spat out Carnage Park, […]
The Beautifully ‘Dressed’ Wicked Lady
July 20, 2016
By Cleaver Patterson. One has to question why some filmmakers see fit to remake films which were considered classics the first time round – is there so little original material and imagination out there that they have to revert to old material for inspiration? Take for instance 1945’s exquisite British […]
Mustang: Wars Against Women – Turkey
By Christopher Sharrett. It occurs to me that the best (the only?) films seriously challenging the current international War on Women come from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, often by women filmmakers either unknown by many without access to foreign films, or quickly forgotten, because they cannot afford a second […]
The Grisly Bare Bones of Triple-9
By Paul Risker. “Bare bones thrown to a hungry dog…do nothing to appease its hunger.” – Thich Nhat Hanh, Thundering Silence: Commentaries on the Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Catch a Snake (2009). On the surface it may feel strange to see such a philosophical thought in a film review […]
Not As Pale As Expected: Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters
July 15, 2016
By Elias Savada. Yes, there has been a lot of discussion – some quite vocal and inanely misogynistic – about the new Ghostbusters, an all-female cast reboot of the endearing 1984 film classic that spawned an animated television series, some video games, and an unending (and quite fascinating) trivia entry on […]
Home Is Where the Heart Is: Michel Gondry’s Microbe & Gasoline
By Elias Savada. Summer, 2014. Versailles. Boyhood. Road trip. That’s a possible tagline description of Microbe & Gasoline (Microbe et Gasoil), Michel Gondry’s low-key, coming-of-age ramble through the French countryside by a pair of 14-year-old boys. This is not your usual flight of fancy that Gondry fans are wont to expect. […]
Big in Europe – Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words
July 12, 2016
By John Duncan Talbird. Frank Zappa was a man of his time even while remaining an iconoclast and pushing back against whatever counted as “pop culture” at the moment. He was seen as a “freak” by mainstream America and revered in hippie culture in the sixties and seventies even as he […]
A Swing and a Miss: The Phenom
By Elias Savada. Recruited out of high school, Hopper Gibson (Johnny Simmons) is professional baseball’s latest pitching sensation, but, like the cracked face of his iPhone, his mental mechanics are off. A case of the yips is sending his tosses to the North Pole. Baseball may be his passion, but […]
In Need of Tech Support: Beta Test
July 10, 2016
By Elias Savada. In an attempt to meld the pc gaming world with that of modest-budget movie-making, Beta Test doesn’t score many points. Opening in 15 AMC theatres and Seattle’s SIFF Cinema Uptown (the film was shot in Seattle and Lake Forest Park, Washington) on July 22nd, this is a hybrid […]