This week a pair of films about finding acceptance and artistic expression in Ohio. Introverted and shy 11-year old Toni decides to stop boxing and try out for a local dance team that practices in the same building. Soon afterwards, a mysterious illness begins sweeping through the girls. As the violent seizure epidemic continues, Toni tries to find acceptance. A devastatingly powerful directorial debut with an amazing performance at its center, The Fits . Single mother Patti and her brother Joe,...
Sep 23, 2023
This week- a pair of films about love and how it can go bad, especially under extreme circumstances. When 90s Emo Kid Jamie's father passes away, she is shipped off to live with her aunt and uncle, a pair of devout Jehovah's Witnesses, living in a devout religious enclave. When Jamie catches the eye of the religious leader's daughter, Marike, a tender romance begins. Stolen glances and awkward casual intimacy can only last for so long under strictly intolerant conditions. The feature debut from ...
Sep 16, 2023
This week a pair of horror thrillers that have somehow skipped many people's radar. When Nina, Hesty, and Pono decide to go camping on a lake for the weekend, they never expected to meet a pair of hunky divers. When Caroko hired Johan and Tommy to dive for a missing treasure, totally expecting they would be picked off one by one if they didn't work fast enough. An Indonesian thriller that takes a hard left in its last act to become a semi-remake of an 80s slasher classic- Srigala (aka Wolf). In ...
Sep 09, 2023
This week- a piercer gone too far and ten attempts to summit an incline. The 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division receive five fresh replacements. They are placed under battle-weary Frantz, who has only a brief amount of time to get them ready for a major operation in the A Shau Valley. The battalion faces unexpected resistance while trying to take Hill 937. Over the course of ten days, Hill 937 would become a pivotal battle that lead to a massive shift in the US strategy, incl...
Sep 02, 2023
This week we close the month with a four pack of Steve Seagal in the 21st Century. When ICE arrest a pair of OTMs (Other Than Mexican) who are affiliated with both AQAP AND Daesh (which would never happen) blows open a conspiracy of the (long defunct) Sonora Cartel smuggling in terrorists. A collaboration for reasons that aren't made very clear. The federal government has only one man to turn to, former DEA/CIA/FBI/USASF asset John Harmon. Harmon once was in a Sonora compound and that's why he's...
Aug 26, 2023
This week- a missing child might never have existed and a deadly game that could destroy the global economy. Ann and her daughter have just moved from New York to London to be close to the only family they have, Ann's brother Steven. Tragedy strikes when Ann goes to pick the child up from her first day at pre-school but her child is nowhere to be seen. To make things worse, it seems no one but the family claims to have ever even seen the girl. Soon a tangled web of mental illness and jealousy wi...
Aug 19, 2023
This week- two trips into unfamiliar territory in vans that become crime scenes. When Dean, Duncan, DJ Beatroot, and Ian are dropped off along the road to hike through the highlands for a the Duke of Edinburgh Award, they never dreamed they would be hunted by an older couple wearing masks. Soon the boys are in a desperate fight for their lives with only their limited wits and local fauna excrement to save them. Meanwhile, Sargent Morag hunts a notorious thief. A darling of the 2019 South by Sout...
Aug 12, 2023
This week- two films about women at work and the strains it brings. May is an awkward and lonely woman whose only friend is a doll in a glass case. Adam, a mechanic with pretty hands, and Polly, the most aggressively predatory lesbian in a 2000s movie, enter her life she begins to take steps into the wider world. Entering a romantic relationship with Adam and endless flirting with Polly at work. When neither relationship works out as May hoped, she decides to make a friend herself. The second fe...
Aug 05, 2023
This week- four films from Mexico. Immediately before setting off to Europe for an extended trip, Doctor Alejandro Mangino stumbles on a former lover, Lucia, posing as a nude art model. His time on the other side of the Atlantic becomes a fog of booze as the good doctor begins to obsess over his former flame. Upon his return, he discovers Lucia has married his good friend Ricardo. Can the good doctor find his way out or will he be claimed by Crepúsculo (aka Twilight, 1945)? Elena is murdered by ...
Jul 29, 2023
This week a pair of European movies about women finding themselves. Anna Battista, a young and beautiful award winning actress, is desperate to spread her creative wings. Tragically, everyone tries to keep her down despite everyone around her totally seeing how brilliant she is and how great her movie would be. Even more tragically, Anna has a taste for massive amounts of recreational narcotics, a penchant for racism, and is quick to obsess over the worst musicians she can find. The semi-autobio...
Jul 22, 2023
This week- a couple of scam artists and a fistful of cops. Rookie cop Roy reports for duty in East LA. He is partnered with Andy, a veteran quickly approaching mandatory retirement. Roy thinks he will only be a cop long enough to make it through law school but, for some, the job becomes their all consuming obsession. Based on the novel by Joseph Wambaugh, The New Centurions . George and Kathy Lutz, with Kathy's three children, move into a beautiful home with enough room for all, a massive yard, ...
Jul 15, 2023
This week- two movies with surprise orgies and appreciations for the male form in different sizes. Simon is a cold call scam employee in a dying relationship without any direction or joy. His last ditch effort to change his life trajectory is to join a gym and try and reclaim his body from desk degradation. He soon meets trainer Terry and everything changes. Centered by a powerhouse performance from Craig Fairbrass in a pitch black comedy about toxic masculinity and how far one can be pushed, Mu...
Jul 08, 2023
This week a pair of grounded fantasies with people living their own realities. An Italian noble uses mercenaries to retake his city. In order to spur on his troops, he promises them 24 hours free reign to plunder as they see fit. Being as that is a stupid promise, it doesn't go well and soon the noble has the mercenaries routed from the city without their promised loot. Lost and without direction, some of them reform into a bandit group led by Martin and a statue of St. Martin. Soon they will ha...
Jul 01, 2023
This week three films about moral panics, the imagined threats lurking to upset social order from morality police happy to stoke public fear for a payout. A harmless game played by a group of college students. Nothing wrong with any of it... except... what if the game goes too far? What if an obviously schizophrenic player with a history of unresolved family trauma has a sudden and immediate break from reality while playing? It MUST be the game's fault and not anything else. I said, NOT ANYTHING...
Jun 24, 2023
This week- a pair of films about lawbreakers who might be more than they appear. 17-year-old Isabelle decides to start a side hustle after losing her virginity on vacation. When her favorite client, Georges, does something deeply traumatizing, Isabelle's secret life will soon be revealed. A more recent entry from Francois Ozon, one of France's most important modern filmmakers, Young & Beautiful (Jeune & Jolie) . Early in the morning, two police detectives breakdown the door of Edward Fle...
Jun 17, 2023
This week green men of various sizes and the ladies who love them. When Bruce Banner is accidentally exposed to massive amounts of gamma radiation and exploding medical nanobots, it awakens a secret buried deep inside of him by his mad scientist father, David. Now whenever Bruce gets angry he becomes a green rage monster. Meanwhile, two estranged fathers try to use this as a way to reconnect with their children. Chaos ensues. Ang Lee's ambitious comic book adaption- Hulk . It's been 50 years sin...
Jun 10, 2023
This week- a pair of nightmares. For Michael's seventeenth birthday, his bestie Tony gifts him one of Hasbro's most popular board games and a pair of supernatural bonus gifts that apparently come with it. Now Michael has to try and save people we have to assume are his friends, despite how much believing he has friends breaks suspension of disbelief, from a serial killer. Why is Michael having these visions? Who is killing his circle of distant acquaintances? How much extra did they pay the roma...
Jun 03, 2023
This week we bring May to a close with a celebration of the most character of actors- Udo Kier! Two from his early days in 70s European art films and one of more recent vintage as a face among genre enthusiasts. When Count Dracula, last of his line and quickly declining in health, must leave his ancestral home looking for a virgin bride for a quick sip to regain his lost strength. He travels to pre-Fascist Italy and becomes involved with the di Fiore family, impoverished landowners looking to im...
May 27, 2023
This week two films about Chinese-Americans and cross cultural experiences. Billi maintains a close relationship with her Nai Nai (paternal grandmother), despite there being half a planet between them. When Nai Nai is diagnosed with late stage terminal lung cancer, which the rest of their family have decided to keep secret from Nai Nai. The whole family gathers under false pretenses to have The Farewell. Jo and Steve are purchasing their taxi medallion. Their friend, Chan, volunteers to be the t...
May 20, 2023
This week two movies with couples that really want to kiss but never do. Mia is almost 16 and has just moved to a new town. Before long she befriends Gianna, head of a more rebellious clique, and tries to fit in. Unfortunately, she is about to undergo some changes which are a far cry from normal adolescence. The first feature by Lisa Brühlmann, Blue My Mind. An evil spirit takes a late night stroll and music teacher Eric Longfellow rises from his grave. Eric wastes no time in opening a new music...
May 13, 2023
This week two strangers in strange lands and the rednecks that oppose them. When new infrared images reveal an uncharted island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Petrox Oil sends an expedition to take samples for drilling. Along the way they pick up a stowaway paleontologist and an adrift ingenue. If they don't find oil, they will have found a forty foot tall primate named Kong by the indigenous population. The first remake of the RKO monster horror classic, King Kong . When an alien lifeform l...
May 06, 2023
This week- two movies about people trapped in places they are unable to leave. Some metaphorically, others literally. Sascha drifts through her days, getting by as well as she can at work and with occasional visits to her young son. Maria is a dreamer who wants to be a performer and poet. When sparks fly between them, both women embrace their blooming romance but can't see how it could be threatened by their individual outlooks. The second feature by Henrika Kull, Bliss . Carlin just wants to ke...
Apr 29, 2023
This week we finish our journey through the Lodges and find more questions than answers in the strangest and most unlikely of places. Like Buckhorn, South Dakota. 25 years after being trapped in the Black Lodge, Special Agent Dale Cooper final prepares to escape. Unfortunately, his evil doppelgänger has other plans. Meanwhile, old allies are called to investigate a new case which seems to connect to a case they thought was long behind them. Simultaneously, an insurance investigator in Las Vegas ...
Apr 22, 2023
This week- a once reviled prequel that debuted only 11 months after the series finale. In 1988 outside a small town in Washington state, a body, wrapped in plastic, floats down river. The body is that of Teresa Banks and the town is Deer Meadow. FBI Special Agents Chester Desmond and Sam Stanley are sent to investigate. Things do not go as expected. Exactly one year later, the last seven days of Laura Palmer's life play out to their brutal conclusion. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Episode 303- C...
Apr 15, 2023
This week the once quiet northwestern town is hoping with pageants and pawns, simply overrun with generals and golems, and we still can't shake the feeling there might just be something in the woods watching us all. Special Agent Dale Cooper's first nine days in Twin Peaks couldn't possibly have prepared him for the next 22. Murders will be solved, superpowers will emerge, history will be changed, and that gum you like is definitely going to come back in style. All that and... well... all that. ...
Apr 08, 2023
This week we discuss the first season of David Lynch and Mark Frost's influential masterpiece of mystery television. February 24, 1989. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper arrived in the northwestern logging town of Twin Peaks to investigate the murder of Laura Palmer, the town's most beloved resident, who washed up on a beach wrapped in plastic. Join us for some pie ripped from Heaven, the darkness in the woods, and a damn fine cup of black coffee, won't you? Episode 302- Saddle Shoes and Red Curtain...
Apr 01, 2023
This week a pair of trips to cities of night. Aaron Boone dreams of Midian, a city of monsters. Boone's psychotherapist, Dr. Decker, has a hobby he wants Boone to take credit for. Soon both men will seek out Midian and its secrets for very different reasons. Will Boone be able to lead them to a safer future or will Decker see them all destroyed? Clive Barker's second directorial feature and cult favorite with nearly as many edits as Blade Runner, Nightbreed . Dylan Dog was the go-to for justice ...
Mar 25, 2023
This week two films with a heavy focus on local transportation preferences. Frank Martin, a mercenary who specializes in the timely conveying of sensitive items and people, only has three rules. Never change the deal, no names, and never open the package. When he breaks his own rules on a delivery, his employers try to kill him, and Frank finds himself working against the clock to find a container filled with 400 trafficked people. Can Frank find the missing box before it's too late? Will insura...
Mar 18, 2023
This week- a whole bunch of people who are in questionable states of mind. When Gallico, an aspiring magician and underappreciated inventor of death defying stage effects, is stopped in the middle of his professional debut by his employer he might finally be pushed too far. With his brilliant mind for tricks and make up, Gallico begins a path of revenge in glorious 3D. Can anyone stop The Mad Magician ? Young-goon refuses to eat, believing she is a cyborg. After trying to plug herself in to rech...
Mar 11, 2023
This week the second starring role for one of Hong Kong's most bad ass stars and a film made by a son of a Bond. When Hong Kong detective Michelle Yip, air security guard Michael Wong, and hardboiled Tokyo detective Yamamoto team up to stop a crime boss's daring in flight escape. Little do the expect that it would set them, and all the care about, in the sights of a pair of revenge focused blood brothers. Michelle Yeoh steps out of the supporting role and into butt kicking lead glory- Royal Warr...
Mar 04, 2023
