Fish out of water comedies are fun because it’s inherently interesting, and often quite funny, to watch people try to adjust to a life they’ve never known. In some cases, it’s the chance for someone to experience unprecedented luxury and comfort without ever having been able to fathom that kind …
What would happen if you tried to make contact with the devil on live television? Well, Late Night with the Devil has a staggering answer to this question. Helmed by the directing duo of Cameron and Colin Cairnes, the movie chronicles the journey of a late-night talk show host Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian), …
The Scottish comedian Janey Godley is from Glasgow, so of course a new documentary about her life would be the closing gala of the Glasgow Film Festival. But when a person’s life has been as troubled as Ms. Godley’s, a documentary needs to address those troubles directly instead of letting circumstances do the …
The Indigo Girls are having a bit of a moment right now. I don’t know if there has ever been a time when they weren’t having a moment, but between “Closer to Fine” appearing in Barbie and the documentary It’s Only Life After All that also released last year, the pair has been in the …
In 2020, Ray Yeung’s film Suk Suk (Twilight’s Kiss) was nominated at the Hong Kong Film Awards, with lead actor Tai-Bo taking home Best Actor. However, due to the pandemic, the film never found international audiences. Now, four years later, Yeung hopes to bring his next feature, All Shall Be Well, to more audiences this time around. The film …
Anyone who was alive on New Year’s Eve in 1999 remembers that the world was supposed to end, and there was a lot of panic about it. Obviously, that didn’t happen, but there’s a universe in which things could have played out differently, which is vividly imagined in the directorial …
Specific true-life stories demand the big-screen cinematic treatment. In some cases, those true stories can go on to earn Academy awards (Braveheart, Schindlers List). In other cases, some films can dishonor those stories’ legacies. Adapting those stories can be some of the most challenging films to make. The story of the …
The G, from writer-director Karl R. Hearne, is an unusual crime thriller in that its central character is a woman in her sixties and the insults of aging are central to the crimes at its core. But the unusual intelligence of The G is that it knows that physical weakness means little if …
Christopher Nolan’s biographical epic Oppenheimer dominated the 96th Academy Awards, securing victory in seven categories. The film claimed the coveted title of Best Picture, while Christopher Nolan earned the Best Director award. Cillian Murphy took home the Best Actor, and Robert Downey Jr. received the accolade for Best Supporting Actor. Additionally, Oppenheimer triumphed in technical categories, winning trophies for Cinematography, Film …
Punctuation can speak volumes. The latest feature from writer-director duo Austin Stark and Joseph Schuman – Coup! – joins the ranks of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! and Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!! in adding an exclamation point to a punch title, immediately suggesting a zany, irreverent take on social paranoia during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. As the world recovers from war …
oudCryptocurrency has been on the rise in the past few years. With the introduction of Bitcoin and Ethereum, many people are turning to this interesting new currency to get rich quickly. However, with the latest trends and technology, whether AI or cryptocurrency, there’s always a gray area regarding moral standards …
Some of film history’s most iconic works take place across one eventful day or night. Tummy Monster easily fits this model, taking place in one location over a night that goes from ordinary to extraordinary with alarming speed. Tattoo artist Tales (Lorn Macdonald) is just about to close up shop …
In 2019, director Lulu Wang stunned the world with a poignant family drama, The Farewell. The movie showed her directing prowess and gave viewers an idea of how hard-hitting stories can be told with so much elegance. The film won Best Picture at the Independent Spirit Awards and earned Wang all the praise she deserved. People …
Twenty-four hours in one lawyer’s chaotic personal and professional life comes to a head in Selman Nacar’s sophomore feature. Hesitation Wound (Tereddüt Çizgisi) clocks in under 90 minutes, but the fullness of its action and the richness of its moral dilemmas, characterizations, and performances gives it the weight of many longer features. Canan …
Avatar: The Last Airbender is the latest animated property to get the live-action treatment from Netflix. There has been some success with this trend, such as Netflix’s adaptation of the anime One Piece, but reimaginings such as this have to work hard to justify their existence, as their animated counterparts are already …
Accidental Texan is the second feature film directed by the award-winning Mark Bristol. It stars Thomas Haden Church, Rudy Pankow, Bruce Dern, and Carrie-Anne Moss in a classic and heartwarming tale of small-town America. After a phone ringer triggers an accident of explosive proportions on a New Orleans film set, Harvard-educated Erwin Vandeveer (Pankow) loses his first …
Amelia’s Children is the latest movie from writer and director Gabriel Abrantes. Starring Carloto Cotta (as twins!), Brigette Lundy-Paine, Anabela Moreira, and Alba Baptista, this is a horror movie about mothers and sons and well, a whole lot of creepy. Edward, our main character, is adopted. His search for his origins takes him to Portugal where …
Animated sequels can be a challenge; sometimes, the sequel isn’t as good as the original (Shrek the Third is a perfect example). Other times, the sequels can be better than the original (Shrek 2). In DreamWorks Animation’s case, they now have two franchises that have maintained their quality throughout their sequels …
James Nunn’s One Shot had the biggest potential out of any direct-to-video actioner Scott Adkins led in so long: an action film staged like a one-take in which Adkins would topple as many baddies as possible as if the audience were playing a video game. And while it certainly contained its moments of pure spectacle, …
The year is 2041, and death before one’s time does not necessarily mean the end of one’s life in Robert Hloz’s sleek sci-fi thriller. Restore Point takes its title from this new technology, managed in a central database in a nondescript metropolis of tarnished chrome (perhaps Prague in the future, though signs of its …