Everything Old is New Again, Vol. 25 - March 2021
by Hunter Bush, Staff Writer
Welcome to EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN, my column focused on Remakes, Adaptations and Long-Gap Sequels (a.k.a. Legacy Sequels).
Everything Old is New Again, Vol. 24 - February 2021
by Hunter Bush, Associate Editor & Staff Writer
Greetings and salutations and welcome to the first Everything Old Is New Again of the NEW! MovieJawn!
Welcome to the MovieJawn Podcast Network!
From the desk of Hunter Bush, Associate Editor, Podcasts
Introducing the MovieJawn Podcast Network.
Everything Old is New Again, Vol. 23 - January 2021
by Hunter Bush
Hello and welcome to 2021! As we bid a hearty adi-fuckin’-os to the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year that has passed, I want to offer my condolences to all of you reading this. I’m sorry, but it ain’t over yet. Things will still be rough for quite a while and we’ll be feeling the repercussions of 2020 for a long time to come, but I sincerely hope for all of our sakes that things are gonna start getting better. Fair warning now, I am writing this still within the confines of the bastard year. So there’s a chance that simply by wishing for good things I have doomed us all, but I prefer to think not. I choose to see it as manifesting my desires into existence and I hope you’ll all take a moment to take a deep, slow breath and put forth thoughts of goodness, positivity and light.
Read MoreMJ's Top Ten of 2020
by Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy
A couple weeks before the end of the year (and what a year it’s been), I asked everybody to list their top five movies that they’d seen so far. This is always a tough chore because people are trying to cram in the films they’d heard about but missed throughout the year and then there’s the Christmas Day releases that only a few people have seen by that point. This means that people will always look back at their list in a year or two and find things that they wish they would've included, but just hadn’t seen yet. I feel like this year has exacerbated that situation because everyone has had to settle into finding films through different avenues.
Here, I’ve compiled everyone’s rankings and responses to give the MovieJawn Top Ten for 2020.
Read MoreHunter Hunter (2020)
Written and directed by Shawn Linden
Starring Camille Sullivan, Summer H. Howell, Devon Sawa and Nick Stahl
Running time: 1 hour and 33 minutes
Unrated: contains incidences of violence on the scale from implied to very explicit
by Hunter Bush
Hello there. My name is Hunter and I’m here to talk about the film Hunter Hunter, which I took because of both the repetitive use of my name and the presence of Devon Sawa in the cast. Which do you want me to talk about first?
Read MoreTommy C. Appreciation Club: The Outsiders
Written by Kathleen Rowell (screenplay) and S.E. Hinton (novel)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Starring C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze and appearance by Tommy C.
Running Time: 1 hour and 31 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
by Hunter Bush, Nikk Nelson, Ryan Smillie and Liz Locke
The Tommy C. Appreciation Club, or TCAC, solemnly swears to watch and appreciate all theatrical performances by Tom Cruise then recap them, round-table style. In this edition, the Moviejawn crew chats about the minor role Tommy C. plays in Coppola’s 1983 flick, The Outsiders.
Read MoreEverything Old is New Again, Vol. 21 - November, 2020
by Hunter Bush
Howdy once again, y’all. This is one of the more difficult intros for me to write in my two-ish years on this column. I’m writing this before Election Day y’see and have no way of knowing what will happen, and it’s twisting up my guts not knowing. I’ve been putting it off and putting it off and now I’m into the final week of October and haven’t done diddly. By the time this comes out, things will hopefully be looking up, but there is the chance that they’ll be somehow even darker than before and that’s a reality that I’ve been chewing on for weeks. More likely that not though, they’ll be in some horrible liminal space where we don’t know what will happen.
Read MoreSynchronic
Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead
Written by Justin Benson
Starring Jamie Dornan, Anthony Mackie and Katie Aselton
Running time 1 hour and 36 minutes
MPAA rating: R for drug content and language throughout and for some violent/bloody images
by Hunter Bush
I really like those Moorehead & Benson boys. They seem like good people. I first got into them slightly before their previous flick The Endless premiered but their names quickly rose high atop my Pay Attention To -list. Starting with Resolution in 2012, then through Spring in 2014 and The Endless in 2017, they’ve proven to be writers/directors/performers who know how to deliver big ideas on modest budgets. But, though Synchronic shows their production values increasing, their ideas are no less expansive.
Read MorePUFF Postscript - 2020
by Hunter Bush
With the news that Cineworld would be shuttering their theaters until 2021 coming out over the weekend, digital film festivals are looking more and more like the new status quo as opposed to a stop-gap solution. To that end, I sincerely hope you took advantage of the PUFF 2020 screenings over the weekend because things like PUFF - the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival - are important for filmmakers who don’t have studio backing. If you didn’t, you missed out on some great stuff, but we are trying our best to regularly cover similar fests here at Moviejawn.
Read MoreEverything Old is New Again, Vol. 20 - October
by Hunter Bush
“Oh hello. I didn’t see you there.”
I love when infomercials have that bit in them, don’t you? But it’s literally true in this case, because I’m actually writing this at least a week before you’re laying eyes on it, because that’s how writing a timed monthly column works sometimes. If you were somehow under the impression that this was shipped over to the internet “hot off the presses”, I’m sorry to ruin the illusion for you.
Read MorePhiladelphia Unnamed Film Fest 2020 Preview
Tickets for these pictures can be obtained HERE. The Silent Party, Poser, Hail to the Deadites, and Seeds are screening October 2nd, while Beasts Clawing at Straws is on the 3rd amid the blocks of short films. The blocks are divided into four categories: Bizarre, International, Local, and Horror. I fully endorse PUFF and suggest that, if you have $5 - $10 to spare, you check it out. You can also follow PUFF on Facebook or Twitter for regular updates.
Read More12 Hour Shift
Written and directed by Brea Grant
Starring Angela Bettis, David Arquette and Chloe Farnworth
Running time: 1 hour and 26 minutes
Unrated: contains drug use, organ harvesting, violence and brief rear nudity
by Hunter Bush
Horror comedies are tough to pull off in a way that satisfies both types of fans. It's even harder to manage with comedy this dark. No one ever really talks about "the hilarious world of black-market organ harvesting", ya know? But writer/director Brea Grant largely pulls it off. Not all the time, but many times I found myself chuckling or out-right laughing at some of the comedic beats here.
Read MoreEverything Old is New Again, Vol. 19 - September
by Hunter Bush
‘Sup gang? Let’s start things off with some good news: The Spooky Season has begun! I don’t make the rules, y’all: Shudder has started their 61 Days of Halloween programming block and stores nationwide are rolling out their H’ween wares earlier than ever! Another bit of positivity: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 are getting a remastered double game re release on Sept. 4th! [Or check out the documentary Pretending I’m Superman about the game here. -ed.] If like me, you’ll be spending All Hallow’s Eve at home this year for safety, maybe the kinds of tricks you’ll be treating yourself to will be sick grinds (that’s one’s for you, Ashley Jane!) and general shredding of the gnar! (*)
(*) DISCLAIMER: I haven’t skateboarded in 20-ish years and even when I did, I didn’t speak it.
Read MoreThe Oak Room
Written by Peter Genoway
Directed by Cody Calahan
Starring RJ Mitte, Peter Outerbridge and Ari Millen
Running time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Unrated-contains salty language, violence both explicit and implied and emotionally upsetting formative childhood recollections
by Hunter Bush
There’s a lot happening in the margins of Cody Calahan’s nested-narrative thriller The Oak Room. For a film with a story tucked inside a story inside a story, a lot goes unstated but while some details never quite coalesce, enough becomes clear for us to infer the shape of things. Adapted by Peter Genoway from his own stage play, on its face The Oak Room is the story of two men in a bar talking about two other men in a different bar, but what it’s really talking about is the power and nature of stories.
Read MoreHentai Kamen
Hentai Kamen: The Forbidden Hero (2013)
Hentai Kamen 2: The Abnormal Crisis (2016)
Written and Directed by Yûichi Fukuda
Based on the manga by Keishû Andô
Starring Ryôhei Suzuki, Fumika Shimizu and Tsuyoshi Muro
Running times: 1 hour and 46 minutes (HK) and 1 hour and 59 minutes (HK2)
Unrated- contain Cartoon Violence, Repeated Instances of Teabagging, Panties as a Plot Device, Light Kinkshaming and Near-Constant Use of the Word Pervert As Both a Positive and a Negative
by Hunter Bush
I requested the screeners for both Hentai Kamen films completely accepting of the potential for there to be nothing about them worth writing about. And then the trailer for the new Batman dropped. Now gang, I’m not gonna crap all over the trailer for The Batman, though I am not wildly enthused by it for a variety of reasons because it isn’t The Batman’s fault - and in fact, what I have *heard* about the film is much more enticing than what I’ve now *seen* of it - it’s almost all superhero films. Even the Marvel movies - unarguably more colorful, fun, and just plain lively than most of DC’s output - have a tendency to get high on their own supply to a degree that I started to get seriously fatigued leading up to that final Avengers. A fatigue that persists, but has grown to encompass most superhero films.
Read MoreA24 Meets d20: Playing A24’s GREEN KNIGHT Game
by Hunter Bush
With assistance from Allison Yakulis and Krystal T. L. Brackett
Earlier this year, which seems… SO long ago, A24 - production company behind such recent flicks as Uncut Gems, Midsommar, and The Lighthouse - dropped an impressive looking trailer for a new film from David Lowery, director of both well-respected indies - Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013) and A Ghost Story (2017) - and wider release adaptations - The Old Man and the Gun (2018) and the Pete’s Dragon remake (2016). This flick looked to combine Lowery’s independent leanings with his penchant for adaptations, and do so with a healthy dose of the kind of eye-catching visuals that have become synonymous with A24’s output. That film was The Green Knight.
Read MoreFried Barry
Written and directed by Ryan Kruger
Starring Gary Green, Chanelle de Jager, Brett Williams and Joey Cramer
Running time: 1 hour and 39 minutes
Currently unrated, but it contains copious drug use, sexual content, violence, adult themes and the birth of an alien/human hybrid
by Hunter Bush
Director Ryan Kruger’s Fried Barry is A LOT. The story of a burned-out, deadbeat dad who’d rather spend his time in bars or shooting up than at home with his family. One afternoon he’s just up and abducted by aliens who possess his body and take it on a whirlwind tour of the city and its seedy underbelly. It’s entertaining and surprisingly well-acted, but ultimately really exhausting.
Read MoreFantasia Festival 2020 Preview
Compliments of your friendly cinematic pals at Moviejawn
Heading into its 24th year, the Fantasia Festival is known for the celebration of up and coming filmmakers within genre cinema. The Moviejawn crew is ecstatic to be covering this diverse and eclectic fest. With such a wide range of flick options, Fantasia is the type of event that has something for any movie lover.
Read More