Director Carlos Marques-Marcet offers an understated exploration of love, mortality, and the choices in facing life’s final passage, blending realism with poetic dance sequences.
RaMell Ross directed. For a subject this weighty, though, the aesthetics in ‘Nickel Boys’ don’t work.
In the age of the Marvel multiverse, The Universal Theory, directed by Timm Kröger, is a breath of fresh air. Perhaps because it’s science fiction in the most traditional sense of the term, in the same way Frankenstein by Mary Shelley gave birth to the genre. Black and white, dramatic lighting, gorgeous cinematography, commendable score and sound editing. A German film set in the Swiss Alps. Physics. Johannes Leinert (Jan Bülow) is a young man travelling with his PhD supervisor to a congress. Dr. Strathen (Hanns Zischler) makes no secret of his disdain for Johannes thesis, a formula of some sort that explains, well, everything. Especially when things begin to get strange– a dead man is not dead, a mysterious pianist (Olivia Ross) knows about…
I can’t believe I’ve written a hundred of these, so allow me to indulge myself by looking at the past, present and future of the Sound and Vision. The Sound and Vision series started as a friendly conversation between me and fellow ScreenAnarchy-editor Ard Vijn. Ard and I knew each other through the Dutch film festival circuit, where we both were present a lot. We became colleagues later, both writing for the Dutch-language genre film magazine Schokkend Nieuws (which translates as “Shocking News”). During this time we started to have friendly conversations, mostly about film, and I told Ard about a side project I was working on. As an autistic person, I tend to have special interests. And one of those interests, just for my…
Terry Jacobs (Tom Welling) is a recently paroled felon forced to go undercover to bring down Griff (Cam Gigandet), the head of the most infamous mob syndicate in Italy. Scott Windhauser’s indie crime thriller, Mafia Wars, is coming to VOD & Digital on October 11th, from Saban Films. We have an exclusive clip to share with you today. In the clip Griff, played by Cam Gigandet, and Terry, played by Tom Welling, are speaking with Rinaldo, some low level gang underling who’s done something to offend Terry and Griff wants to be sure that he apologizes to Terry for the trouble. And, also remind him who’s the boss around these parts. You can also check out the official trailer below, as well. …
Here is something against the norm for all you cinephiles in Vancouver. After the Vancouver International Film Festival closes its doors for another year locals can head over to the Rio Theatre for a healthy dose of counter-programming. The night is called OFF-VIFF and will feature the Vancouver premiere of Kit & Arran’s King Baby. A warped modern fairytale plays out in a crumbling ‘kingdom’ populated only by a King and a Servant. The arrival of a mannequin Queen throws their carefully constructed world into isolation, madness, and murderous megalomania. More information about the event, the filmmakers and the film follow. The link to buy tickets is also in the announcement that follows. ‘OFF-VIFF’ LAUNCHES WITH NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE OF EUROPEAN FESTIVAL…
This will be a short one today, with this minimalist teaser for Jason Buxton’s dark character study, Sharp Corner. A family man (Ben Foster) becomes obsessed with saving the lives of the car accident victims on the sharp corner in front of the ‘dream home’ he just moved into with his wife (Cobie Smulders) and young son. The lack of festival laurels (the film recently played TIFF, and The Atlantic International Film Festival in the films production location of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) as well as no standard credit block, offers lots of negative space to emphasize the skid marks. The one typographical design concession here is a right-angle line with a broken area which evokes a smashed guard rail. A direct overhead shot suggests a…
Horror fans young and old, mostly old, are ready and waiting to see the 4K restoration of Tobe Hooper’s seminal horror flick, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The horror flick is coming back to cinemas next month to celebrate its 50th anniversary and distributor Dark Sky Films revealed a freshly cut (snicker) trailer to mark the release. Check it out below. In Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre,’ Dark Sky Films is proud to release a brand new trailer, which was created by the renowned Mark Woollen. Texas Chain Saw Massacre will be re-released in theaters nationwide this October. 1974-2024 50th ANNIVERSARY – RESTORED IN TERRIFYING 4K – SUPERVISED BY TOBE HOOPER – IN THEATERS FOR SPECIAL RE-RELEASE THIS…
Closer to the end of their feted, award-winning careers than the beginning, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, longtime, if not lifelong, friends, Oscar winners (Syriana and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood …, respectively), reunite once again for writer-director Jon Watts’ (the recent Spider-Man trilogy, Cop Car) first post-MCU effort, Wolfs. A risk-averse, laidback, low-effort action-comedy, Wolfs isn’t likely to rank high on Clooney and Pitt’s not-quite-imminent career retrospectives at a future Oscar ceremony, but more often than not, it passes the time-wasting diversion test. Sometimes Wolfs even qualifies as put-down-your-cellphone-and-pay-attention entertaining, coasting as it does on Clooney and Pitt’s well-worn onscreen chemistry to patch the holes in Watts’ formulaic, convention-ridden screenplay. When we first meet Clooney’s stubbornly unnamed character (Cleaner 1 for this review),…
When a beloved varsity quarterback disappears during the “Satanic Panic” of the late 1980s, a struggling high school heavy metal band of outcasts realize they can capitalize on the town’s sudden interest in the occult by building a reputation as a Satanic metal band, until a bizarre series of murders, kidnappings, and reported “supernatural activity” triggers a leather-studded witch hunt that leads directly back to them. Peacock dropped the trailer for their Satanic Panic horror comedy series, Hysteria!, which debuts on the streaming service on October 18th. All eight episodes, featuring Julie Brown and Anna Camp, with a special appearance by the great Bruce Campbell, drop on the same day, perfect for spreading out over the final two week of spooky season. The…