Screen Anarchy

Back in 2016-2017, director Yamada Naoko shook up the anime industry with her high-school bully drama A Silent Voice. The film took an uncommonly candid view of life in school, with people often doing stupid things while still totally unaware of the gravity and possible consequences of their actions. It told a bullying story as seen from the viewpoint of the bully, showing the life-altering effects of the incidents on everybody without demonizing anyone. Even with its heavy subject matter, It picked up accolades and awards worldwide. Her new film The Colors Within is a lot more light-hearted, even if it plays with the same tropes. Not bullying this time, but the uneasy miscommunications between young people in high school, getting to grips with their…

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As a commercially oriented, artistically ambitious, innovation-embracing filmmaker, Robert Zemeckis (Death Becomes Her, the Back to the Future trilogy, Romancing the Stone) enjoyed an unparalleled pre-21st century career where box-office, critic-approved hits far outweighed the occasional misses or missteps. Awards recognition wasn’t a matter of if, but when. Nominated for several Academy Awards, Zemeckis won a Best Director award in 1994 for Forrest Gump. As Forrest Gump’s title character, Tom Hanks won his second back-to-back acting (Hanks won his first for Philadelphia a year earlier). Seven years later, a second Zemeckis-Hanks collaboration, Cast Away, proved almost as commercially and artistically rewarding. It was The Polar Express, their third time as director and actor (motion-captured via relatively new tech) that doubled as the first major misstep…

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Directed by Clint Eastwood, the film stars Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris Messina, Gabriel Basso, Zoey Deutch, Cedric Yarbrough, Leslie Bibb, Amy Aquino, and Adrienne C. Moore.

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Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin star in a film written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg.

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Revisiting cinematic legacies has become a genre unto itself.   In 2021, the Tribeca Film Festival showcased Eddie Martin’s documentary The Kids, a behind-the-scenes expose of Larry Clark’s cult classic, revealing a web of collective trauma, exploitation, and victimhood. This year’s edition shines a similar spotlight on Kevin Smith’s cherished yet problematic rom-com Chasing Amy, all through the lens of director Sav Rodgers.   Rodgers gained viral attention following a TED talk where he credited the film with saving his life as a queer kid. His talk resonated widely, even prompting Kevin Smith to reach out.   The same film, however, has been criticized for presenting a cishet white man’s conception of queer life that lacks genuine representation. Elizabeth Sankey’s docu-essay Romantic Comedy critiques the…

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A pair of Mormon missionary sisters find themselves in a dangerous battle of wills with a charming but sinister spiritual seeker in Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’s religious themed horror puzzle box, Heretic. Sisters Paxton (Chloe East) and Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) are a pair of young, ambitious missionaries eager to make their next conversion, if they can just get in the door. Paxton is a neophyte, raised in the church but without a single baptism under her belt, she’s starting to get discouraged at her perceived failure. By her side is Sister Barnes, a more rough-and-tumble vet of the missionary game, who seems just as comfortable with success as failure but also very ready for a win. Checking off names on their list of curious…

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I don’t want to discount the possibility of the supernatural, since there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy, but most ‘monsters; do turn out to be human. And more often than not, a human with very specific characteristics. But there is no doubt that a theory of monsters, perhaps, can be helpful – or at least, there is a healthy fear that can come from that fear, that would hopefully drive some to action. Part coming of age story, part supernatural capture, part romance, Spirit in the Blood follows a somewwhat familiar path, though with a different eye, asking us to rethink how we might view certain characters that are often presented without depth in horror films….

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Jane Giles and Ali Catterall discuss the transformation of London’s Scala cinema from an underground movie theater into an icon of cult film and counterculture.

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Like much of the jazz that soundtracks it, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat doesn’t hold your hand. From the start, the film unleashes a frenetic, almost overwhelming, visual language. It’s a visual language that, along with the phenomenal titular soundtrack, makes the two and a half hour documentary riveting from start to finish. Archival snippets of musicians accompanied by text informing us of the musicians’ names and song titles blast on the screen to introduce the many iconic jazz tracks of the soundtrack. White, thick, block lettered text against black screens offers information, quotes, and statistics from primary and secondary sources, with attributions for quotes in the top left and source citations nestled under the relevant text. Footage from political speeches, television interviews, previously classified…

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Laucy Hale stars in Laura Murphy’s (Awkwafina is Nora From Queens) upcoming comedy thriller, F Marry Kill.   Released by Lionsgate and produced by BuzzFeed Studios you can catch the flick in select theaters and on VOD/digital on December 6th.   The official trailer has just dropped, so check it out down below.    When true-crime junkie Eva Vaugh (Lucy Hale) is shoved into the dating app world by her besties on her 30th birthday, she suddenly finds herself at the center of a real-life murder case. As new details about the murders are revealed on her favorite podcast, she realizes that one of the three men she’s dating could be the infamous “Swipe Right Killer” terrorizing the city! Now it’s up to Eva and…

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