Review: WE ARE X, More Than Just a Music Doc About X Japan
From director Stephen Kijak, best known for his documentary about the Rolling Stones, Stones in Exile, comes We Are X, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year. It is an excellent record of the history of X Japan,...
London Indian Film Festival Kicks Off 14 July With a Killer Lineup
The 7th annual London Indian Film Festival (LIFF) kicks off this week spreading ten days of excellent films over two cities in Europe's largest festival dedicated to the films of South Asia. I am fortunate to have seen several of...
Sundance 2016 Interview: WE ARE X Director Stephen Kijak Chats Japanese Rockstars
I had a chance to interview Stephen Kijak at the Sundance Film Festival about his film We Are X. The interview follows: Alex Koehne: Yoshiki is an incredibly compelling character. I would watch a movie about him whether he was...
Sundance 2016 Review: WE ARE X, The Not-Rock Doc
From director Stephen Kijak, best known for his documentary about the Rolling Stones, Stones in Exile comes We Are X which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year. It is an excellent record of the history of X Japan,...
Sundance 2016 Interview: BRAHMAN NAMAN's Q And Team Talk It Out
After watching Brahman Naman, the latest film from the Indian director known simply as Q, I had the opportunity to sit down with him along with the writer, Naman Ramachandran and three of the actors from the film; Sid Mallya,...
Sundance 2016 Review: BRAHMAN NAMAN Is A Fantastic Farce
One does not typically see raunchy, teen sex comedies coming out of India, which is precisely why acclaimed director Qaushiq Mukherjee, known simply as "Q" set out to make such a movie. After his acclaimed film Gandu became controversial in...
SXSW 2014: ScreenAnarchy Picks Top 10 Movie Posters From The Fest
As part of the SXSW Film Design Awards, the festival held a movie poster competition for all of the films showing at the fest. The posters were displayed at the convention center in a gallery for all to view.There was...
SXSW 2014 Review: BIG IN JAPAN Is A Raucous Adventure In Wacky & Wonderful Tokyo
"It's not the language barrier... it's a different problem," states one of the members of Tennis Pro, the band at the center of Big in Japan, as the bandmates try to wash their clothes in a Tokyo laundromat. This...
Review: THE TRUTH ABOUT EMANUEL Floats To The Surface
The sophomore film by writer/director Francesca Gregorini, following 2009's Tanner Hall, revolves around Emanuel (Kaya Scodelario), a precocious high school girl who carries on her shoulders the self-placed burden of her mother's childbirth death. For Emanuel, life is a struggle...
Opening: THIS IS MARTIN BONNER, Insight Into The Lives Of Others
Chad Hartigan's This is Martin Bonner is a subtle, contemplative character study in the vein of Steven Soderburgh's Bubble. The story follows two men, Travis Holloway (Richmond Arquette) and Martin Bonner (Paul Eenhoorn) as they form an unlikely friendship in...
Review: GRABBERS Scratches The Horror-Comedy Sweet Spot
Something has gone badly wrong on picturesque Erin Island. The boatload of missing fisherman should have given that away. Or, if not that, then the entire pod of pilot whales that washed up on shore dead and with great gash...
Review: BLACKFISH Questions Morality Of Capturing Wild Animals For Our Amusement
The latest documentary from Gabriela Cowperthwaite chronicles a series of injuries and deaths at SeaWorld theme parks by their captive orca whales. The main through-line of Blackfish is the case of Dawn Brancheau, a senior animal trainer and safety guru...
LA Film Fest 2013 Review: DELIVERY is a Refreshing Twist on Found Footage Horror
The found footage style of filmmaking exploded into the public consciousness with The Blair Witch Project back in 1999. The form grew, matured and is now well on its way to being passé. While filmmakers like those behind the...
LA Film Fest 2013 Review: Mumbai Drama I.D. Can't Establish Credentials
To comment on Indian cinema growing beyond the Bollywood aesthetic that has defined it for so many years would be almost passé at this point. With films like Gangs of Wasseypur crashing onto the scene with great flourishes of...
Exclusive: ABSENCE Debuts A Wonderfully Creepy Teaser
Dropping on audiences from Cinedigm on July 5 is Jimmy Loweree's intriguing pregnancy thriller Absence. We've got an exclusive first look at the wonderfully creepy teaser for you to check out. Expectant mother Liz wakes to find her nearly-to-term pregnancy...
Review: FILLY BROWN Is A Home Grown Must See
I can't say enough good about Filly Brown, the first film from directing team Michael Olmos and Youssef Delara. They have both directed their own features independently, but clearly this was a team that was meant to be. Not only...
Review: IT'S A DISASTER Is A Hilarious Situational Comedy
I hesitate to write anything more than a vague review because this is the type of film that is best seen without knowing anything about it. It begins with Tracy (Julia Stiles), and Glenn (David Cross) arriving at Emma...
Sundance 2013: S-VHS Interview with Directors Simon Barrett, Jason Eisener and Adam Wingard and Producer Roxanne Benjamin
After the premier of S-VHS, the horror film anthology sequel to last year's V/H/S, I was able to get in a few quick questions with some of the filmmakers behind this impressive, multi-national collaboration. I saw V/H/S here last...
Sundance 2013 Interview: WRONG COPS with Quentin Dupieux, Mark Burnham, Steve Litte, Arden Myrin and Eric Wareheim
The day after Quentin Dupieux unveiled the first half of Wrong Cops, his follow up to Wrong, I had the opportunity to sit down with Quentin and the cast to discuss this wonderfully wacky work in progress. The cast...
Sundance 2013 Review: BLACKFISH is an Important Look at Animal Captivity
Blackfish is the latest documentary from Gabriela Cowperthwaite. It chronicles a series of injuries and deaths at SeaWorld theme parks by their captive orca whales. The main through-line is the case of Dawn Brancheau, a senior animal trainer and...
