Indie Reviews
Fantasia 2026 Review: RUBBERHEAD: THE LIFE AND MONSTERS OF STEVE JOHNSON A Hilarious and Humbling Portrait of a Chaotic Genius
There’s something mesmerizing about watching car crashes. We know it is dangerous, often even deadly; we know that for all of the sparks flying around as an out-of-control car meets its fiery fate, there’s usually someone inside who is in...
Fantasia 2026 Review: RECLUSE, Screenwriter Henry Chaisson Conquers Visual And Sonic Terror in Neo-Gothic Horror
Joan is dragged back to her childhood home. There has been an accident and she has received an ominous call from her ailing, disfigured father. She is a sound engineer by trade, he is a famous artist and long...
PINOCCHIO: UNSTRUNG Review: Poohniverse Unfortunately Continues to Live Up to Its Name
Impressive puppetry and the grace of famous horror faces still aren't enough to save the Twisted Childhood Universe from its own darkness.
Home Video: Kino Classics and Kino Cult Roundup
Kino has been aggressively going through their catalog and upgrading their older releases to 4K for awhile now. For that I am grateful. They’ve also been producing new extras for their discs, which is most welcome indeed for collectors out...
Home Video: Severin Films Home Entertainment Roundup
I've been overdue for some Severin release coverage. Part of it involves finding all the time I need to sift through their extras-laden releases and the number of first-time watches involved. This batch was all first-time watches and all movies...
Fantasia 2026 Review: CHERRY AND VIRGIN, A Nervous and Experimental Work of Genius
I was 18 years old when an adult friend I met at a summer factory job recommended that I see Federico Fellini's 8 1/2. I could not make heads or tails of the movie, in Italian, in black and white,...
I WANT YOUR SEX Review: Close Encounters of the Sexual Kind
Gregg Araki's new film stars Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman.
Fantasia 2026 Review: THE LAST HORROR, Myanmar's First Found-Footage Film is Too Safe With The Scares
The Last Footage starts with a collection of videos from life loggers, users recording daily experiences using wearable tech. We see the Burmese peoples out jogging along lakefronts, playing concerts with their bands, riding the backseat of a motorcycle which...
Fantasia 2026 Review: CORPUS, Languid Queer Thriller Delivers a Killer Horror Payoff
Sayo photographs New York’s nightlife, dealing drugs to partygoers at clubs and generally stays out of trouble with the owners of those clubs with free samples. Life takes a spin when he learns that Vince, an old friend whose star...
Fantasia 2026 Review: OUR EFFED UP WORLD, Alice Maio Mackay's Hang Out Movie... With Aliens!
Australian wunderkind Alice Maio Mackay returns to the director’s chair for her eighth feature film, Our Effed Up World, celebrating its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia. A science-fiction story about a group of young adults fighting off an alien...
Fantasia 2026 Review: THE LAST TEMPTATION OF BECKY, It's Nazi Killin' Time Again
One of genre cinema’s most unexpected franchises expands beyond its humble roots in Jenn Wexler’s The Last Temptation of Becky. The titular teen with a serious attitude problem is off to Poland this time, when a Nazi scion with dreams...
Fantasia 2026 Review: FERINE, A Stunning Feature Debut From Andrea Corsini
Motherhood is a beast in first time feature filmmaker Andrea Corsini’s lush Italian psychological horror stunner, Ferine, celebrating its international premiere at this year’s Fantasia. Bolstered by a captivating lead performance from Oddity’s Carolyn Bracken and an unforgettable score from...
Fantasia 2026 Review: NIKO, All Night Pretentious Delight
Cyber-punk adjacent, arthouse romance, pop-philosophical musing Niko debuts K-pop Girls' Generation member, Tiffany Young in the titular role as a woman who runs a business hiring herself out to comfort and talk to people who have locked themselves out of...
Fantasia 2026 Review: YOU ARE THE FILM, A Meta-Cinema Romance That Tears a Hole in the Universe
As someone who typically goes to the movies on a Sunday night for the 10:30pm show, and typically to go watch the stranger side of cinema, I am often given a ‘private screening’ from the local Cineplex chain. Because,...
Fantasia 2026 Review: PERMANENT DAMAGE, A Loosey-Goosey, Drug-Addled, Hanging-Out Thriller On Housing Insecurity
Reborn in the opening scene by tearing his way out of a black garbage bag after being tossed in the trash from a prison van, Tommy irrevocably changes his life through a chance encounter in a Dollarama, the house of...
Fantasia 2026 Review: ANCESTRAL BEASTS, An Indigenous Creature Feature About Generational Trauma
Generational trauma manifests as a deadly creepy crawler in Tim Riedel’s debut feature, Ancestral Beasts, which just celebrated its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia. Set among the indigenous Métis community, the film is a glowing reminder of the festival’s...
Fantasia 2026 Review: TIGHT LETTUCE, Addiction Both Binds and Tears Families Apart
There are many kinds of addiction stories on film, from the invigorating buddy shenanigans of Transpotting to the stylish personal infernos of Requiem For A Dream to the gritty autobiographical redemption arc of The Basketball Diaries. Harrison Houde’s Tight Lettuce discovers...
CRUEL STORY OF YOUTH 4K Review: Anger and Desire in Post-War Japan
In western cinema, the 1950s and 1960s are often portrayed as a time of youth in revolt: the birth of a teenager as a particular cultural and social entity, and with it, the problems of education, social life, work, and...
Fantasia 2026 Review: PENNY LANE IS DEAD Is Not For The Weak Of Heart
A celebratory girls’ night at the family beach house devolves into a night of unrelenting, brutal terror in Penny Lane is Dead, the debut feature from Australian filmmaker Mia’Kate Russell. A blood-soaked throwback to the wild days of ‘80s Ozploitation,...
Fantasia 2026 Review: ATTACK ON PARADISE, A Belgian Single Setting Siege Story With Heart
In a dystopic corner of urban Antwerp stands Paradise, a ten-story apartment block that houses some of the baddest dudes and dudettes in all of Belgium. Packed to the gills with drug hustlers, arms dealers, illicit brothels, and every other...
