Screen Anarchy

Today marks the start of the 26th Film By The Sea film festival, held in the harbor city of Vlissingen (or Flushing as some English-speakers call it), which is in the Southwest of the Netherlands. It is one of the largest Dutch festivals with over a hundred films being shown and more than 40,000 tickets sold each year. It features a mix of local and international films, with a heavy slant towards literary adaptations. The festival is a remarkably glossy affair, with red carpets and glamour, and it often features a number of interesting world premières. This year, one of its world premierès is a bit of all: A Beautiful Imperfection is a sumptuous Dutch international co-production, and an adaptation of Arthur Japin’s acclaimed novel…

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Variety has reported that Well GO USA have picked up the North American rights for Death March, a WWII action film starring Scott Adkins, directed by Louis Mandylor and scripted by Marc Clebanoff.   A British airman washes ashore after being ejected from his plane and becomes a prisoner in a Japanese-run POW camp. While waiting to join the infamous Bataan death march, the airman is tortured by the camp commander and is forced to fight for his life against an array of skilled Japanese warriors.    Adkins portrays the airman. Peter Shinkoda (I, Robot and Daredevil) plays the camp commander. They are joined by Michael Copon, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, Michael Rene Walton, Gary Cairns, Shane Kosugi, Masanori Mimoto and Gabbi Garcia.   “Scott’s prowess…

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Notable as “the only statewide film festival in the U.S. across an archipelago” (?!), the 44th Hawai’I International Film Festival presented by Halekulani (HIFF44), is scheduled for October 2-November 10 in the State of Hawai’i. They are announcing their full lineup today at their official site, and we were provided an advance peek. All I can say is: it’s a whopper, so allow me to quote liberally from the official release. “Now entering its 44th year, HIFF is the premiere cinematic event in the Pacific and annually attracts more than 50,000 film enthusiasts from around the state, the nation and throughout the world. Heralded as ‘one of the Top 50 Film Festivals around the world,’ according to Variety, HIFF is an Academy AwardsⓇ qualifying film…

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I’ve been blessed to have several conversations with Severin founder David Gregory over the years. He always leaves me feeling that the history of horror and exploitation film is in good hands. It would be enough if he were simply well spoken and knowledgable. But he’s also a filmmaker with an acute understanding of what makes genre film so compelling for fans. His newest documentary, Enter The Clones of Bruce takes on a subject that many would consider throw-away and shows exactly why would-be critics need to take a harder look. The proliferation of Bruce Lee imitators following the icons death has been easy to smirk at, especially in light of the awful transfers of most of those films via public domain home entertainment releases….

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A very pregnant woman battles an overbearing stepmother-in-law in The Front Room, the directorial debut of Sam and Max Eggers. Belinda (Brandy Norwood) is with child and about ready to pop when her husband’s father passes away. At the funeral, her husband Norman (Andrew Burnap) is informed that his dad’s dying wish was for his son to take care of the elderly and ailing Solange (Kathryn Hunter), the late father’s wife and Norman’s estranged stepmother. Norman and Solange had a strained relationship, so he is dubious, but Belinda, ever the dutiful wife, convinces her husband that it’s the right thing to do and Solange moves in, setting in motion a series of unfortunate events and revelations that threaten not only the family’s sanity, but also…

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Faces go a long way in poster; there is a wonderful paring here. The design for Mike Leigh’s latest film (premiering today at TIFF) uses text, both the soft yellow of the title, as well as above the line and credit block, to separate the visage of Marianne Jean-Baptiste from Michele Austin. The sight-lines show both of whom are looking into different middle distances, each lost in their own private thoughts, but leaning on each other for support. Challenges? Grief? A high grain also complements skin tones and a soft bokeh background to further put all emphasis and pull the eye of any observer to consider these. No Photoshop here, just simple, clear photography, which is very fitting with the filmography of Mike Leigh. Hard…

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Directed by Jeremy Saulnier and now streaming on Netflix, the film stars Aaron Pierre, Don Johnson, and AnnaSophia Robb.

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Nathan Tape’s Off Ramp, starring Jon Oswald, Scott Turner Schofield, Ashley Smith, Jared Bankens, Reed Diamond, and Miles Dolea hits theaters and digital on September 6th. We have an exclusive clip from the Juggalo genre-bender to share with you today. You will find it down below.   Trey, an ex-con and Juggalo, embarks on a wild journey with his devoted best friend, Silas, to the Gathering of the Juggalos. Armed with drugs and dreams of horrorcore rap stardom, they are presented with a chance to perform at the event, and a shot at becoming Jugga-famous. Their plans take a dark turn when they clash with a corrupt sheriff and get caught in a dangerous scheme orchestrated by a fellow Juggalo turned sadistic criminal. As they…

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An exorcism goes horribly wrong and unleashes a vengeful spirit that has been locked up for centuries.   Here’s the problem with digging around in your backyard, anywhere in the World, but especially the UK. The odds of finding buried treasure out there are slim to none. The odds of finding a skull with a sharpened crucifix embedded in it? Probably also slim, but for sake of Stephen Roach’s exorcism horror flick, The Crucifix, highly likely.    This is where we find Sara and Fergus, our ill-fated young couple, a grieving couple who move to Scotland to make a new start. Fergus pokes around the backyard and discovers an ancient artifact in their garden which unleashes an evil spirit who possesses the wife resulting in…

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I still remember the middle school classroom where I learned to type, on (dating myself here) one of the early generation Apple computers. My mother had gone to the same school; she remembers when it was full of typewriters. But the computer age had begun, and this was how we learned. Just a few years shy of the first typing program, but I remember using one in high school, likely Mavis Beacon, and it’s hard to forget that iconic face that helped me learn to do, part of what I’m doing right now, so essential to my work life. Seeking Mavis Beacon might begin as an internet mystery; a desire by the filmmaker Jazmin Jones to uncover who was the face of one of the…

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