By Ali Moosavi. You don’t have to be a seasoned movie fan to predict the entire course of the film very early on in the proceedings.” Before watching No Escape (Will Wernick, 2020), I was not aware of the entities called escape rooms, which apparently are very popular all over […]
“Anything but this project, I would have been wary”: An Interview with Daniel Kraus on George A. Romero and Writing The Living Dead
By Tony Williams. I had no intention of sending off Romero in anything less than grand style.” As discussed in my review essay, novelist Daniel Kraus began conceiving The Living Dead (New York: Tor Books, 2020) with Romero at a time when creative frustration with the film industry began to […]
Beyond the Grave – The Living Dead by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus
Romero on the set of Land of the Dead (2005) By Tony Williams. Recognizing industry obstructions that became increasingly difficult for him to express the full dimensions of his creative talent he decided to work on a novel that, like his original literary work elsewhere, would have been ideal film […]
Everything’s Gone Green: Carnival Dystopia in Michel Franco’s New Order (TIFF 2020)
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. Franco is aggressively focused on a contemporary moment of social upheaval where a literal class war is rendered even more nightmarish….” Michel Franco’s New Order bursts on the screen with a series of almost breath-takingly bold images. A naked woman covered in green, slime-like paint. A hospital’s […]
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 […]
Solidarity in a New Era – An Interview with April Wright on Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story (2020)
By Yun-hua Chen. Stuntwomen really represent the larger picture of the ongoing struggle that women and people of color have had, just looking for a fair share in this industry.” Covering the span of film history, from The Perils of Pauline (1914) through Wonder Woman (1975) to Fast & Furious […]
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 […]