Fantasia Fest Journal: Paradise Hills
Alice Waddington’s directorial debut Paradise Hills is an ambitious but messy near-future dystopia tale that feels like a watered-down Hunger Games or a middling piece of episodic television.
SteelBook Alert: No Worries
Determined to wring every last dollar out of collectors’ wallets as possible, Disney has announced new SteelBook editions for not just its latest remake blockbuster, but 4k upgrades for about half the Pixar catalog to go wit...
Fantasia Fest Journal: Phantom of Winnipeg
In December of 1974, 20th Century Fox released a film based in part on The Phantom of the Opera plus some bits of the tale of Faust and a dash of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Directed by Brian De Palma and starring William Finley, ...
Blu-ray Highlights: Week of July 28th, 2019 – You Ain’
Searching for an exciting new Blu-ray release this week is something of a long shot. You might say that the latest slate is kind of ugly, unless you’re a fan of classic movies. Even so, the selection is thin.
Weekend Roundtable: The Tarantino Effect
After Pulp Fiction landed in 1994, every aspiring filmmaker wanted to be the next Quentin Tarantino. Many of them assumed that the best way to do that was to imitate Tarantino’s style. Once or twice, this worked out. More of...
One Man’s Trash: Robowar
And then there was that time the filmmakers behind Troll 2 and Hell of the Living Dead remade Predator…
Unboxed: Pulp Fiction Criterion Laserdisc
Once upon a time, in New York to be precise, Quentin Tarantino had a movie join the Criterion Collection… just one, though, and only on the Laserdisc format.
Fantasia Fest Journal: Critters Attack!
Measuring your expectations for the fifth entry into any horror franchise is just good common sense. Keeping low expectations for the latest Critters movie, the non-theatrically released Critters Attack!, is good self-preservation...
Fear the Walking Dead 5.08 Recap: “I Happen to Like Breathi
As I feared, it looks like Fear the Walking Dead has already walked back last week’s shock twist that suggested one character’s imminent demise. Even more frustrating, however, were the episode’s aggressive comme...
Unboxed: JVC DLA-NX7 4K HDR Projector
For a longtime self-professed videophile, you’d think I would have upgraded my home theater to 4k quite a while ago. I hesitated for a few reasons, chief among them that I was waiting for the right home theater projector tha...
Fantasia Fest Journal: Sons of Denmark
Ulaa Salim’s Sons of Denmark is a bravura, thrilling, and highly energized debut that’s evocative of filmmakers with far more experience. A story about race, culture, and the rise of Right Wing demagoguery that’s...
Fantasia Fest Journal: Dreamland
Hard Core Logo and Pontypool director Bruce McDonald’s latest film, Dreamland, brings vampire tropes, Lynchian surrealism, and a love of cool Jazz to audiences that may or may not be receptive to the trippy tale.