ScreenAnarchy: Features

Now Playing: GODZILLA MINUS ZERO, PARADISE LOST, RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'The Last Temptation of Becky,' 'Trauma or, Monsters All,' 'Hen,' 'Wild Horse Nine,' 'Club Kid,' 'Mouse,' 'I Play Rocky,' 'Being Heumann.'

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Friday One Sheet: KAROSHI

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 10:00:00 -0500

The future Manhattan skies will rain blood in the key art for Takashi Doscher's Karoshi. The term itself is Japanese for 'died from overwork.' The producer of the film is one of the hardest working guys in modern action cinema: Chad Stahelski is arguably the principal creative mastermind behind the John Wick franchise. This is highlighted in the minimal text in the poster below. A fascinating thing about this poster, which puts its neo-Samurai bonafides front and center, is that I am unclear if these men and women, wielding swords and umbrellas, are walking towards the city or away from the city. It is like trying to track if the Mona Lisa's eyes are following you. Maybe I am giving too much credit here. Nonetheless,...

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Echoes: 7 Pakistani Folk Tales That Could Become Incredible Fantasy Movies

Tue, 03 Nov 2026 12:02:12 -0500

The Pakistani film industry has certain weaknesses, which it is trying to overcome with its recent risk-taking endeavors, and it has proven fruitful to some extent. The country's mainstream attempt in the zombie genre with Zombeid (2026) and the region's first-ever documentary, Hanging By a Wire, based on a 2023 real-life incident of a cable car rescue in Battagram, now an official selection for Oscars 2027, are some of the attempts that show the country is ready to break away from conventional storytelling and explore unmapped cinematic territory. Why not take stories that are rooted in their mythologies and local folklore that could turn into fantastic fantasy movies? There is always a chance of turning these fascinating mythical tales into visually stunning fantasy films, since...

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Opening This Week: GODZILLA MINUS ZERO, PARADISE LOST, RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND

Mon, 02 Nov 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Plus: 'Wild Horse Nine,' 'Club Kid,' 'Hen,' 'Mouse,' 'Being Heumann,' 'Trauma or, Monsters All,' 'The Last Temptation of Becky.'

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Friday One Sheet: DUNE PART 3

Fri, 30 Oct 2026 10:32:10 -0500

Like everything with WB and Denis Villeneuve's Dune franchise, things are designed and presented with polished perfection. I do not believe we have highlighted any of the key art from the franchise in this column previously, though. So here we are, with this earth (sand) toned tack-sharp photographic series of posters from Concept Arts. No credit block, or even 'above the line' credits here. Just a release date, a reminder that it is in the IMAX format, and the promise that this is the last one, or in their parlance: "The Epic Conclusion." The one thing that I have always admired about the reboot of Dune (and please do not laugh at my nerdiness here) is the fantastic typography design of the curves that spell the...

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Echoes: What Does a 13-Minute Oscar-Qualifying Short Film Mean for Pakistan's Short Film Industry?

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 01:02:01 -0500

I've talked at length about how the Pakistani film industry has always suffered from limited resources, lack of funding, and insufficient training for newcomers, but time and again, a short film has proven that Lollywood can shine through, no matter the challenges. Dawn Images reported that Kamran Faiq's short film The Last Glance has officially qualified for the 2028 Academy Awards after earning a Jury Award for Best Short at the 21st Tasveer Film Festival. The festival was held from October 13 to 18. The film also managed to take home the Best International Short Film award at the Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival in Canada. According to Faiq, it is the "only film" that has successfully qualified in the short film category, but...

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Sound And Vision: Lance Oppenheim

Mon, 26 Oct 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 look at Phoebe Bridger's Lost Boys, directed by Lance Oppenheim. Lance Oppenheim currently is the most buzzy name in film, thanks to his one-two-punch of Primetime and You Can See Everything. While a few months ago people predicted Oscar buzz for the former, a film about To Catch A Predator-presenter Chris Hansen, it turns out that the latter, just announced a few months ago, is actually the main ticket for a golden statue for Oppenheim. The documentary, in which comedian Nathan Fielder, together with Oppenheim investigates, and gets access to the life of well known alleged fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, has the whole world talking....

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Now Playing: WICKER, WILDWOOD, CLAYFACE, POSSIBLE LOVE

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'A Talent for Murder' and 'Klara and the Sun.'

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Friday One Sheet: THE PRESTIGE @ 20

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 10:30:00 -0500

Arguably Christopher Nolan's best film, The Prestige returns to the biggest of screens, blown up from its gorgeous 35mm photography to screen via 70mm and IMAX presentations, just over twenty years after its original release in 2006. The film has been long saddled with bland, quite poor marketing and key art. It was released between Nolan's rebooting of the Batman franchise with Batman Begins, and his masterpiece, The Dark Knight, and oddly against another movie about magic and magicians at the tail end of the Victorian Era, the inferior and rightly forgotten The Illusionist (not to be further confused with Sylvain Chomet's amazing animated film of the same name that would follow a few years later). The below design, a misty Colorado Springs night with Nikola Tesla's...

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Opening This Week: WICKER Man, WILDWOOD Rescue, CLAYFACE Horror

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'A Talent for Murder,' 'Klara and the Sun,' 'Possible Love.'

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Now Playing: WHALEFALL, STREET FIGHTER, MUSK, YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Ken Russell's The Devils,' 'The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,' 'Sense and Sensibility,' 'Once Upon a Time in Harlem,' 'La Bola Negra,' 'Crawlers.'

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Friday One Sheet: HURRICANNA

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 10:02:10 -0500

Francesca Gregorini's look at the final days of model, actress, billionaires wife, and eventual celebrity punchline, Anna Nicole Smith, gets the arthouse marketing treatment with this 'slide puzzle' style key art. It features an out-of-focus Sylvia Hoeks as Smith in signature bleach blonde and bright red lipstick and what might be called a 'sad-smile' against the glare of studio back-lights. The blood red typeface of the title is horror film, hinged at 90 degrees so the portmanteau title, Hurricanna, is separated to showcase the word "Anna," and provide a bit of clarity to someone who might glance at the poster in passing. The lower corner has that tiny arthouse-style credit block. The typeface and overall layout design here is particularly good, with the contrast of...

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Echoes: Do Pakistani Films Need International Recognition to Prove Their Worth?

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 12:17:12 -0500

Iram Parveen Bilal's Wakhri (2024) won the Best Director Feature Film award at the 5th Yellowstone International Film Festival (YIFF) in New Delhi, India. Co-produced and directed by Iram Parveen, the drama film is inspired by the life of late Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch. Now, the film is getting special treatment again by landing distribution in several international territories. Variety reports the film is rolling across France, Brazil, Australia, the UK, and Ireland. Channel 4's 2026 South Asian Film Season is backing the film's distribution in the UK. Wakhri was released by Mandviwalla Entertainment on January 5, 2024. The film got a mainstream theatrical release, but due to the lack of a centralized and transparent box office tracking system like Box Office Mojo,...

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Opening This Week: WHALEFALL Swallowed, STREET FIGHTER Mauled, KEN RUSSELL'S THE DEVILS Restored

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Musk,' ''You Can See Everything,' 'Crawlers,' 'Sense and Sensibility,' 'La Bola Negra,' 'Once Upon a Time in Harlem,' 'The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.'

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HALLOWIEBE OVERDRIVE: This Is NOT A Review...

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 11:00:09 -0500

I normally don't review Dutch movies aimed at children, but there is a first time for everything and last year that was what happened with Hallowiebe, a fun family film with a Halloween theme. I am a big fan of its directors Jasper ten Hoor and Ivan Hidayat, who made many funny and scary shorts, often both at the same time. But were their talents applicable for a feature-length film for children? Yes. Hallowiebe turned out to be a success, with 90,000 sold tickets (which is a lot in the Netherlands) and currently its IMDb rating is 7.7. Not bad for a debut! Hey, I liked it a lot as well. The investors of the film were happy enough to allow a sequel, and it...

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Now Playing: OTHER MOMMY, FJORD, ANIMALS, TENZING

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Once Upon a Time in the Middle East,' 'The Beast,' 'The Social Reckoning.'

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Friday One Sheet: MAKING MARIE ANTOINETTE

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 10:30:00 -0500

It has been 20 years since Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette was booed at its Cannes debut, before becoming an instant cult classic in its commercial release. I remember the splashy marketing, the contrast of a lavishly produced period picture with contemporary indie rock soundtrack, and an absolutely alive camera capturing the immaturity and glee of the young future Queen of France. It was as if the pitch for the film was Barry Lyndon by way of Jim Jarmusch. Little did we know that Sofia's mother, Eleanor, would give the film the Hearts of Darkness prestige-boutique behind-the-scenes documentary two decades later. But here we are, and the key-art marketing for the documentary is perfect. Using the jaunty stencil typography from the film, along with one of...

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Pretty Packaging: Imprint's SPECIES And SPECIES II Boxset Is One Of A Kind

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 02:00:03 -0500

I always love it when a distributor goes crazy with releasing a film, and few go quite as crazy as Australian distributor Via Vision with their Imprint label. Note that their more normal editions are nothing to sneeze at either, but if you want proof of how gloriously insane Imprint can get, just look at their release of Michael Mann's flawed-and-butchered eighties fantasy thriller The Keep, which shipped with a slipcase containing a 600 grams messing replica of a cross, blocking a window with a 3D-lenticular view. Other Imprint specials: David Lynch's Dune, with a slipcase containing a sand runner that partly obscures the cover image. Or Wolfgang Petersen's The Neverending Story, housed in a replica of the book, in a size so large that...

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Echoes: HANGING BY A WIRE, Pakistan's First Academy Award Documentary Entry, Was Shot Entirely on a Phone

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0500

On the morning of August 22, 2023, people in the Allai Valley, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, looked up. No one could believe their eyes when they saw a cable car hanging hundreds of feet above, suspended by the last cable that was supporting it. People were terrified that, at any minute, the cable car, containing eight people, including six children on their way to school, would come smashing down. It was obvious that media outlets were recording the entire incident, which was being reported live on all television screens across Pakistan. It was the same impossible image that showed people wailing from inside, asking for help, desperate to do something that would save their lives. Something else happened on the ground, however. Someone reached for their phone,...

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Opening This Week: OTHER MOMMY, FJORD, ANIMALS, TENZING

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Once Upon a Time in the Middle East,' 'The Beast,' 'The Social Reckoning.'

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Now Playing: VERITY, DIGGER, BEWARE BOIUNA, GHOST IN THE CELL

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Appofeniacs' and 'Misty Green.'

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Echoes: Pakistan Wants A Film Industry. Does It Have the Crew to Build One?

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 12:02:12 -0500

The recently launched Punjab Film City is like a light at the end of a dark tunnel for the Pakistani film industry, since enough has been discussed about the lack of resources and weak infrastructure in this area. This is, indeed, a healthy step towards enabling local filmmakers to tell their unique stories to the world, and letting the world know about Pakistani culture on its own terms. Pakistan is not devoid of talent. New films with strong stories are released every year, with many also making their way to international film festivals. Experimental filmmaking is something that the region has just begun to explore with its latest release of Zombeid (2026). New streaming projects are on the rise due to the rapidly growing OTT...

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Opening This Week: VERITY, DIGGER, GHOST IN THE CELL, BEWARE BOIUNA

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Appofeniacs' and 'Misty Green.'

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Now Playing: NEVER AFTER DARK Frights, PRIMETIME Boldness, YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER Demands

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Of the six new genre films that we're highlighting today, I've seen three, and of those, Dave Boyle's Never After Dark stands out. Our critic J Hurtado goes into much more detail in his review, linked below, but I'll add only that it was a pleasant surprise that quickly becomes an entirely gripping horror thriller. Don't miss the opportunity to see it in a movie theater. I enjoyed Lance Oppenheimer's sizzling drama Primetime more than our critic, Kyle Logan. His review, also linked below, capably explains his reservations. Thirdly, I also enjoyed David Ayer's wilderness survival adventure Heart of the Beast, though to a much lesser degree than the films listed above; still, see Mel Valentin's review below to see why he thinks it's an...

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Echoes: The Changing Art of Pakistani Film Posters

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Pakistani cinema had streets, walls, billboards, and cinema entrances long before a YouTube trailer or social media existed. One year after independence, Pakistan entered cinema with its first film, Teri Yaad, which ran for five weeks on cinema screens, as per British Online Archives. The country officially saw the dawn of the Golden Age of Lollywood, when a film's marketing involved hand-painted posters. Lahore and Karachi became the primary filmmaking hubs, where hyper-vibrant, hand-painted posters defined the era's visuals. The art, technique, Urdu typography, visual styles, and cultural influences that make these posters distinctive have changed over time. For clarification, let's take the poster of 1979's Maula Jatt and 2022's The Legend of Maula Jatt. The 1979 poster (above) has an unmistakable look of classic...

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Opening This Week: NEVER AFTER DARK, PRIMETIME, YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!,' 'Heart of the Beast,' 'Ryuichi Sakamoto: Diaries.'

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Toronto 2026: Wrap -- All Our Coverage (So Far)

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Our curtain raiser, our reviews, our poster columns, and an interview.

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Sound And Vision: Olivia Wilde

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 10:00:03 -0500

In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we discuss a duo of music videos by Olivia Wilde. Olivia Wilde might be known mostly as an actor. But after three films as a director that show a wide variety of styles and genres, it is clear she is the real deal of a good actor-turned-director, a feat which is still quite rare. You might think that her three films and two music videos don't have a lot in common. One is a highschool-comedy, one is a scifi-thriller, one is a razorsharp black comedy set in one room and the music videos are a skating-video and a dance-choreography shot on a phone. You would be...

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Now Playing: RESIDENT EVIL, BAD APPLES, SHAUN THE SHEEP: THE BEAST OF MOSSY BOTTOM

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Also: John Wilson's delightful doc 'The History of Concrete,' plus Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe in tough-minded period adventure 'The Weight.'

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Friday One Sheet: MINOTAUR

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 11:00:00 -0500

Refraction and separation are the key elements in the CREATE's release poster for Andrey Zvyagintsev's superb festival prize-winner, Minotaur. There are some echoes and rhymes with the design work of Akiko Stehrenberger, specifically the remake of Funny Games, one of the best posters of the 21st century. There are no tears, however, for this is scathing and cynical critique of Russia in the guise of an infidelity drama, however the typography, the credit block, and the colour palette all track. If you are going to borrow, borrow from the best. (Note also, Minotaur is also a loose and re-contextualized remake of Nouvelle Vague filmmaker Claude Chabols' La Femme Infidèle.) One of the films key visual motifs is to put its lead characters behind glass. Their modern minimalist home, the corner office, and...

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Echoes: Pakistan Has An Indie Film Movement. Why Aren't We Talking About It?

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 01:02:01 -0500

Traditional Pakistani cinema relies on commercial Eid releases, celebrity-led projects, and box-office numbers, implying a risk-averse industry culture. However, there's another kind of cinema that is quietly in the making: Pakistani indie cinema. I have talked about films that we need but haven't been made yet, which include unconventional stories. What if these unconventional stories require minimal budget without the intervention of major television networks and commercial production houses, as in the case of Zombeid (2026)? These unconventional stories aren't anything like mainstream commercial blockbusters and studio-backed feature films, like The Legend of Maula Jatt (2022) and Jawani Phir Nahin Aani (2015), which pretty much encapsulate what Pakistani independent cinema looks like. Some of the notable examples of Pakistani indie films include Sarmad Sultan Khoosat's...

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Opening This Week: RESIDENT EVIL, BAD APPLES, SHAUN THE SHEEP: THE BEAST OF MOSSY BOTTOM

Mon, 14 Sep 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'The History of Concrete' and 'The Weight.'

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Now Playing: HOPE Rises, BLACK ZOMBIE Illuminates, ON A STRING Amuses

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Don't Play With Fire,' 'The Uprising,' 'Practical Magic 2,' and 'The Fix.'

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Toronto 2026 Curtain Raiser: Discover With Us What TIFF Is Offering Audiences This Year

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 12:02:12 -0500

As the first year after the Toronto International Film Festival (colloquially known as tiff, in all lower case) turned 50, the 2026 edition feels like a more low-profile year for the festival. A back to basics, nuts & bolts, and perhaps most pleasurably, a discovery year. This is not a silver lining, this is a feature. North America's biggest film festival, by both media profile and international visitors, has always served many functions. It courts Hollywood, being the first stepping stone on the road to the Oscars. It offers a sampling of the titles and awards winners of other festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, Locarno, and Venice, the latter of which tiff overlaps with for a few days, where filmmakers and actors often board a...

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Echoes: 10 Pakistani Performances That Deserved Far More Attention

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 01:02:01 -0500

Despite financial and infrastructural challenges, Pakistani industry has produced some truly extraordinary performances, both in film and TV. Some of the actors deserved far more appreciation than they received when they first went on air or hit the big screens. And that is why these 10 Pakistani performances have stolen the show and left a lasting impression even after years. Zahid Ahmed as Sameer in Ishq Zahe Naseeb (TV, 2019) Zahid Ahmed's Sameer was one of the most demanding performances ever in TV and film combined. Not only because the role was never played before, but it was a double character played by a single person whose alternate personalities affected others. He played a successful businessman, Sameer, living with dissociative identity disorder and transformed into...

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Opening This Week: HOPE, THE UPRISING, PRACTICAL MAGIC 2

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Black Zombie,' 'On a String,' 'The Fix.'

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Sound And Vision: Mascha Halberstad

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 10:00:08 -0500

In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we look at The Prodigy's Wild Frontier, directed by Mascha Halberstad. If you aren't Dutch Mascha Halberstad might need an introduction, even though she deserves to be a household name worldwide. Mostly because Mascha Halberstad put stop-motion on the map in a big way in what is a country with a small (but fruitful) animation industry but with not a lot of big stop-motion works. Rising to fame in The Netherlands with the short Munya in Mij (Munya in Me) she did her first music video before she did any feature work, for The Prodigy's Wild Frontier. But her two features to date Knor (Oink) and...

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Now Playing: ONSLAUGHT, BY ANY MEANS, FALL 2: DEADPOINT

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Chronovisor,' 'Cocoon: One Summer of Girlhood,' 'Ever After,' 'Dear You.'

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Now Streaming: PARASOMNIA, TEENAGE WASTELAND, THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU, SCARY MOVIE 6

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Plus: 'The Gentlemen' and 'Chad Powers' both return for some reason, along with the genteel 'American Classic.'

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Friday One Sheet: HOMBRE AL AGUA

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 10:02:10 -0500

The poster for Gael Garcia Bernal's latest film, Hombre Al Agua (aka Man Overboard!) has a retro vibe not seen too much these days. It was designed by the iconic Edel Rodríguez Mola (or simply Mola), who is known for offering striking, surreal, exaggerated, and politically-charged editorial illustrations. Long painterly strokes form a border, and a crude face with life-preservers as eyes, while the fat hand-drawn title and credits occupy the top, and the credit block is subtly embedded in blue wavy water at the bottom. The power here is both its simplicity, as well as the fact that it is different from just about everything out there at the moment. It evokes the imagery and style of Polish designer Barbara “Bacha” Baranowska, specifically her work...

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Now Streaming: RESIDENT EVIL Reanimates

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Just can't get enough? Where to watch (nearly) all of them -- with trailers!

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Echoes: The Pakistani Films We Need But That Haven't Been Made Yet

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Not every Pakistani film needs a larger-than-life hero or a damsel in distress to be successful. Pakistan is culturally diverse, and a plethora of films still have not been able to see the light of day. A wish list of stories, genres, and ideas that could broaden the horizons of Pakistani cinema is long overdue. What do I mean by "films we need"? These stories could include overlooked Pakistani communities, addressing social issues without becoming preachy, revisiting history from fresh perspectives, showcasing different regions of Pakistan, experimenting with genres, telling ordinary stories, giving new filmmakers and actors opportunities, and moving beyond predictable romance, comedy, action, or family drama. Hundan-An Echo of a Dirge (2025) is the first-ever feature film in the endangered Burushaski language, focusing...

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Opening This Week: ONSLAUGHT, BY ANY MEANS, FALL 2: DEADPOINT

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Chronovisor,' 'Cocoon: One Summer of Girlhood,' 'Ever After,' 'Dear You.'

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]

Now Playing: COLONY Zombies, FILIPINANA Caddies, BUDDY Cracks, THE DOG STARS Woof

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Coyote vs. Acme,' 'Boorman and the Devil,' 'Legend of the White Dragon,' 'The Sun Never Sets.'

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Echoes: Who Decides What Pakistan Gets to Watch?

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 01:02:01 -0500

It is well known that Pakistan is a country where stringent laws restrict viewers from accessing certain types of content and films, therefore already imposing a hold on what Pakistan gets to watch. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has a mandate that covers private and broadcast media across all distribution services, defining what content reaches the general public. Objections may be raised over content that includes obscenity, violence, extremism, religious sensitivities, threats to public order, and material considered contrary to national or cultural values. The Legend of Maula Jatt (2022) is one recent example that faced problems passing PEMRA requirements due to violence; Javed Iqbal (2022) is another example that threatened the country's law and order, while Sarmad Sultan Khoosat's Zindagi Tamasha (2019's...

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Opening This Week: COLONY, FILIPIANA, BUDDY, THE DOG STARS

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Plus: 'Coyote vs Acme,' 'Boorman and the Devil,' 'Legend of the White Dragon,' 'The Sun Never Sets.'

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TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA: Digging Into the Symbolism of Little Death

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 11:02:11 -0500

What does Spider-Man: Brand New Day have in common with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma? Oddly enough, both films, released this summer -- one a queer slasher, the other a two-billion dollar grossing MCU entry -- use the exact same piece of visual symbolism to represent female dissociation. [Read our review by Lou Cai.] It's something that has bothered me ever since I walked out of Camp Miasma -- and something actually asked about during the post-screening Q&A, only to have the question promptly deflected: Why does Little Death wear a ceiling vent as a mask? When it comes to slashers, I am a sucker for lore, probably for the same reason Jane Schoenbrun is. Why was this mask chosen? Why does the...

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Locarno 2026 Masterclass: Darren Aronofsky on Risk, Movie Jail, and Knowing When to Let a Film Go

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 07:02:07 -0500

Honoured with Locarno's Pardo d'Onore, Darren Aronofsky reflects on turning poverty into style, surviving "movie jail," casting actors at the right moment and learning when to let a film go.

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Now Playing: IT ENDS Thrills, HOT SPOT Disappoints, INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER Limps, MUTINY Pounds Away

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Last month's big-budget blockbusters The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day are still playing at multiplexes nationwide, but for those in search of something new and different, we have a few recommendations for you. First is a mind-bender that starts routinely and then steadily becomes extraordinary. You won't want to miss It Ends. I saw the film at SXSW last year and agree completely with our critic J Hurtado, whose review is linked below. I have not yet seen the sci-fi thriller Hot Spot, nor the ghost story Insidious: Out of the Further, nor the Jason Statham action picture Mutiny nor the fevered Kafka bio-pic Franz nor the Anthony Bourdain slice-of-life bio-pic Tony nor the horror pic Blood Shine nor the drama How to Divorce...

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Locarno 2026 Industry: Growth, Risk, and the Search for a More Resilient Independent Film Business

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 07:02:07 -0500

Locarno Pro 2026 examined how new financing, co-production and audience-building models could sustain independent cinema in an increasingly uncertain market.

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