Being Film #29 for Hooptober 2023 I had to do it. After being enthralled with Joko Anwar's remake/prequel for Satan's Slaves, I knew I wasn't going to be able to go the month without checking out his sequel. Good things come to those who wait, but sometimes good things also come to those that don't... Continue Reading →
Being Film #28 for Hooptober 2023 Oh V/H/S franchise...after so many entries have you finally gotten to the point where there's nothing left to say? The rapidly diminishing returns of the shorts, the frayed ends of commitment to the format...all of that caused me to drop out after the initial run of film that ended... Continue Reading →
Being Film #21 for Hooptober 2023 A couple quick ones while I'm away for an extended weekend. I'm not sure anyone was expecting the feature debut from Danny and Michael Philippou, also known as YouTube's RackRacka, to be bad - the team over the years have been great at executing high concept shorts with miniscule... Continue Reading →
Being Film #13 for Hooptober 2023 The first 10 minutes of Bones and All were excruciating, the anticipation based on the trailers and summary folding in with director Luca Guadagnino's camera to create a sense of dead that had me pause the film at least three time before the inciting "incident" that kicks the film... Continue Reading →
Being Film #8 for Hooptober 2023 This wasn't part of the plan. The plan was to stick to the films I needed to get through Hooptober in one piece. But if a high level concept was going to grab me and not let go, it's the one for No One Will Save You: what if... Continue Reading →
Being Film #7 for Hooptober 2023 I've always been an advocate for the Ebert adage "It's not what a movie's about, but how it's about it." I still believe it, and on paper what The Last Voyage of the Demeter is about is pretty cool: adapting the chapter from Bram Stoker's Dracula about the wreck... Continue Reading →
The 2020 Russian film Sputnik starts off in a manner familiar to anyone who has watched a movie in a post-Alien world. Two cosmonauts in 1984 sit in a capsule ready to return home to the Soviet Union. They talk about what they’re going to do once they land. As they begin their descent, the... Continue Reading →
Towards the end of Claire Denis’s Stars At Noon, Benny Safdie’s CIA agent describes Central America as a “gambler’s paradise”. He says this with a smile and unconcerned attitude. Margaret Qualley’s journalist Trish looks at him with scorn. These two individuals know enough about this region that if it is a “gambler’s paradise”, then the... Continue Reading →
Watching a film like Amanda Kramer’s Please Baby Please feels like looking into a window of the past. Not so much because it’s a period piece though that is a window into the past. No, it seems like a film that would fit alongside independent films made in the 1980s like Blue Velvet or Stranger... Continue Reading →
Right now, there's a bit of slasher revival happening. There's been enough time since the end of the last slasher cycle that folks can come back to the genre with new eyes. It also allows for new perspectives. The feature debut of screenwriter John Logan (Skyfall, Alien: Covenant), They/Them brings a queer perspective to a... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 