How to Start Watching: Jason Statham
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
You could make the argument for Jason Statham being his own little microgenre in the world of action/thriller movies.
See You at the Cinema: London’s Prince Charles Cinema
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
You want to do the classic Rocky Horror Picture Show sing-a-long? They’ve got it. You want to spend a whole night marathoning the movies of Wong Kar Wai? You best believe they’ve got it scheduled.
I LOVE YOU FOREVER’s subversion of the romantic comedy doesn’t quite land
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
What if your real-life rom com meet cute descends into an exhausting, abusive nightmare?
Paul Newman at 100: TORN CURTAIN was an uneasy meeting of Newman and Hitchcock
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
Alfred Hitchcock’s fiftieth film is both a curious anomaly in Paul Newman’s career (a year later he would properly cement himself as an icon in Stuart Rosenberg’s Cool Hand Luke) and the beginning of the end for its director. But what made this pairing and its creative result such a mismatch?
BYSTANDERS brings gory, glorious catharsis
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
Bystanders takes revenge on rape culture and toxic masculinity.
Overlooked 2024: FRÉWAKA is an Irish language horror gem worth seeking out
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
Fréwaka a spine-chilling Irish folk horror with two stunning central performances at its core.
REINAS is a personal, compelling film about sisters and fatherhood
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
Reinas is a beautifully humane coming-of-age drama, anchored by a quartet of strong performances (Vega and Gjurinovic are both delightful to watch and wholeheartedly believable as sisters) and effective, deft direction from Klaudia Reynicke.
SPACEWOMAN shines a light on the human cost of spaceflight
Hannah Berryman deftly charts Eileen Collins’s beginnings–from a shy girl growing up in Elmira, New York and dealing with her parents’ separation when she was young, to navigating poverty in the wake of Hurricane Agnes–through to her career as a pioneer at NASA.
Read MoreNoir Nasties: Robert Mitchum in THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER “And he ain’t no preacher, neither!”
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
As played by Robert Mitchum, Preacher Powell remains one of cinema's greatest villains, an iconic noir performance that still chills to the bone today.
Grotesqueries Week: The hedonist’s puzzle box - a deep dive into HELLRAISER
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
Hellraiser may be a story of an unearthly sect of creatures from Hell, it is most importantly a story about the lengths we would go to for desire and lust, even if it destroys us.
GHOST GAME marries haunted house horror with home invasion thriller
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
In her sophomore feature, Jill Gevargizian marries haunted house horror with home invasion thriller and provides some interesting, if decidedly mixed results.
THE DESERVING is a hauntingly impressive debut
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
The Deserving manages to be a short, sharp shock of a horror film, and one that I highly recommend you seek out and give a chance.
INHERIT THE WITCH sets up an intriguing premise but jumps away too often
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
While the set-up of Inherit the Witch is an intriguing one, the execution of that set-up falls frustratingly short.
LORE is a fun low budget horror anthology to kick off spooky season
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
Lore has a number of good things going for it - most importantly, it is impressive what the filmmakers achieved with their budget, showing that you don’t need masses of studio money to bring good scares to the screen.
ART OF A HIT mixes horror, rock and roll, and 2000s nostalgia
by Jill Vranken, Staff Writer
What Art of a Hit does do well is give us an insight into the struggles of trying to make it in a cutthroat business, and what happens when the music stops.