Mar
31
This gangster is haunted, literally. KEYHOLE begins with an inversion — a group of criminals have to fight their way past a police barricade into a house — and only gets stranger from there. Turns out their boss Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric), isn’t after any kind of swag, but an exorcism of the past. The …
Mar
23
There’s hardly room in multiplexes these days for films about love, and most that do get in are b.s. (unless you’re really into romantic entanglements between moody teen girls and even moodier teen vampires). But even if we were in the middle of a romance glut, THE DEEP BLUE SEA would stand out as an …
Mar
09
New Zealand couple Mike Wallis and Inge Rademeyer faced a choice: buy a house together, or use the money to make their first film. Rather than take a gamble on a dodgy proposition with, at best, 50/50 odds, they decided to do the sensible thing and plow their savings into GOOD FOR NOTHING (hey, have …
Mar
02
Call it a cultural difference. Here in the U.S, our serial killers are quiet loners who nurse secret agendas and conduct their grim business on their own. In Australia, the most notorious case of serial murder involved the personable, charismatic John Bunting (Daniel Henshall), who came into the poverty-stricken community of Snowtown, staged neighborhood watch …
Feb
24
Fiddler on the Roof notwithstanding, there are probably some traditions that are best to be abandoned. At the beginning of THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD, a longstanding feud between two Northern Albanian families results in murder, and the kin of the now-fugitive killer finds itself paying for the crime by imprisoning itself at home as a …
Feb
17
Amidst the swashbuckling felines, fast-talking lizards, and kung-fu pandas — plus a cat in Paris — that occupy this year’s Oscar nominees for animated feature, there’s actually a tale featuring human beings, stylized though they may be. In CHICO & RITA, live-action director Fernando Trueba (BELLE EPOQUE) joins forces with artist/designer Javier Mariscal and his …
Feb
10
There are compelling reasons why, when traveling, one should skip the chain lodgings and stay at one of America’s classic hotels. There’s the friendly and courteous staff, the opportunity to experience a true piece of Americana, and the chance that you’ll encounter a spectral manifestation that wants to rip your immortal soul from your still-screaming …
Feb
03
What starts out as common, garden-variety crime thriller turns… bizarre, and then frightening, in director Ben Wheatley’s twisty new film, KILL LIST. The tale of middle class hit-man Jay (Neil Maskell), who with colleague Gal (Michael Smiley) goes out for one more job and discovers blood oaths, strange rites, and disturbingly grateful targets have been …
Jan
02
So, there, that’s one New Years resolution out of the way for me. A few months after the theatrical release of KUNG FU PANDA 2, I was able to score an interview with its director, Jennifer Yuh Nelson. With the home video release of the film (in just about every format available, including Amazon Instant …
Dec
15
You’ve got to admire the man who, having reached the highest pinnacles of human achievement, still finds it within himself to make the occasional descent and spend time with us lesser mortals. God knows, comedian and actor Judah Friedlander doesn’t need to bother with our petty activities; as universally acknowledged World Champion, he exists on …
