ENYS MEN Review: The Primary Haunting of a Lonely Existence
While British folk horror has people frightened with visions of isolated Scottish islands, forests that run down its spine, to me, Cornwall has always held particular creepy fascination. Maybe it's that this lonely peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic feels...
SXSW 2023 Review: BLOODY HELL, What Even Is a 'Normal' Body?
A woman's body is a battleground: not for her, necessarily (though it can be), but more for a society that wants to keep women narrowly confined and strictly controlled. From the moment that the patriarchy decides that it is convenient...
Blu-ray Review: INLAND EMPIRE, Lynch's Abstract Masterpiece Comes to Criterion
I have to keep reminding myself that Inland Empire is, in fact, Lynch's most recent feature film. Since 2006, Lynch has directed music videos short films, and of course another season of his ground-breaking television series Twin Peaks. But no...
COUNTRY GOLD Reviewed: The Poetry of Has-Beens
Mickey Reece, prolific indie filmmaker, is no stranger to tackling stories of famous musicians (according to my partner, Reece's film Alien is a far superior look at the life of Elvis than the recent Baz Lurhmann film). After his previous...
SXSW 2023 Review: THIS CLOSENESS, The Awkward Loneliness of Modern Love
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...
65 Review: Passably Entertaining ... Almost
My partner has a rule: any movie with a T-Rex automatically gets five stars on Letterboxd. Because, of course, dinosaurs make any movie better. But I think even he would be hard-pressed to give 65 five stars, or even a...
I LIKE MOVIES Review: Cinephilia is Lovingly Skewered in Whip-Smart Coming of Age Comedy
We talk perhaps a bit too much about films that are 'love letters to cinema', a term adorned too widely. Instead, maybe what we need a more odes to the cinephile. I count myself among that group, but then perhaps...
CALVAIRE Review: Love Born in Isolation Twists into Cruelty
Isolation isn't just about physical location; it can be cultural, social, and psychological. It can come as much from class, or strange arbitrary social constructs, as well as those roles set by a patriarchal society whose rules are so convoluted...
Blu-ray Review: INDIA SONG and BAXTER, VERA BAXTER, Marguerite Duras Celebrated by Criterion
Marguerite Duras was a renaissance woman. An author, playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker, her life and work spanned the 20th century and yet she is often forgotten by cinephiles, or at least remains something of a footnote, mainly known for her...
Nighthawk Shorts Fest Returns with Prep, Free Noir Papillon, Kentucker Audley's NoBudge, and More
Winter days and nights are made for movie watching - in a cinema, if you feel comfortable, and while you might think March is a slow season for cinema, you'd be wrong. For those in the Brooklyn or general New...
EMILY Review: A Turbulent Soul Creates a Gothic Masterpiece
Directed by Frances O'Connor, the film stars Emma Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, and Fionn Whitehead.
Review: ATTACHMENT, The Truth Will Keep You Trapped
Maja (Josephine Park) has not had much success as an actress, being best know as a storytelling elf from an old television series for children. But this did give her the opportunity for a meet-cute with the somewhat younger Leah...
Rotterdam 2023 Review: PLAYLAND, Queer History Made Uncanny
Queer history is something of a bricolage: it's only been in recent years that much of it has been discovered, or perhaps more accurately, made public, as so often queer lives and their infinite variety had to be kept hidden...
Review: THE CIVIL DEAD, Uncomfortably Smart Take on the Boredom of Death
Probably most of us, at one time or another, have had a friend in our lives, whose friendship, after a time, became more of a burden than a gift. The friend who can't seem to read social cues or take...
Blu-ray Review: THIS IS NOT A BURIAL, IT'S A RESURRECTION, The Poetics of Resistance
With only one or two 'big' names known, even among cinephines, cinema from sub-saharan Africa has often been neglected both on the festival and the art house cinema circuit. Perhaps also because of the way the filmmakers use the...
Review: THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE CHILDREN, Maybe Leave the Kids at Home Next Time
Perhaps you are a child-free person and hate kids; or are child-free and love other people's children, especially when they are difficult and you can give them back. Maybe you have and love your kids, but sometimes find parenting difficult...
YELLOWJACKETS Season 2 Teaser: A Little More Complicated than Most
Anyone from a northern climate knows the dangers of winter, how you can die simply from being caught outside. That's one of the first things that drew me, and likely many viewers, to a show like Yellowjackets. We know what...
Review: SKINAMARINK, The Dark Call Is Coming From Inside the House
If you are a Canadian of a certain age, or perhaps are familiar with this particular children's tune, prepare to be scarred for life. Well, I could really say that to anyone who watches Skinamarink. This both feels and looks...
Review: M3GAN, You've Got a Friend in Her?
On the one hand, society (or much of it) constantly teases girls for playing with dolls, seeing it as something trite, cute, femme, and most of all, a sign of weakness and docility. On the other hand, if a lot...
ScreenAnarchy's Top 10 Films of 2022
What, it's 2023 already? You're kidding, right? Alas, 2022 has come and gone, as long as every other non-leap year but seeming shorter than most nonetheless. But as Yoda says "Size matters not", so we asked our writers to send...
