Film

A collection of 523 posts

Film

Best Films of 2015

2015 was a great year for film. A lot of the titles I placed here in my own Top 10 I never expected to like so much. It means that films that would typically appear on this dedicated genre fan's list wound up nowhere near the Top 10.

Film

Horror Thursday: Bone Tomahawk

Today, you can read my review of Bone Tomahawk. I've been replaying scenes from this film in my mind for over a week now. It's an exceptional horror/western, a genre that is limited in scope and deficient in quality. I wrestle with some of the

Film

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence Review (Film, 2015)

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence is a comedy film from Sweden. It is a series of interconnected vignettes about the human condition, focusing mostly on loneliness, unrequited love, and death. The central figures are two depressed novelty salesman, trying to sell vampire fangs and laughing bag

Film

Ranking Tarantino

I saw Hateful Eight last week and I'm still struggling with it. There's a lot to like and a lot to hate. Somewhere in there is a good 90-100 minute film; the actual run time is over three hours long. I will not be able to

Film

Horror Thursday: Bound to Vengeance

So, Bound to Vengeance is a particularly brutal and, shall we say, ill-conceived throwback exploitation film that really gives you no one to cheer on in a meaningful way. The protagonist says so little that it's up to the actor to sell her importance to a narrative about

Film

Carol Review (Film, 2015) #LetItSnow

Carol is a throwback to the big Hollywood romances of the Golden Age. Therese, a poor shop girl in a Manhattan toy department, catches the eye of Carol, a wealthy married socialite facing divorce for her indiscretions. Carol courts Therese with lunch, a trip to her sprawling New Jersey estate,

Film

The BFCA Awards Blunder

I'm not going to belabor the point here. The BFCA runs the Critics' Choice Awards and tries to present itself as a professional, yet hip and relevant, awards group. They added Star Wars: The Force Awakens to their best picture sleight after the vetted balloting system using

Film

Iris Review (Film, 2015)

Iris is a documentary by Albert Maysles about acclaimed fashion and design icon Iris Apfel. Iris has played many roles in NYC culture. She first made her mark as an interior designer. Then, she began designing woven fabrics. All of this time, she traveled the world, collecting amazing fashion and

Film

Suburban Gothic Review (Film, 2015)

Not since Young Adult have I seen so much of my own personality and life experience appear onscreen for comedic and (arguably) terrifying effect. Meet Raymond. Raymond used to be able to see ghosts. Now all he sees is his future drifting away from him as six months of unemployment

Film

Ballet 422 Review (Film, 2015)

Ballet 422 is a single subject documentary film about the development of New York City Ballet's 422nd original ballet. Most of the focus falls on choreographer and troupe member Justin Peck. He is a performer with the lower company and picked to pull double duty because of his

Film

Horror Thursday: Unrest

Sometimes, for no easily discernible reason, a film works for you. I don't claim to understand why I enjoyed Unrest when so many claim it mediocre, at best. I just did. You can do worse with modern horror is all I'm saying. Read the full review

Film

Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine Review (Film, 2015)

Anyone who was alive and old enough to engage with the world in the 90s remembers Matthew Shepard. He was the young college student robbed, beaten, and left for dead for being gay. The two images forever emblazoned in my mind are the photo of him in the blue checkered

Film

Krampus Review (Film, 2015) #LetItSnow

Christmas is, ultimately, a celebration of family and love at the end of the year. What happens if a family is so horrible that the last member with any true holiday spirit gives up all hope? Krampus comes to claim the wicked with his chains, his birch branch staff, and

Film

Tangerine Review (Film, 2015) #LetItSnow

It's Christmas Eve in Los Angeles. Sin-Dee and her best friend Alexandra are celebrating a momentous occasion. Sin-Dee just got out of jail. She's all excited to pick up her life where it left off when Alexandra drops a bombshell: Sin-Dee's boyfriend Chester is

Film

Horror Thursday: The Thaw #LetItSnow

When I saw The Thaw pop up in my Amazon queue, I assumed it would be a terrible rip off of The Thing and quickly committed myself to watching it. You need a quantifiable terrible film once in a while to sharpen your critical instinct and work on consistency in

Film

Christmas Evil: An Appreciation #LetItSnow

Y'all know at this point I love a good theme month. I'm playing with snow and ice for December. Just try to stop me. The idea for this came from a video Criterion released last week. John Waters was brought in and asked about his favorite

Film

Horror Thursday: Circle

Yesterday, Horror Thursday returned to Man, I Love Films after a long and unexpected absence. That's the problem with recommending a super tech-heavy show for a high school you work for: you're committed to making sure all the bells and whistles go off properly. I basically

Film

The Nightmare Review (Film, 2015)

In two feature length documentaries, director Rodney Ascher has established a clear and effective formula for making non-fiction as frightening as big Hollywood horror films. Ascher focuses on the minutia of human thought and storytelling. He lets his interview subjects respond as long as they want to in whatever style

Event

#31DaysofHorror: Random Acts of Violence Review (Film, 2012)

Writer/director Ashley Cahill stars as Malcolm, a British ex-pat living in NYC. He's obsessed with the gritty, violent, dangerous New York of the 1980s and does everything he can to bring back the chaos. And by everything, I mean he murders random people for about 90 minutes

Event

My Strange Addiction: The Human Centipede Series #31DaysofHorror

I'll admit it. I have a problem. For some reason, I've become obsessed with The Human Centipede film series. Yes, the "100% Medically Accurate" horror series about stitching people into a singular digestive tract. I don't know when it happened, but it&

Event

#31DaysofHorror Dead Within Review (Film, 2014)

Sometimes, low budget horror is a hard sell. Dead Within takes huge risks in establishing the slow passing of time and monotony of hiding from a deadly zombie outbreak with repeated rituals in a tiny, unchanging space. Every morning, Kim and Mike pack up a backpack for Mike to take

Event

#31DaysofHorror The Lazarus Effect Review (Film, 2015)

At its core, The Lazarus Effect is a Frankenstein story. A group of doctors attempt to eliminate the divide between life and death by experimenting on euthanized animals with a new medical serum. The succeed with a dog, only to discover the serum does much more than revitalize the body.

Event

#31DaysofHorror Dolly Dearest Review (Film, 1991)

Dolly Dearest is one of the many evil children's toys films to come out in the wake of massive hit Child's Play. I'll give Dolly Dearest credit for one thing: it looks really good. The effect of the little girl's doll running

Event

Horror Thursday: Office Killer #31DaysofHorror

You've done something special with horror if you make this hardened fan think you're whole story is really strange. I like weird horror. I embrace the unusual. I especially like to celebrate when what seems like a by the numbers horror film on paper turns so

Event

#31DaysofHorror The Vampire's Coffin Review (Film, 1958)

The Vampire's Coffin (El ataúd del Vampiro) is the sequel to The Vampire (El vampiro). Together, they are a pair of Mexican horror films from 1957 and 1958 about a vampire hypnotizing and claiming beautiful young women in a small village. Unfortunately for us, The Vampire is not