Neo-noir was alive and well in the 1990s. Films like Red Rock West, The Last Seduction, and After Dark, My Sweet all drew deeply on the DNA of their ancestors from 40 years earlier. Murder, femme fatales, double-crossing—these themes played a key part in the stories that made the 1990s a rich landscape for modern […]
Over the past several years, U.K.-based Radiance Films has become one of the most trusted Blu-ray labels around. Their releases span a wide range of genres from around the world. Each one is meticulously created from transfer to audio, to the special features, to the stunning packaging. The label’s two latest titles, each making its […]
Feature Presentations: Episode 67
Welcome to this column dedicated to my appreciation of physical media supplements called: Feature Presentations. The goal of this column is not to say whether a film is good or bad and worth picking up or not—I would like to highlight the discs that go the extra mile and provide film fans with enough tasty […]
Jean-Denis Bonan’s A Woman Kills (aka La Femme Bourreau, 1968) practically defies categorization in terms of genre, but one thing is for certain: it’s a film that until now very few have seen. Resurrected by Radiance Films a full five-and-one-half decades after its making and its initial failure to find distribution, A Woman Kills has […]
For those who reside within the physical media world, every year, we hear that the current year is either a golden age for home video or the death knell. And I’d like to show that physical media is not waving the white flag by listing some of my favorite 2023 physical media releases. In the […]
There are few independent experimental filmmakers who’ve made their mark on the festival scene in as fascinating of a way as Rhayne Vermette. Four years ago, in 2021, Vermette’s debut feature, Ste. Anne demonstrated itself as an object of fascination—a piece of Manitoban indigenous cinema whose chronicling of a long-missing young woman’s return to her village […]
The Straight Story is a slice of Midwestern Americana not much unlike a piece of apple pie. Its folksy messages are a tad obvious, yet delivered with a sincere artistry that makes them plain and simple poetry. There’s no mistaking this motion picture’s point, however, room remains for interpretation. This family friendly feature doesn’t seem […]
Nancy Savoca made, for a time in the burgeoning indie scene of the 1990s, lovely, lilting films whose thematic ambitions were ever-so-slightly occluded by the down-to-earth, small-scale narratives her characters lived. True Love won the Grand Prize at Sundance in 1989 but barely made a blip at the box office. Three years later, her Dogfight, […]
The Holdovers is an instant Christmas classic and an excellent reprise of the powerhouse Payne and Giamatti pairing. Much like Giamatti’s lovably acidic portrayal of Miles in Sideways, he inhabits Paul in The Holdovers with acerbic, supercilious delight. Whereas Miles enjoyed wine like a sommelier, taught literature, and aspired to be a published author, Paul’s […]
Nothing is more mysterious than the minds of others, a fact made clear in The Pale Blue Eye. This historical detective drama, set in 1830, is a psychological exploration wrapped in a murder mystery. Consequently, it isn’t much of a mystery, though it is a compelling look at people with murder on the mind. Its […]
Like most films that employ the mockumentary storytelling device, Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul relies on believable caricatures. We are watching actors pretending to be larger-than-life versions of people who are also pretending for their own on-camera voyeuristic observer. Often those types of mockumentaries bring out endless winks to the camera. That’s where Adamma […]
One week into the virtual press screenings, despite circumstances, we’ve been treated to some phenomenal films at this year’s London Film Festival. Particular highlights so far have included Phyllidia Lloyd’s equally devastating and uplifting feminist drama Herself, Harry McQueen’s soul-shaking confrontation with mortality Supernova, Josephine Decker’s delirious bio-drama Shirley, Steve McQueen’s urgent and electrifying Mangrove, […]
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Steven Seighman
Robert Chipman
J Paul Johnson
James Y. Lee
Jay Rohr
Paul Keelan
Don Shanahan
Hal Kitchen