ScreenAnarchy

Fantasia 2026 Interview: ATTACK ON PARADISE Creator and Star Saïd Boumazoughe, Director Bob Colaers Talk Heroes, Heart, and How to Change the World with Action Movies

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 14:02:02 -0500

Saïd Boumazoughe co-wrote and stars in Attack on Paradise as a second generation Moroccan immigrant named Suleyman, who, after being released from prison, returns to his Antwerp suburban neighbourhood to find his mother's apartment block has been taken over by drug gangs, arms dealers, and human trafficking hoods. He just wants to visit his mother, and get on with life, but a raid from the Antwerp SWAT force puts him in the middle of urban warfare in a residential complex. As our own J. Hurtado put it in his review of the film: "What sets Attack on Paradise apart from [other large-building siege] films is the connections between characters, while the action is certainly foregrounded appropriately, with a less solid core story, it would feel more...

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Opening This Week: TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA, ICE CREAM MAN, TONY

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Late Fame,' 'Mr. Hero,' 'Olmo,' 'Julian,' 'Cookie Monsters.'

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Sound And Vision: John Maclean

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 10:00:02 -0500

In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we discuss a few music videos made by John Maclean. Recently I wrote two Sound and Visions where the director had a weird claim to fame: John Carney was the rare director who himself was a band member of a famed band (The Frames) who he has directed music videos for; and Yoshihiro Nishimura was the sole director in the Sound and Visions who remade one of his music videos as a feature length film. That is, till this Sound and Vision, cause John Maclean combines the two outliers into one person: he is a band member for both The Beta Band and The Aliens, who...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: THE SPECIALS, A Crowd-Pleasing Yakuza Subversion

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 21:00:00 -0500

A yakuza member named Kumashiro hires four independent, rival assassins to eliminate Boss Honjō, the powerful leader of the rival Honjō-gumi syndicate. Executing the hit has always been complicated because Honjō frequently uses body doubles, leaving constant doubt regarding his true location. However, Kumashiro discovers a single vulnerability: Honjō will never pass up an opportunity to watch his beloved granddaughter compete in a dance competition. To exploit this rare opening, the team devises a plan to form an amateur dance group, enter the qualifiers, and advance to the national final championship alongside the granddaughter. Although the independent killers are initially reluctant to join such an absurd undercover operation, the lure of a ¥100,000,000 bounty proves impossible to resist. Ultimately, to succeed in their mission,...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: RUBBERHEAD: THE LIFE AND MONSTERS OF STEVE JOHNSON A Hilarious and Humbling Portrait of a Chaotic Genius

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 20:00:30 -0500

There’s something mesmerizing about watching car crashes. We know it is dangerous, often even deadly; we know that for all of the sparks flying around as an out-of-control car meets its fiery fate, there’s usually someone inside who is in for a world of hurt, and yet we can’t help but look. Sometimes, if we’re lucky, we get to see those crashes replayed over and over again to witness the exact moment that things have gone wrong, and to examine the trajectory of the detritus as what was once a beautiful, miraculous machine turns into a heap of smoking metal. Anyway, at this year’s Fantasia director Nick Taylor held the world premiere of his feature documentary debut, Rubberhead: The Life and Monsters of Steve Johnson....

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Fantasia 2026 Review: TOKYO BURST: CRIME CITY, Trades in Solo Grit For Buddy-Cop Chaos in a Worthy Expansion of THE ROUNDUP Universe

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 13:30:00 -0500

Welcome to Kabuki-cho, an entertainment district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Called the "Sleepless Town", it is home to a sprawl of host and hostess clubs, love hotels, nightclubs and yakuza hangouts. Shiro Aiba, the Shinjuku Central Police Station’s newest, most volatile detective, walks these neon-soaked streets with swagger. Aiba didn't just study this legendary criminal underworld—he was born here, raised here, and was once the boss of a local bosozoku biker gang. He fights with raw, brute force, mostly using his head before he thinks with it. When a dangerous criminal element with international ties stomps into his turf, Tokyo is forced to play nice with Seoul. Enter Choi Si-woo, a razor-sharp, by-the-book agent from the Korean National Police Agency. In town, with...

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THE SAMURAI AND THE PRISONER Review: Historical Murder-Mystery, Full of Modern-Day Questions

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:47:04 -0500

A new film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

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Now Streaming: THE DEVIL'S MOUTH, Hungry Hungry Shark in Thailand

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Plus: 'Nightborn,' 'Over Your Dead Body,' and 'The Drama.'

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Fantasia 2026 Review: RECLUSE, Screenwriter Henry Chaisson Conquers Visual And Sonic Terror in Neo-Gothic Horror

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 13:00:00 -0500

Joan is dragged back to her childhood home. There has been an accident and she has received an ominous call from her ailing, disfigured father. She is a sound engineer by trade, he is a famous artist and long rumored to have dabbled in the occult. His art, from paintings to metallic structures, lines the walls, the hallways, and the landscape of their family home, making it easier for things to hide among the shadows they cast-shadows made by candlelight or what comes through the windows. Amidst the dishevelled estate inhabited by a caretaker and her son, Joan must face her traumatic past and the sins of her father. She wanders the hallways and the estate grounds, a portable digital recording device in...

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Now Playing: I WANT YOUR SEX, THE SAMURAI AND THE PRINCESS, SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Pinocchio: Unstrung.'

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Friday One Sheet: WICKER

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 10:30:00 -0500

No, not that Wicker Man. Today's poster is from a different kind of folklore, based on the short story from Ursula Wills wherein an outcast woman in a fishing village commissions a husband to be made out of wicker. Pygmalion, but with reversed genders. What could possibly go wrong? The fine poster here emphasizes the texture and the tension of a binding act. At the bottom of the face, the unwoven strands blend neatly into coarse facial hair. It is a nice touch, which is all fine and good, but I would like to also point out the addition of the human fingers. These are presumably the woman's (Olivia Colman), but could also be the creator or the creation. They have grit and dirt under...

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LIONESS S3 Review: The Roar Comes Home

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 10:00:10 -0500

Taylor Sheridan's series stars Zoe Saldaña, Laysla De Oliveira, Genesis Rodriguez, Dave Annable, Jill Wagner, LaMonica Garrett, James Jordan, Austin Hébert, Jonah Wharton, Hannah Love Lanier, Thad Luckinbill, Ian Bohen, Michael Kelly, with Morgan Freeman and Nicole Kidman.

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PINOCCHIO: UNSTRUNG Review: Poohniverse Unfortunately Continues to Live Up to Its Name

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 18:32:06 -0500

Impressive puppetry and the grace of famous horror faces still aren't enough to save the Twisted Childhood Universe from its own darkness.

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Home Video: Kino Classics and Kino Cult Roundup

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 14:02:02 -0500

Kino has been aggressively going through their catalog and upgrading their older releases to 4K for awhile now. For that I am grateful. They’ve also been producing new extras for their discs, which is most welcome indeed for collectors out there being forced to double dip. It got me thinking about double-dipping as a collector strategy. At its worst, double dipping is when a company re-releases the same disc over and over again, making only marginal improvements on the product, like new packaging or adding some rinky-dink, thrown-together special features. It can also be the case that the company in question releases multiple versions across various retail partners that have separate special features, forcing purist collectors to choose between them or treat them like Pokemon...

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Home Video: Severin Films Home Entertainment Roundup

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 13:02:01 -0500

I've been overdue for some Severin release coverage. Part of it involves finding all the time I need to sift through their extras-laden releases and the number of first-time watches involved. This batch was all first-time watches and all movies I was excited to see. First up was their fantastic box set, Antonio Margheriti & The Jungles of Doom: His ‘80s Adventure Films. I’m a sucker for a good knockoff and Severin is the king when it comes to making them available. Recently they’ve tackled Italian Jaws films, and the Bruce Le exploitation cycle in lavish box sets. They even have a box of Italian disco-ploitation on the way. While you’re waiting for that, this hugely entertaining group of three Indiana Jones knockoffs comes highly...

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SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY Review: MCU's Superhero Shines in Fourth Essential Entry

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Marvel and DC’s declining box-office fortunes provide ample, if indirect, evidence that superhero fatigue is real and here to stay, the not unexpected result of market saturation. But for every rule or sweeping generalization, there’s an exception: On the DC side, it’s Batman or, to a lesser extent, Superman. On the Marvel side, it’s generally not one superhero, but superhero team-ups (the Avengers). Even exceptions have exceptions of their own, though, and in the MCU’s (Marvel Cinematic Universe) case, it’s Spider-Man. Since writer and publisher Stan Lee (Fantastic Four, The X-Men) and artist Steve Ditko (Doctor Strange, The Question) introduced Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy No. 15 (1962), he’s been a perennial favorite, a Silver Age exemplar and trope-setter. Spider-Man was, is, and will...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: CHERRY AND VIRGIN, A Nervous and Experimental Work of Genius

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 11:02:11 -0500

I was 18 years old when an adult friend I met at a summer factory job recommended that I see Federico Fellini's 8 1/2. I could not make heads or tails of the movie, in Italian, in black and white, the story set in sophisticated arthouse celebrity space. I liked the images, but the whole thing was both boring and baffling. I revisited the film in my mid-20s during a film class in university, while pursuing a chemistry degree. At that time, I could appreciate some of the filmmaking, and yet the ideas and emotions of the film were well beyond my ken. Revisiting it once again in my late 30s, it was like I was watching a completely different film. Many of...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: CAPTURED! Of Ghosts And Growing Up

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 10:00:00 -0500

Misaki is a bright high-school senior who has the grades to get into a good university. Misaki’s reservation is that she lives alone with her mother, who works a night shift to make ends meet. She is more or less convinced that she must work instead of going to university. After telling her best friend Satsuki her decision, Satsuki suggests that she start vlogging to earn money on the side. Satsuki does it, not with much success, and not enough to earn her parents’ praise, but Misaki should give it a go. On her first day, she films a couple of videos during the day, but another otherwise mundane video she films on her way home from her afternoon job gets special attention. Over...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: VILLAGE OF EIGHT GRAVESTONES, Takashi Shimizu Proves Traditional Murder Mysteries Are Better With Ghosts

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:15:00 -0500

When Tatsuya’s estranged mom suddenly passes away, he is forced to head out to her old, isolated village and meet the family he has never known, the Tajimi Family. On the way there, he bumps into private detective Kosuke Kindaichi, who reveals he was actually hired by the mysterious family to track Tatsuya down. But it is definitely not a warm welcome. Once he arrives, Tatsuya finds out he is the unexpected heir to the Tajimi family line. Turns out, his grandfather once carried out a massive, brutal massacre in the town, leaving the locals permanently traumatized. Because of that cursed family history, the hostile villagers immediately treat Tatsuya like public enemy number one. Things get crazy pretty fast when everyone with a stake...

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Now Streaming: THOUGH I AM AN INEPT VILLAINESS, The Other Side of Revenge

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:02:04 -0500

Plus: 'A Lady Livid's Guide to Getting Even: How I Crushed My Homeland with My Mighty Grimoires' takes a more conventional approach to revenge.

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Now Streaming: FURIOUS Becomes Steadily More Gripping As It Goes

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:02:02 -0500

Emmy Rossum, Lola Petticrew, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, and Scoot McNairy star in the mystery thriller series, created by Elizabeth Meriwether.

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SANGSTER DIRECTS HAMMER: Watch a Conversation with Severin's David Gregory and Author / Filmmaker Marcus Hearn

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:01:01 -0500

My first encounter with Jimmy Sangster came long before I ever heard his name. As my father flipped through channels one lazy Saturday afternoon, I suddenly begged him to stop, as some guy I later found was Van Helsing and another guy who I later found out was Count Dracula fought to the death. The moment was courtesy of a local TV station’s midday afternoon movie program, and even though I only caught the end of the film, I have never forgotten that first glimpse into the hallowed halls of Hammer, or the first of many viewings of The Horror of Dracula (1958). Sangster, of course, not only wrote the screenplay for that film, but for Hammer’s previous horror blockbuster, The Curse of...

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I WANT YOUR SEX Review: Close Encounters of the Sexual Kind

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Gregg Araki's new film stars Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman.

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THE ODYSSEY: Playing 3D Chess with an Epic, Gods and Mortals, and the Remorse of Odysseus

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 06:02:06 -0500

To directly answer a question that matters: is The Odyssey (2026) a good movie? A movie that captivates, that honors Homer's masterfully intricate, time-jumping epic, that you must go see, and that you will want to rewatch? My answer is: yes. [Editor's note: see also Kyle Logan's review for another opinion.] The Odyssey is, alongside the Mahabharata, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Old Testament, one of the world's foundational tales. It has everything that makes a story this long, compelling, and timeless: action, impulsiveness, resourcefulness, love, hate, conflict, gods and mortals, life, and the mortality of man. 3D Chess with an Epic The lines of Homer’s Odyssey, recorded some 27 centuries ago, with all their jumps in time, also resemble a complex screenplay. Due...

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Echoes: Why Is Horror the Most Untapped Genre in Lollywood?

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 01:01:02 -0500

Where horror films began in Lollywood, where they have gone, and what might keep them from going forward.

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Popcorn Frights 2026: MONSTROUS ME Rides Third Wave Among 72 Shorts

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:00:11 -0500

As August draws near, the frights are popping in Florida. The 12th Popcorn Frights Film Festival released its third wave of programming "for its 2026 edition," per an official release, "expanding an already monster-sized lineup with the world premiere of Ariel Baska's Monstrous Me, produced by Brea Grant and renowned filmmaker Lilly Wachowski, alongside an exceptional slate of world premieres, landmark restorations, and daring new short films from some of the most exciting voices working in genre cinema today." I appreciate that Popcorn Frights is shining a big spotlight on short films, which are always made by ambitious filmmakers who press onward, despite the limitations of time and, inevitably, budget. Read onward for their description: "Running August 6-16, Popcorn Frights' 11-day hybrid festival will present...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: THE LAST HORROR, Myanmar's First Found-Footage Film is Too Safe With The Scares

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 09:30:00 -0500

The Last Footage starts with a collection of videos from life loggers, users recording daily experiences using wearable tech. We see the Burmese peoples out jogging along lakefronts, playing concerts with their bands, riding the backseat of a motorcycle which has its own set of circumstances. Then we have Aung Khant, a young man who has just bought his own pair of 4K smart glasses with the intention of documenting his own life for everyone to see. While at dinner with his girlfriend, Linn, friends Wa Na and Mya, and another couple, Thu Ya and Daisy, the group are planning their next big adventurous outing. Thu Ya announces that he has inherited a rubber plantation in the Wingabar Forest from a recently passed family...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: TRISTES TROPIQUES, Lots of Blood, Little Reward

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 18:00:00 -0500

Roo (Tears in Chinese) was abandoned by his mother at an early age and taken into the care of a man he has only ever known as Master. Raised in the jungle with other discarded children, Roo was taught to be a killer, brought up to be a deadly arm of the group known as Tristes Tropiques. Years later, Roo is working at a coffee shop when JoJo, one of the other children in the group, shows up and tells him that Master has been assassinated. After the news was announced, rival gangs and criminal organizations throughout the city vie for control while an equally deadly group of assassins called the Kons linger in the dark. As bodies pile up and the truth...

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Now Streaming: HANNIBAL Returns

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 14:02:02 -0500

Plus: 'A Quiet Place: Day One' and 'President Curtis.'

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Opening This Week: SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY, I WANT YOUR SEX, THE SAMURAI AND THE PRISONER

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Heading to cinemas: Unlikely people team up.

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FIGHTLAND Review: Strap On for a Wild Ride

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Howard Charles, Nicholas Pinnock, and Deborah Ayorinde star in the dynamic crime drama series from executive producer Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, debuting on Starz.

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Fantasia 2026 Review: CORPUS, Languid Queer Thriller Delivers a Killer Horror Payoff

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 21:35:00 -0500

Sayo photographs New York’s nightlife, dealing drugs to partygoers at clubs and generally stays out of trouble with the owners of those clubs with free samples. Life takes a spin when he learns that Vince, an old friend whose star is on the rise in Hollywood, is back in town. Sayo also happens to have a massive crush on Vince. Time moves slowly with each picture Sayo takes and it almost grinds to a halt when Vince shows up at the club that night. Old passions are rekindled; Sayo does not know if he is coming or going. He tries to keep distance between Vince and himself despite past desires igniting once again. Vince invites Sayo and their friend Ross to a party upstate,...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: OUR EFFED UP WORLD, Alice Maio Mackay's Hang Out Movie... With Aliens!

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 14:20:54 -0500

Australian wunderkind Alice Maio Mackay returns to the director’s chair for her eighth feature film, Our Effed Up World, celebrating its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia. A science-fiction story about a group of young adults fighting off an alien invasion in the midst of life changing events that have already knocked them all off balance, Mackay has created an adrenaline spiked hang out movie that perhaps works better when it shifts its focus away from the danger. There was no one more important in Sherri’s (Sara Thompson) life than her grandmother, Grace (Kerry Armstrong), so when cancer claimed her hero, Sherri’s life suddenly turned grey. She spends her days making sure her workaholic scientist father, Hank (Scott Major), remembers to eat, having banal, unsatisfying...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: THE LAST TEMPTATION OF BECKY, It's Nazi Killin' Time Again

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 13:05:11 -0500

One of genre cinema’s most unexpected franchises expands beyond its humble roots in Jenn Wexler’s The Last Temptation of Becky. The titular teen with a serious attitude problem is off to Poland this time, when a Nazi scion with dreams of global domination comes across her radar. The action is just as bloody, but definitely a little sillier than its predecessors’ in this raucous revenge thriller. At the end of 2023’s The Wrath of Becky, our heroine (Lulu Wilson) was approached by CIA agent Kate Montana (Kate Siegel) to become the agency’s youngest specialist, an offer she accepted. We now find her several years later as the CIA’s most notorious problem child, barreling through intricately planned espionage missions with the grace of a bull in...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: BEASTS CLUTCHING AT STRAWS, A Sack Of Cash Causes Problems In This Black Comedy Thriller

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 14:45:40 -0500

A desperately unpopular streamer with a dementia-stricken mother, a crooked cop, a duplicitous femme fatale, and a sack full of money collide in director Jojo Hideo's Beasts Clutching at Straws, an adaptation of the Sone Keisuke novel previously filmed by Korean filmmaker Kim Yong-hoon in 2020. Kanji (Ouji Suzuka) works the reception desk at an internet cafe, but his real passion is streaming fresh content for a following of over a dozen local college students. While cleaning up a private booth after a mysterious patron skips the bill, he stumbles onto a sack full of cash, one hundred million yen to be exact. Being a dutiful employee, he puts it with the other items in the lost and found, but it isn't too long before...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: INSECTASY, Are You Into Bugs?

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 14:09:24 -0500

Sadie is horny. Really horny. She has let real life, either working at the walk-in-clinic as a receptionist, or hanging out with her friends, fade into the background like radio-static, only half awares and mostly filtered out. She only thinks about sex and bugs. Sex reinforced via the whisper sultry podcast she always has in her ear, and insects through the brightly lit macro-cinematography, extreme close ups of creepy crawlies peppered through the film. She can only get herself off by having crickets walking on her bare skin at the penultimate second, or three, before orgasm. (It is notable that the word bug can also mean mania.) She has presumably worked out the details on self pleasure, her kink, by containing the insects in...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: LEVITATING, Get Swept Up In This Ecstatic Vision Of Folk Cinema

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 11:30:15 -0500

The drums pound, the guitar drones, the flute splashes a chaotic layer of color over it all as the guru chants, the spirit addicts undulate, enraptured by their ecstatic trance, directed by the spirits of the Indonesian jungle. This vision of chaos that opens Wregas Bhanuteja’s magical realist folk fable, Levitating, sets the scene for what is one of Fantasia’s most eye-opening surprises of the year. A coming-of-age story about a young man following his dreams and the battle he fights to achieve them against all odds. A truly unique gem that utilizes familiar film tropes in a search for meaning against the pressures of modernization. Bayu (Angga Yunanda) is a young man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. His rural town...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: FERINE, A Stunning Feature Debut From Andrea Corsini

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 14:30:18 -0500

Motherhood is a beast in first time feature filmmaker Andrea Corsini’s lush Italian psychological horror stunner, Ferine, celebrating its international premiere at this year’s Fantasia. Bolstered by a captivating lead performance from Oddity’s Carolyn Bracken and an unforgettable score from the fresh out of retirement Pino Donaggio, Ferine is set to make waves on the festival circuit with its fearsome look at what it takes to be a mother. Art collector Irene (Bracken) is finally ready to leave the fast pace of the art world behind and settle into life as a mother. Unable to conceive on her own, she reaches out to Rosa (Paola Lavini) to arrange a private adoption at her secretive maternity clinic. The process doesn’t turn out exactly as Irene planned,...

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Fantasia 2026 Exclusive: CHAAR DIWAARI Trailer Examines The Creeping Feeling That The Walls Are Closing In

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 13:20:17 -0500

Celebrating its upcoming North American premiere on July 30th at the Fantasia International Film Festival is Syed Shadan's claustrophobic short film chiller, Chaar Diwaari (Four Walls). Premiering as part of the Fragments of Asia short film program at the festival, the film explores that creeping suspicion that the walls are closing in around you. Shadan is a seasoned filmmaker with a hanfdul of shorts under his belt who is making his Fantasia debut with this very relatable story of a young man who finds himself at the mercy of an apartment with a mind of its own. Does a place have a memory? Chaar Diwaari clearly thinks so. Indian indie stalwart Anurag Kashyap (Gangs of Wasseypur) and his frequent producer Ranjan Singh recently boarded the...

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Now Playing: HER PRIVATE HELL, SHEEP IN THE BOX, MANHUNTER: THE FINAL CUT

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Our primary focus remains the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Canada, but not all of us could make the trip this year, so instead we cast our eyes on what opened in movie theaters today. Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey continues to dominate social media and online media coverage, and deservedly so. Beyond that very large elephant in the room, we hasten to point out that other worthy genre films are worth watching. The new releases are highlighted by new films by Nicolas Winding Refn and Hirokazu Kore-eda. Alternately, a serial killer classic by Michael Mann will be returning to select theaters in an undoubtedly chilling 4K restoration, as well as the intriguing Australian thriller Cruel Hands and a new take on a legendary puppet,...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: NIGHTBORN, A Mother's Dream Turned Folk Horror Nightmare

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 11:45:05 -0500

Saga’s (Seidi Haarla) blissful fantasies of motherhood are upended when her and her husband Jon’s (Rupert Grint) son turns out to be a bit more difficult than they were expecting in Hanna Bergholm’s sophomore feature, Nightborn. Following up on her 2022 Sundance selection, Hatching, Bergholm establishes herself as one of Europe’s most talented up and coming filmmakers with this duo about the unseen challenges of parenthood and the chaos they can bring. The baby crazy couple have decided to put their lives in the city behind them to move out to Saga’s grandmother’s cottage in the Finnish woods. Even in its current state, overtaken by the surrounding forest and barely held together by rotting wood, Saga is enamored. She sees the home she remembers from...

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Friday One Sheet: BRUNELLO

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 10:01:39 -0500

Books, Books, Books! The beige and paper tones of the poster for Brunello, the latest film from Giuseppe Tornatore are something to get lost in. The sheer volume of this poster is impressive in and of itself. A hybrid documentary on the famous fashion designer-philosopher, and the so-called "King of Cashmere" Brunello Cucinellii, from the director of the cinema classic Cinema Paradiso, is enough to get many into the cinema, and dropping this marvel of a one-sheet is brilliant icing on the cake. The title and text and credit block at the bottom has the good sense to stay out of the way of this image, and is tucked down in the shadows of the stacks of books. The poster was designed by the Federico...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: NIKO, All Night Pretentious Delight

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 09:02:09 -0500

Cyber-punk adjacent, arthouse romance, pop-philosophical musing Niko debuts K-pop Girls' Generation member, Tiffany Young in the titular role as a woman who runs a business hiring herself out to comfort and talk to people who have locked themselves out of their apartment. The city is in some sort ongoing, but very loosely enforced, government curfew. The locksmiths are busy helping get people off the streets. Niko’s niche business is fine, but hardly booming, and she cannot continue to pay her bar tab or her rent. Even supplementing her income with a day job as a street vendor selling candy floss to passers by is not enough. In the moments between, she spends time drinking with her sad, but very hot and very French...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: YOU ARE THE FILM, A Meta-Cinema Romance That Tears a Hole in the Universe

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 21:02:09 -0500

As someone who typically goes to the movies on a Sunday night for the 10:30pm show, and typically to go watch the stranger side of cinema, I am often given a ‘private screening’ from the local Cineplex chain. Because, seriously, who else living in the suburbs would go see Terrence Malick's The New World, Paul Cox's Innocence, Renny Harlin's Deep Blue Sea, or Bruce McDonald's Pontypool at that odd hour? In short, I love being in a movie auditorium alone and having the place all to myself for just about any film. Clearly, I am not at all alone in this aspect, as Ueda Makoto, the writer of charming and inventive time loop films, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes and River, sets his directorial debut...

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SHEEP IN THE BOX Review: Tale of Not So Artificial Intelligence

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 19:32:07 -0500

It is indeed a perilous fate to be a film festival darling. On the one hand, sure, you might have a standing invitation for your next work in one of the “Big Five”. The downside is that, after a while, everyone starts believing they know what this new work should and shouldn’t be, as they’ve come to expect certain things. It would seem that Hirokazu Koreeda, the author of Shoplifters and Monster, has become the latest victim of this phenomenon. His latest film, Sheep in the Box, which premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, has been met with mostly reserved or outright negative reviews, most of which cite the lack of originality and the absence of true emotion in the...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: PERMANENT DAMAGE, A Loosey-Goosey, Drug-Addled, Hanging-Out Thriller On Housing Insecurity

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 16:00:00 -0500

Reborn in the opening scene by tearing his way out of a black garbage bag after being tossed in the trash from a prison van, Tommy irrevocably changes his life through a chance encounter in a Dollarama, the house of poverty. Helping an old woman — appropriately named Mrs. Whynot — get home with her purchases. Once inside, Tommy takes on the role of her surrogate son, Donnie, and moves into her house, a dilapidated/hoarder Dartmouth rowhome, with an eccentric number of characters, and lots of detritus on the front lawn. Standing in the way of the demolition of the complex, or perhaps renovating it towards future gentrification, is aggro-arsehole, drug dealer, and would-be kingpin LL Plísek. He has a bumper sticker on his contractor truck...

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Fantasia 2026 Review: ANCESTRAL BEASTS, An Indigenous Creature Feature About Generational Trauma

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 14:00:05 -0500

Generational trauma manifests as a deadly creepy crawler in Tim Riedel’s debut feature, Ancestral Beasts, which just celebrated its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia. Set among the indigenous Métis community, the film is a glowing reminder of the festival’s commitment to not only Canadian film, but specifically indigenous films and filmmakers. Elyse Poitras (Morgan Holmstrom) is going through a real rough patch. The sudden and shocking loss of her mother amplified an already tense relationship with her toxic sister, Nikki (Darla Contois), sending Elyse running back to her family’s rural home, a place she hadn’t laid eyes on in years. What was intended to be a healing respite from the pressures of her new life turns sour when she discovers that she’s not the...

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Now Streaming: Nicholas Winding Refn, From PUSHER to COPENHAGEN COWBOY

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 12:02:12 -0500

With 'Her Private Hell' set to open this weekend, we look back at the director's distinguished career in genre cinema.

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Fantasia 2026 Review: TIGHT LETTUCE, Addiction Both Binds and Tears Families Apart

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 11:02:11 -0500

There are many kinds of addiction stories on film, from the invigorating buddy shenanigans of Transpotting to the stylish personal infernos of Requiem For A Dream to the gritty autobiographical redemption arc of The Basketball Diaries. Harrison Houde’s Tight Lettuce discovers a novel, more intimately Canadian character-driven narrative by way of a multi-generational family-on-hold tragicomedy. One that achieves a heartbreaking melancholy via the unrestrained joy and laughter, against the stark failures of its central character. Tooling around on his decalled moped on rural roads somewhere near the Ontario-Quebec border with a shit-eating grin on his face, seemingly without a care in the world, we meet Bodo in all his exuberant glory. An ex-roofer, ex-husband, and almost ex-father to his only child, Joel, Bodo’s dabbling with heroin...

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SMOKING BEHIND THE SUPERMARKET WITH YOU Review: Cigarettes Spark Uncertain Yet Smoldering, Troubling Romance

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 16:02:04 -0500

Crunchyroll's series takes a far different approach to the smoking habit, compared to Netflix's crass take in 'Chainsmoker Cat.'

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