Iwan Rheon, Sara Martins, and Anthony Hopkins star in a tale of the Roman Empire in the late first century, debuting on Peacock TV, just in time for the Olympics.
Last Saturday saw the closing ceremony of the 23rd edition of the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, followed by the Swiss première of Longlegs. In the previous eight days, the festival had been a general place of bliss to visit. Rain? Watch a movie. Sweltering heat? Jump into the ridiculously clean and clear lake. Genre-film festivals tend to be fun, a place where like-minded people meet. But throw a beautiful location and a good organization (with impressively rich sponsors) into the mix, and you get… well, the ‘fantastic’ in the title is not just about the films. I felt blessed to be there, magnificently spoiled even. Swiss chocolate each day, Swiss absinthe each night! But all good things come to an end, and at that…
Sitges, one of the biggest genre events of the year, will be here before we know it. The massive genre film festival takes over Catalonia, Spain, for eleven days in October, bringing together some of the best titles from the year and hopefully introduce some new favorites towards the end of the year. New films are coming from the likes of Kiyoshi Kurosowa (Cloud), Jean Luc Herbulot (Zero), Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Steppenwolf), Damien Leone (Terrifier 3) and Quentin Dupieux (The Second Act). Other films that have been tearing up the circuit include Cuckoo, Azrael, The Devil’s Bath, Exhuma and Animale. We get new docs from Alexandre O. Philippe (78/52), about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and one form Ry Levey (Out in the Ring) about boutique home video labels,…
Summer 2024 began Thursday, June 20, which also marked the launch of Anime Summer 2024, and a subsequent onslaught of shows. In the U.S., where I reside, I have subscriptions to Crunchyroll, which simulcasts many shows that debut on Japanese television networks weekly (29 are due this summer), as well as Netflix, which produces a number of its own shows and tends to drop entire seasons at once. By no means am I an expert on anime, but I am an enthusiast. What I bring here are short reviews of the first season of shows that I am sampling; I’ll leave the second seasons alone for now. A few shows will be added to my watchlist, but after 20 years of sampling, and sometimes devotedly…
The protagonist wants to die, making for a gloomy adventure that tries to be cheerful. The series is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
When a family moves into a haunted house, their loyal pet dog struggles to protect them from the malevolent ghosts that only animals can see.
Is it love at first sight? Can enemies ever become lovers? The new comedy-adventure romance series is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
An office clerk decides to change jobs and work in the field. One big problem: he’s 30! The comic adventure series is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
An unlikely pairing will test each one’s creativity, in a funny new series, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Every filmmaker wants the perfect opening shot; but then, can the rest of the film live up to it? Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samuraï is one such film, that gives not just an iconic opening shot, but many in between, with a story, performances, and a mood that makes it a classic of european crime noir. Arguably the european crime noir. Criterion Collection have recently re-issued the film, with a fresh blu-ray and 4K disc, and some choice extras for the discerning cinephile. Melville only made a small number of films (sadly passing away much too young before the age of 60), and while they are all good, Le Samuraï has long been considered his greatest work, and with good reason. The presentation of this hit…