By - Gareth Jones For fans of independent dramas, the power of art to heal, Shakespeare adaptations According to Wikipedia there are over 160 direct or inspired by adaptations of Romeo and Juliet in the history of film and television.  I would venture to guess that there are none quite like the most recent Ghostlight.  It really is about a tale of grief and the healing power of art, but […]

By - Nick Adrian For fans of the 1996 original, action-packed blockbusters, and the return of the disaster movie It seems every well known older movie is getting its legacy sequel and 1996’s Bill Paxton/Helen Hunt vehicle Twister is no exception. The 90s classic followed a team of storm chasers desperate to learn more about the peculiar natural travesties. Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) helms the next chapter, a reboot or […]

By - Nick Adrian For fans of slow burn horror, 90s FBI procedurals, and Nicolas Cage Director Osgood Perkins was literally born into the world of horror film culture - he’s the son of Psycho’s Anthony Perkins. To make a name for himself, however, he’s directed a string of unique horror movies - the most recent being the Satanic serial killer mystery Longlegs. Perkins’ strengths as a writer-director culminate in this effort, giving us […]

By - Gareth Jones For fans of Hirokazu Kore-eda, thoughtful murder mysteries, ethical debates artfully presented I still remember barely moving, just sitting in my seat after viewing Afterlife in 1998. It was mine, and the world’s first major introduction to the future auteur director Hirokazu Kore-eda and his deeply moving and beautiful cinema.  In the next two decades, he has established himself as one of if not the greatest […]

By - Gareth Jones For fans of meta-horror/self-reflexive cinema, 80’s slasher/giallo homage, Ti West, Mia Goth Ti West has now been making horror films for over 15 years.  Most, if not all, of his films are homages to classics of the genre or at least the aesthetic to specific decades, in particular the 70s and 80s.  You can definitely tell he has a love for the genre but is also […]

By - Gareth Jones For fans of weird cat movies, bizarre Hong Kong cat movies, unusual science fiction cat movies. (Do you detect a theme?) For the majority of my life, I have been a dog person. This is mostly due to the fact that my mother and I had cat allergies.  That changed when I got married and my dear wife had two cats. It permanently changed one fateful […]

By - Gareth Jones For fans of June Squibb and Richard Roundtree, unusual action/comedy films, revenge against con artists June Squibb’s career changed overnight when she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in Alexander Payne’s 2013 film Nebraska.  She had a long and successful career on stage and screen but this launched her into a new realm at the ripe old age of 83.  In the decade since, she has […]

By - Gareth Jones For fans of film history documentaries, and much needed spotlight on female filmmakers When I went to film school as an undergraduate in the early 1990’s there was no mention of Alice Guy-Blaché.  When I went to graduate film school in the early 2000’s there was just a hint of her in my courses.  When I started to teach film studies in 2007, the textbooks barely […]

By - Gareth Jones For fans of experimental documentaries, international queer stories and poetry, philosophical connections between science and art Continuing the spotlight on queer cinema for Pride Month, I decided to challenge myself by watching a film by someone I didn’t know.  The Criterion Channel (always a worthy investment) has a wonderful selection this month and a great introduction by film scholar/programmer Dennis Lim and Criterion curator of Queersighted: […]