by Kurt Halfyard

Fantasia 2018: It's a Wrap on Montreal's Wonderful Summer Camp for Genre Fans

The 22nd Fantasia International Film Festival has come to a close. Hats off to anyone with the stamina to make it from the early July beginning to curtain closes in August. We know a few folks who do the three...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Fantasia 2018 Interview: AMIKO Director Yoko Yamanaka on Her New Rebellious Japanese Cinema

One of the most interesting films I saw at Fantasia this year was Amiko, the debut feature of Yoko Yamanaka. In addition to the film being a new twist on the recent wave of films about teenage girls, it stands...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Fantasia 2018 Review: NUMBER 37, Neo-Noir Crime Thriller Raises the Stakes

Many films either overtly or covertly play homage to other films. And it certainly takes a lot of courage to make a film that is an overt homage to a film as iconic as Rear Window. But then, South African...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Fantasia 2018 Review: CHAINED FOR LIFE, The Freaks Are Not Who You Think

In the modern age of endless selfies, we are hyper-aware of how we look; or perhaps more accurately, how we want to look, and how we want the world to see us. But what if it is impossible to hide...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Toronto 2018: IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK, MOUTHPIECE, BURNING & More in Special Presentations

The Special Presentations section of TIFF is always a highlight, featuring a wide range of films from established directors, and this year looks to be no exception. The section will open with veteran Canadian director Patricia Rozema's Mouthpiece, adapted from...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Trailer for WHAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE: The Killer Close to the Heart

Colin Minihan has already made his mark on the indie horror scene with It Stains the Sands Red and Grave Encounters. His latest film, What Keeps You Alive, is making the rounds at film festivals (SXSW, Fantasia, and upcoming at...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Toronto 2018: HIGH LIFE, WIDOWS, LIFE ITSELF, FIRST MAN and More In Gala Screenings

The Toronto International Film Festival came crashing out of the gate with its first wave of title announcements. The festival is scheduled for September 6th - 16th, and already this magnificent corner of the best cinema is setting the bar...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Fantasia 2018 Review: AMIKO, Teen Girl Angst, Japanese Style

In the recent renaissance of films exploring the lives of teenage girls (Lady Bird, The Edge of Seventeen), Yoko Yamanaka’s feature debut Amiko is a Japanese insight into the mind and turbulent emotions of a young girl, trying to figure out...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Fantasia 2018 Review: UNDER THE SILVER LAKE, Underwhelming Story, Overwhelming Cliches

David Robert Mitchell had a critical and audience hit with his second feature film, It Follows, in 2014; so much so that his third feature was readily accepted into the Cannes feature competition this year. Obstensibly a neo-noir thriller about...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Review: SIBERIA Stays Out in the Cold

Crime thrillers seem to have found new life in recent years, not least due to VOD and streaming channels needing content. Films such as I Don't Feel At Home in This World Anymore, Logan Lucky, Nightcrawler, and Small Crimes may...
by Ard Vijn

ScreenAnarchy's Top Movies Of The First Half Of 2018

Time flies like a sonofabitch, and this year it seems to do so faster than usual. We are at 2018's mid-point already. Whoa! That does beg the question though: what films have managed to impress and touch us most, so...
by J Hurtado

Now on Blu-ray: THE ENDLESS Is A New Classic From The Team Behind RESOLUTION

Out on Blu-ray this week is the third feature from the directing team of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, The Endless. This latest feature is their most adventurous to date and blends their unique sense of humor and a solid...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Sitges Festival 2018 To Celebrate 2001, Frankenstein, Pam Grier, Peter Weir, and More!

The countdown has begun for our favourite European genre film festival (and my personal favourite film festival in the world), the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia. A mere four months less a day away, the first announcement of...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Review: THEY REMAIN, Creeping Terror in Isolation

Isolation can play funny tricks on you. But then, how do you know what's just a trick of the mind, and what might be real? In Philip Gelatt's sophomore feature They Remain, two people discover hidden corners of their minds...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Cannes 2018 Review: YOMEDDINE, The Outcast's Journey of the Heart

Many of us likely consider ourselves outcasts in one way or another, that something about us has set us apart from common society, and we are bullied and dismissed for it. That might be true, but for some, it can...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Review: REVENGE Fearlessly Subverts the Subgenre

There is one inviolable rule of the rape-revenge genre: the revenge must be complete. Other than that, all bets are off. French director Coralie Fargeat takes this to heart in her feature debut, Revenge, and she does not disappoint her...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Review: THE RIDER, Dealing Gently With Thwarted Dreams

Chloé Zhao's first feature film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, showed the beautiful and difficult life of a young man on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; his relationship with his family, his clashes with white men, and...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Interview: Sergio G. Sánchez Talks MARROWBONE, The Fallibility of Memory, and the Spanish Fantastic

Spanish screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez is likely well known to many ScreenAnarchy readers; if not by his name, than by his screenplays, such as The Orphanage and The Impossible. He makes his feature film debut this month with Marrowbone, a...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Review: MARROWBONE, Hidden Secrets and Sibling Attachment

Sergio G. Sánchez is best known as co-writer of The Orphanage, certainly one of the best horror films of recent years, with its gothic setting, and themes of past traumas haunting the present. In his feature directorial debut, he returns...
by Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Review: YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE, Palpable Tragedy Brought to Wrenching Life

Lynne Ramsay's last two films (Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin) have focused on individuals (in these cases, women,) who must contend with being the odd-person-out, someone with a secret they fear so dark and disturbing that it...