Ghosts are pretty creepy, on that I think we can agree. Every culture has its own version of the supernatural scaremonger, whether it's the British idea of some dead folks mostly haunting creepy old manors, the American concept of entities...
Koko-di Koko-da is a strange and affecting piece of surreal horror about the recurring nature of grief that I'm quite smitten with. At the time of my review, the film lacked any sort of wider showings, but I'm thrilled to see the Swedish s...
Actor John Boyega (known for his turn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy) has signed a deal with streaming giant Netflix to produce and create films centered on East and West Africa. Working with Boyega's company UpperRoom Productions, Netflix...
It's weird to be sitting in a position where I'm wondering if the latest zombie infection flick, a continuation of a trend that hasn't really died since Night of the Living Dead, feels like it's a bit too soon, a bit too close to current e...
The Wild Goose Lake is the kind of movie you’re probably going to know you’ll enjoy before we even see the first shot. Titles playing over black, a prominent, sleek score crashes in. Then, when we catch our first glimpse of Diao...
Arrow Video looks to be taking us on a wild and blood-soaked ride this April with Why Don't You Just Die! Coming to select theaters in the US April 10, Why Don't You Just Die! sees Matev looking to restore his girlfriend's honor...
Strand Releasing just dropped the US trailer for the very cool looking Prey, and you can say it's sunk its teeth into me. Whether it be gut wrenching tragedy of White God, the grueling onslaught of Cujo, or the hammy shenanigans of Zoltan ...
A new month is upon us, which means it’s time for another installment of C What’s On, our look at what the Criterion Channel has programmed for its subscribers. We have an eclectic and essential mix this month, including classic...
Bong Joon-Ho is known for laying out meticulous storyboards for each of his films that can feel a lot like reading a comic just to look at them. It makes sense, then, that he'd go ahead and turn the storyboards for Parasite into an official...
Whether or not Beanpole (Russia's submission to these past Academy Awards) is a quiet triumph is something of an enigma to me still days after seeing it. Beanpole is a film that I think has so many threads, both literal and figurative, that...
We sells itself as a boundary-pushing work of nihilistic disturbia. It lulls us into its scenic and well-photographed slice of life for eight teens in the Netherlands. They ride bicycles to dreamy synth evocative of Stranger Things but with...
It’s the first full week of February and we need to talk, which means it’s time once again for C What’s On, our look at what the Criterion Channel has programmed for its subscribers. It is Black History month, which means ...
I don't have many regrets, but if I had one that's been kicking me for the past few months, it would be my review for Parasite. When I first saw the movie I enjoyed it, but didn't love it like most other critics, but the longer I've spent a...
As I look back on the last year in film, I feel like I still have a lot of catching up to do. I didn’t see nearly as many movies in 2019 as I did in 2018, so there’s no way I could do a top 50 movies list. Yet even though I&rsqu...
Amsterdam is about to become a hunting ground in the first trailer for Uncaged, my now most anticipated movie of 2019. Look at that glorious lion! He's beautiful, majestic, violent, and at least higher quality than the jaguar in Primal. Th...
The start of a new month means it is time for C What’s On, our look at what the Criterion Channel has programmed for its subscribers. The December lineup is heavy with classics with a slight Yuletide tinge. Most notably we have showca...
After years of resistance to streaming, Studio Ghibli announced it would stream exclusively on HBO Max in 2020. Streaming won’t be the only way to see Studio Ghibli movies digitally. Animation distributor GKIDS announced yesterday tha...
It's a great year for South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho. His latest, Parasite, has been a tremendous success, winning the coveted Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and generally stunning audiences across the world. It's South Korea's ...
Some of the best and most exciting cinema in the last two-and-a-half decades has come South Korea. Films like Bong Joon-ho’s The Host, Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil, and Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden are full of such un...
C What’s Good is the monthly follow-up piece to our C What’s On round-up of the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming. Leaping off of the hard work done by our own Hubert Vigilla, I hope to select a few favorit...
We fell back over the weekend, which means you have extra time to read C What’s On, our look at what the Criterion Channel has programmed for its subscribers. The November offerings are once again eclectic and delectable, with a showc...
Midway through Céline Sciamma’s masterful Portrait of a Lady on Fire, we get the film’s thematic archstone. So much of this painterly, poetic queer romance is about looking at someone we desire and the feeling of being se...
There are all sorts of ways to overcome an alcohol dependency--self-help books, therapy, Alcoholics Anonymous. One method covered much too rarely, however, is vigilante violence. Sometimes all you have to do is shoot a gangster with a flar...
World War II and its surrounding years have seen all sorts of filmic representation on the big screen, from blood-and-guts, boots-on-the-ground soldiering to the devastation of Nazi genocide. The most traumatic event in 20th century Western...
It’s a quiet night in the Park household. The Parks have gone away for their son’s birthday, leaving only their housekeeper, Chung-sook (Jang Hye-jin), to tend to the house and their pets while they are away. On the surface, it&...
It’s the beginning of a new month, which means it’s time once again for C What’s On, our look at what the Criterion Channel has programmed for its subscribers. The October offerings are spooky, scary, and covered in blood....
Let's get this controversy out of the way right now: The piece of demonic furniture in Killer Sofa is (big gasp)... not actually a sofa. It's a recliner. It's a chair. As Oxford describes it, a sofa is "a long upholstered seat with a back a...
A married couple attempts a camping trip, the first vacation they've had since an outing to celebrate their daughter's birthday. There is no child, now. They're alone, despondent, and aggravated as they twist through backroads before stoppi...
Paolo Sorrentino seems most comfortable around the wealthy. Since Il Divo, one of the Italian art filmmaker's now-11 year old features, his films have doted in and out of the wealthiest of circles. In that film we were swept away by the cor...
One of my favorite things about low-budget filmmaking is that when you see the strings, when you feel the quirks and inconsistencies that haven't been edited, re-shot, or focus-grouped away you get to see the people within the movie. You se...
We're a bit little later than intended because of some traveling, but it's time for another installment of "C What's On", our look at what the Criterion Channel has programmed for its subscribers. The September offerings are solid once agai...
Doing a movie in a single take is all the rage these days, so we should have all assumed that someone would make a zombie movie using that same hook. And so here we are with One Cut of the Dead, the Birdman of zombie movies--except this lo...
Dark Star Pictures has nabbed the North American rights to a movie that has my interests super piqued. From Swedish director Johannes Nyholm, Koko-di Koko-da sounds bizarre in all the very best ways. With what the IMDB description dubs a "m...
After premiering to high praise at the Cannes Film Festival this past May, taking home top prize, South Korean sensation Bong Joon-ho's latest film, Parasite, is all set for its worldwide tour with a new trailer.
It’s the first day of a new month, which means it’s time once again for C What’s On, our look at what the Criterion Channel has programmed for its subscribers. The August offerings feature two of my favorite people in the ...
I've said it once, and I'll say it again: You need to watch Tigers Are Not Afraid. It's wonderful and magical and haunting and horrible, and with our steadily deteriorating political climate at the boarder it's only become more prescient o...
When a film leans heavily into a retro aesthetic, I sometimes wonder how much is homage and how much of it is an affectation for cachet. Homage I’m fine with, but I have a hard time with filmmakers posturing for cred. I say this becau...
Tilman Singer’s debut film Luz has gotten a lot of hype in the last year or so among some horror circles. This student thesis film has been hailed as one of the great horror debuts of the last few years. This trailer is a showcase of...
It’s time once again for C What’s On, our monthly look at what the Criterion Channel has coming up for its subscribers. The July programming announcement from the Criterion Collection features another fine line-up of classics an...
Vietnam is a beautiful, beautiful country. I think if you have no interest in The Third Wife's quiet period drama and struggling women in a male-dominated culture, that beauty is more than enough reason to sit for the film. Were Ash Mayfair...
