Weird Reviews
BROOKLYN 45 Trailer: The Ghosts of War Never Fade Away
A new Ted Geoghegan film gets us at ScreenAnarchy interested. He takes familiar horror tropes and makes them decidely unfamiliar in the most intimate and terrifying way, be that a haunted house in We Are Still Here or anti-colonial monsters...
THE COW WHO SANG A SONG INTO THE FUTURE Review: A Chorus of Anger and Longing
Cows might be one of the few animals whose 'wild' version no longer exists; now bred solely in domestication, they represent how humans have forcibly adapted the natural world for our wants, without regard to the consequences. But now the...
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MAD CATS Review: Japanese Action Comedy Lands Jokes And Punches
Taka receives a cryptic message about his missing brother, Mune. The message plays out, ‘Infiltrate the captor’s lair, find his brother, steal a mysterious object, and don’t let anyone see you’. In capable hands, this might be a piece of...
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MOTHER SUPERIOR Review: One Searches For Their Past, The Other Wants to Relive it
Austria, 1975, and Sigrun has taken a job caring for Baroness Heidenreich at Rosenkreuz Manor. Warned beforehand that her patient is tough to work with and has already gone through a handful of other nurses Sigrun is determined to stick...
GIVING BIRTH TO A BUTTERFLY Review: When It's Time to Board The Next Train
Tolstoy once famously wrote that every unhappy family is unhappy in their own way. You could substitute the word 'unhappy' for 'eccentric' or 'detached from reality'. It's not uncommon for married couples, and their children as they grow into their...
QUEENS OF THE QING DYNASTY Review: The Poetry of Queerness and Camaraderie
It will come as no surprise to observe that most countries/societies in the world are set up to accommodate and bolster a very narrow group of people, based on race, sexual preference, gender identity, class, religion, physical ability, and perhaps...
TIME OF ROSES Blu-ray Review: Uchronic Romances are Always Political
There is something unique about science fiction films of the late 1960s and early 1970s. At least in films from western countries, they were made at a time of great political upheavel, a time when space travel and exploration was...
Calgary Underground 2023 Review: CASH COW, Educational Deadpan with a Dash of Self Absorption
Is there such a thing as charming narcissism? Inclusive self-absorption? Apparently, yes, it can be a thing. Matt Barats’ one-man-show pandemic documentary, where he draws parallels between his situation to the prophet of Mormonism, is a black swan. The film...
Calgary Underground 2023: MISTER ORGAN Review
David Farrier does not like bullies. He cannot abide liars. And I dare guess that he is not a fan of litigious revenge either. The New Zealand journalist turned filmmaker has a particular knack for sussing out the strange people...
Calgary Underground 2023: ONYX THE FORTUITOUS AND THE TALISMAN OF SOULS Review
There are many flavours of hubris. An over inflated or confident self image we attempt to project out to the world. What we think we know or what we think we deserve deserve. The faith we place in our idols,...
THE SEVENTH SEAL Blu-ray Review: A Skull is More Interesting Than a Naked Woman
Famed Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman was only a decade into his half-century career when he made The Seventh Seal. It was not his first film to reach international audiences, nor the first one to receive great acclaim. But it was,...
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...
Kaboom Animation 2023 Review: UNICORN WARS Is Awesomely Bonkers
Today sees the start of the 2023 edition of the Utrecht-and-Amsterdam-based Kaboom Animation Festival, which focuses on animation worldwide. All audiences are catered for: the festival's programme has a kids section, a great selection of queer movies, many amazing shorts,...
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...
SXSW 2023 Review: CHRONICLES OF A WANDERING SAINT, A Magical Realist Triumph From First Time Filmmaker Tomás Gómez Bustillo
A magical realist fantasy, first time director Tomás Gómez Bustillo’s Chronicles of a Wandering Saint imagines the path to heaven for a pious woman with dreams of sainthood. Combining old world, small town charm with modern technology and gentle humor, Saint...
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...
Berlinale 2023 Review: INSIDE, Heist Drama Turns Into Something Else
Willem Dafoe wrecks a luxury apartment, creating conceptual art in a bid for survival in director Vasilis Katsoupis' feature-length fiction debut.
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...
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...
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...
