LE SAMOURAÏ Blu-ray Review: On the Elegance of a Revolver
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...
PARIS IS IN HARLEM Review: Mosaics of Life and Music
While there are a lot of laws enacted (and sometimes still exist) in cities that seem very odd and specific (I read once about a law forbidding people from hiding bees under their hats), some laws that seem strange on...
ScreenAnarchy's Top 10 Films Of The First Half Of 2024
The last six months of 2024 contain two more days than the first six do (courtesy of February, even in a leap year as this one...), so we could stretch it a day, but now there's no avoiding it any...
LAST SUMMER Review: What Lies in Our Dark Hearts
Catherine Breillat's latest film stars Lea Drucker.
FAMILY PORTRAIT Review: A Disconcerting Disappearence Makes a Haunted Gathering
For many families, the yearly portrait is not just a ritual, but an custom inviolate. Maybe there's only one person in the family that actually wants the portrait and might even enjoy the process - but it gets done nonetheless....
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD Blu-Ray Review: A Monumental Story of the Personal and Historical
It's extremely rare for Criterion Collection to produce a television series; so when one does make the cut, you know it's special. And that's just the least of the adjectives that could be used to describe The Underground Railroad, Barry...
HUMANIST VAMPIRE SEEKING CONSENTING SUICIDAL PERSON Review: Coming of Age When You Don't Age
Sasha is a bit of a disappointment to her parents. Not only is her body a little slow to catch up to lend the family the survival help they need, she also has no desire to participate in their most...
GIRLFIGHT Blu-ray Review: Rage Harnessed and Powerful
It's easy to get blasé about dramas that follow an individual as they learn a new sport/activity that becomes the centre of their world, giving their life deeper meaning; it's a common enough trope through cinema. But if you can...
THIS CLOSENESS Review: The Discomfort of Strangers
Have social interactions with strangers always been fraught with awkwardness, or has contemporary society and its technological trappings made it worse? How do we decide on new rules for behaviour and etiquette, especially when crossing cultural and class lines? I'd...
SOLO Review: Love that Elevates, Love that Destroys
How can we know what makes us happy? More importantly, how can we trust the people around us to make us happy, support us in our happiness, provide us with the love and care we deserve? And how can we...
NEW STRAINS Trailer & Poster: The Couple Stuck Together During A Lockdown While on Vacation, Stays Together?
No doubt there were many couples, in the early days of their relationship, who found that relationship tested in a more unusual way, by the pandemic lockdown of these past few years. Some might have flourished; others survived a little...
HUMANIST VAMPIRE SEEKING CONSENTING SUICIDAL PERSON Trailer: It's Not Easy Being Fanged
2023 was an excellent year for Quebec cinema, and it's great to see more of these films getting release outside my province. And it's especially great to see more genre fare, lending new twists to old tropes. Coming in with...
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...
FAMILY PORTRAIT Trailer: On the Precipice of Quiet Disaster
Locarno might not be as well known to the general public as other European festivals, but their programming has been amazing for several years, leaning into the more experimental work of what might be called social realism, or documentary cinema...
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,...
THIS CLOSENESS Trailer: The Discomfort of Strangers
With her sophomore film This Closeness, a sleeper hit on the indie festival circuit in 2023, Kit Zauhar is quickly becoming one of the most interesting filmmakers on the American indie scene. Her honest and disquieting look at 20-something life,...
Trieste Science+Fiction Festival Wants Your Weird & Wonderful Films
Spring may have barely begun (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), but that means filmmakers are turning their thoughts to fall festivals. The autumn brings a deluge of genre festivals, but one of the standouts is Trieste Science+Fiction Festival. I...
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...
THE KING TIDE Review: The Fable of a Miracle Gone Wrong
Living in a harsh landscape, somewhat apart and isolated, means you make certain choices about how much assistance you will receive, and how much protection you will offer your community. It also means that legends can grow up around people...
