Review: Angels Wear White, 2017, dir. Vivian Qu

We turn to movies, more often than not, for escape and distraction, for the promise of having our woes assuaged, if only for a couple of hours, in the calming glow of the silver screen (whether in large or small formats). Occasionally, though, the movies deny us, as in Angels Wear White, the new film by … Continue reading →

Why Female-Driven Horror Movies Are More Timely Than Ever

Gang: It’s been a gross, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. It’s been a gross, terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week for a slew of reasons, but I’m here today to talk about the Harvey Weinstein scandal (which isn’t quite a “scandal,” because sexual abuse isn’t scandalous; it’s criminal). Because I am me, … Continue reading →

The 25 Best Werewolf Movies of All Time

Happy October! Here: Have a listicle about great werewolf movies, because in the grand assembly of all of horror’s sub-genres and niches, the werewolf picture is among the least celebrated for reasons I can’t possibly fathom. Werewolves are scarier than zombies! There! I said it! Zombie movies are really only as frightening as their human … Continue reading →

Is the Slasher Movie Dying?

Friday the 13th only rolls around so often; in the case of 2017, “so often” means “twice,” and we’ll stick to that pattern until Donald Trump (or, who knows, maybe Mike Pence) gets voted the fuck out of office. But how cool is it that our second Friday the 13th this year happens to fall … Continue reading →

Review: The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, 2017, dir. David France

Everyone knows that I hated, hated, hated Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall. What my take on David France’s new film, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, presupposes is that, maybe you shouldn’t make terrible biopics about real-life events while supplanting the real-life struggling minorities at their center with clean-cut white boys? …so, yeah, I guess that doesn’t … Continue reading →

“Can ‘The Mayor’ Make Situation Comedy On ABC Great Again?”

Shocking revelation: I’m a big-time sucker for a good sitcom. My love for Brooklyn Nine-Nine is well-documented, I watched The Mindy Project religiously until it went to Hulu (because, y’know, I didn’t have Hulu at the time), I grew up on Family Matters and Full House and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and you get the idea, right?  So, basically, I’m … Continue reading →

Humanity In Horror Movies

And just in time for the scariest month on the calendar (save for November during fucking election years): This new, shiny piece I’ve got up at The Hollywood Reporter (which, being a few days old, no longer quite qualifies as either “new” or “shiny,” but shaddup), about Mike Flanagan and his new film, Gerald’s Game. If you’re … Continue reading →

Best of Criterion’s New Releases, September 2017

Good news! I’m still here. I’m suffering a writer’s drought, but I’m still here. And here’s our first break in the drought: Paste Magazine’s monthly Criterion Collection round-up, this time for September (because that’s how months work). As with most Criterion months, September ’17 is pretty good, I think; I can’t speak for a couple … Continue reading →

Review: In Search of Fellini, 2017, dir. Taron Lexton

If you want an unbiased take on Taron Lexton’s In Search of Fellini, look elsewhere than here (or my review, up at Paste Magazine); I am forever and always a lover of all things related to the great master of Italian cinema, so if you make a movie wrapped around an abiding passion for him, I’m … Continue reading →

A Bostonian’s Take On Jake Gyllenhaal’s Boston Bombing Survivor, “Stronger”

I hated Patriots Day so much that I was taken off guard by how much I liked Stronger, David Gordon Green’s own attempt at tackling the events of the Boston Marathon bombing on screen; narrowing that down further, I was taken off guard by how critical Green’s film is about the response to the bombing, or a subsection … Continue reading →

Review: The Tiger Hunter, 2017, dir. Lena Khan

Casting people of colors in roles that demand they speak in regional accents they don’t have is insulting, but what if – what if – a movie directed by an Indian-American woman (Lena Khan!) cast an Indian-American actor (Danny Pudi!) as a guy from India and thus required him to adopt an Indian accent? I’m not sure … Continue reading →

‘mother!’ Marks New Turn In Year of Prestige Horror

It’s been seven years since I gave a damn about a Darren Aronofsky movie, but in that time he won everyone’s hearts with Black Swan and made a big ol’ oopsie with Noah, so I guess on the “give a damn” scale, he still scores better than neutral. So it was a pleasure to write about his … Continue reading →

Review: The Limehouse Golem, 2017, dir. Juan Carlos Medina

I’m on board for any kind of atmospheric Gothic guignol, so The Limehouse Golem is right in my wheelhouse. Everyone knows that Jack the Ripper was the most prolific serial killer of his day; what this film presupposes is, what if he wasn’t? That’s a campy enough premise to work off of, and if I’m being … Continue reading →

Review: Trophy, 2017, dir. Shaul Schwarz & Christina Clusiau

I’m of the mind that we’re all animal lovers, even those of us who include animals in our diet, whether in the form of products derived from, say, their milk (like cheese) or in the form of their meat. So it stands to reason that we’re all going to get something from watching Shaul Schwarz … Continue reading →

The Over/Under Podcast: ‘La La Land’ & ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg’

Let’s be upfront with each other: You don’t want to hear me complain, yet again, about La La Land, and you don’t want to hear me sing the praises of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg once more. You also don’t want to hear me do both at the same time, because I’ve done it already. But I do want to … Continue reading →

Review: High Fantasy, 2017, dir. Jenna Bass

I think we’re going to see a lot of people making movies on iPhones, or I guess I should say a lot more people; it’s not like Sean Baker, the brilliant Sean Baker, he of Tangerine, and Starlet, and Prince of Broadway, is the first filmmaker to think of using a mobile device to shoot a movie, but I doubt … Continue reading →