Weird Reviews
TIME OF THE HEATHEN Review: Lost Indie Feature Showcases a Bleak Post-WWII America
It's safe to say that the post-WWII years were not as good as many people had claimed for many years. Despite propaganda lauding those years as a time of prosperity and success for all, it didn't take long for that...
FOIL Review: Finding Aliens and Restoring Friendships in the Wilderness
Like many who think they are leaving their hometown behind in a cloud of dust, Dexter (Zach Green) has found himself returning, somewhat with his proverbial tail between his legs. His big dreams of a indie film career in Hollywood...
POOLMAN Review: Earnest Performances Almost Save a Misguided Comedy-Noir
A few years ago, I was taking an Uber back to my airbnb in Los Angeles; the driver, it turns out, was something of a conspiracy theorist. At first he was just telling me about the politics of the city,...
Calgary Underground 2024 Review: CUCKOO, Delightfully Analog Sensory Overload
Two characters, having barely survived a traumatic and violent ordeal at a hospital, try to leave, only to find the doors locked. But wait, it is one of those situations where one door is locked but the other one works...
THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR DOING SOMETHING HAS PASSED Review: Comedic Discomfort in Millenial Ennui
While ennui and angst are common to many generations, I can imagine it could be much more accute among millenials - anything that might have been considered a 'normal' life gave up the ghost before they came of age. They're...
HANKY PANKY Review: Cheap, Dumb, Delightful
Lindsey Haun and Nick Roth directed the horror comedy, available April 19 on VOD. "It's a silly movie that just wants to make its audience smile, and it succeeds."
THE COFFEE TABLE Review: Wallowing in Its Own Original Mess
New parents Jesus and Maria, still in the nesting phase after moving into a new apartment, need a new coffee table. Engaging with, or rather enduring, one of the oiliest, least competent, salesmen imaginable, it quickly becomes clear that the...
ALL YOU NEED IS DEATH Review: The Power of Song Will Devour You
Folk horror is often associated with a particular location, or perhaps a physical object that can be held in hands, something concretely tangible. But, especially in an age when the folkiness of this horror, the true human darkness from which...
DAD & STEP-DAD Review: Barbequeing the Male Ego to a Crisp
Not since wandering into Kevin Smith’s Clerks in an Oshawa multiplex in 1994 have I immediately glommed on to a micro-budget comedy as something that can be watched over and over again. Tynan DeLong’s Dad & Step-Dad is a small,...
YOU'LL NEVER FIND ME Review: When A Stranger Knocks
Relying upon the kindness of strangers (who are very strange indeed) on a dark and stormy night (when it feels like the wind might blow the world down) is a good recipe for a horror film. Add in a somewhat...
STOPMOTION Review: Beautiful, Disturbing Journey Into Creation as Self-Destruction
Aisling Franciosi, Stella Gonet, and Tom York star in Robert Morgan's cross-genre horror movie.
Sundance 2024 Review: SASQUATCH SUNSET, Jesse Eisenberg As You've Never Seen or Heard Him Before
Co-directed by Ausin residents David and Nathan Zellner (Damsel, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, Kid-Thing), written by David, and co-starring Nathan in prosthetic make-up and a matted fur suit, Sasquatch Sunset, billed somewhat generically as a “year in the life of...
Rotterdam 2024 Review: STEPPENWOLF, No Country for Sane Men
Kazakh filmmaker Adilkhan Yerzhanov delivers his most nihilistic work to date.
THE SEEDING Review: When HILLS HAVE EYES Meets WOMAN IN THE DUNES
The film stops short at delivering a truly intense psychological survival horror.
DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS Review: A Breezy, Goofy And Goopy Horror Comedy
Struggling prog-rock musician William Brown finds himself in a living nightmare when he accidentally kills Vlad, the neighbor from hell.
Tallinn 2023 Review: BODY ODYSSEY, Bodybuilding Obsession on the Edge of Psychological Unraveling
Jacqueline "Jay" Fuchs and Julian Sands star; director Grazia Tricarico boldly navigates the blurred lines of satire and horror in the story of female bodybuilding.
Tallinn 2023 Review: GIANT'S KETTLE Peers Into the Abyss of the Mundane in Dark Family Fable
Markku Hakala and Mari Käki's debut blends suspense mystery with psychological drama in a dark fable of Kafkaesque proportions.
MY ANIMAL Review: Visually Arresting Lycanthropy Tale
More than two decades ago, Ginger Snaps,a modest, lycanthropy-themed horror film from Canada, hit the festival circuit, receiving solid critical notices, but limited returns at the box office. Thankfully, Ginger Snaps didn't disappear into obscurity like so many of its contempories horror-wise. Instead, it received...
EVERYONE WILL BURN Review: Visually Stunning, A Narrative Mess
I've never understood why small towns are so often praised as better places to raise children. Contrary to the popular belief that they are kinder and more welcoming, smaller places tend to be more isolated, and therefore more prejudiced, more...
Viennale 2023 Review: THE PRACTICE Seeks Mindfulness Amid Mid-Life Restart
Martín Rejtman employs deadpan absurdism to satirize the trials of mid-life in the life of a yoga coach.
