ScreenAnarchy: Reviews

Calgary Underground 2026 Review: CLAIRE'S HAT: THE UNMAKING OF A FILM

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 09:07:09 -0500

It seems strange to be writing a review for a film that is over 20 years old, about another film that few have seen. Given its rogue construction, and unorthodox structure and style, Claire’s Hat has been screened publicly fewer than five times in the 24 years since its completion. The agreement with Hungarian-Canadian mega-producer of the film, and Toronto big-wig, Robert Lantos (ExistenZ, Being Julia, Johnny Mnemonic, The Sweet Hereafter, and of course, Picture Claire) is that director Bruce McDonald has to not only ask permission every time to show it, but also be present in the room during any screening. I remember being at the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of McDonald’s Canadian caper film, Picture Claire, back in the day...

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BUFFET INFINITY Review: They've Got The Sauce

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Simon Glassman’s Buffet Infinity is one of those movies that defies categorization and can’t be easily pigeonholed. Technically, it’s a found-footage movie; but it’s also, in a way, a screenlife movie. But then again, it’s gloriously retro and ignores modern technology altogether. That’s when writing about it becomes a challenge, even for seasoned film writers who think they’ve seen it all – until something like this comes along. Buffet Infinity is a horror movie. It’s about a small town being swallowed up by some sort of otherwordly cult. It’s a tale of cosmic horror, and it’s told entirely through fictional news clips and cheap commercials, the kind you might see on public access or regional affiliates, especially during the 80s and 90s. ...

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OMAHA Review: Grounded, Intimate, Ominous Family Drama

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

John Magaro, Molly Belle Wright, and Wyatt Solis star in director Cole Webley's coming-of-age drama.

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MOTHER MARY Review: Neither Ghost Story Nor Love Story, Nor Much Else

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 09:02:09 -0500

Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel star in David Lowery's psychological thriller.

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OVER YOUR DEAD BODY Review: Uproariously Funny, Absolutely Brutal

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Samara Weaving, Jason Segel, Timothy Olyphant, Juliette Lewis, and Paul Guilfoyle star in director Jorma Taccone's remake of Tommy Wirkola's 'The Trip.'

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TWO SEASONS, TWO STRANGERS Review: Signaling the Emergence of a New Japanese Talent

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Director Miyake Sho continues to sketch out the human connections among strangers in a gentle, playful, abstract way, blurring both fiction and real life/creators, as well as their creations.

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FUZE Review: Breezy, Undemanding, Tense Entertainment

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sam Worthington, and Theo James star in director David Mackenzie's thriller.

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Calgary Underground 2026 Review: BAGWORM, Visually Excoriates Modern Masculine Isolation

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 10:02:10 -0500

A man should have his house in order. Carroll’s house is most definitely not in order. He appears to be living in a burned out shell of a structure with the roof about to fall down on him. Seeing how nobody else in Bagworm acknowledges this fact, it is probably a metaphor. But it is a good one in a film that wears its images and ideas loudly on its dirty sleeve. Carroll has issues with women. He is seen early in the film thoughtlessly speed-swiping right on Tinder. Later, he unpleasantly scolds the date that he does land for what she orders at the restaurant. He doctors photos of himself, violates privacy boundaries, and is a compulsive liar. He even steals his...

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Calgary Underground 2026 Review: HANGASHORE, An Oblique Foggy Nightmare

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 15:02:03 -0500

When sailors or fishermen head out to sea, they do not wish to hear their family say goodbye out of a fear of not coming home. There is no whistling at sea, for fear of conjuring up a storm. Having a woman on board unnecessarily could anger the sea, causing treacherous conditions as revenge. Enter Justin Oakey’s Hangashore, an unsettling film that blends genre and narrative and landscape in challenging, often indirect, ways. On one hand, it is a character drama and low-key courtship, set against the stressful nature of working a small-crew fishing boat in 21st century rural Newfoundland. On the other hand, there is a foreboding old-world ghost story lost in fog and dreams and intuition. There is a rugged tug of war...

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POINT BLANK 4K Review: Some Assembly Required

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Lee Marvin stars in John Boorman's stone-cold classic sophomore feature, also starring Angie Dickinson, John Vernon, and Keenan Wynn.

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Calgary Underground 2026 Review: LITTLE DOORS, A Tentative Dance Around Trust

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 10:02:10 -0500

“Things never got so bleak that I took up a hobby.” This sums up the world of Little Doors. The country is in a kind of ‘soft apocalypse’ where the big city may be on fire, and things are likely coming to the end of society, just very slowly. There is still time to have too much free time. A woman squatting in a large, unfurnished house (a lamp, a radio, a plastic patio chair, and a lot of hardwood and windows) on the far edge of the city, scavenges about the empty streets. Somehow, she manages to hire a locksmith to open some of the extra rooms that the previous owner locked before they left, not that she really needs them. Shy, but...

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THE FORBIDDEN CITY's Wildly Entertaining and Affecting Thrills Come Home on 4K UHD

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 18:02:06 -0500

Well Go USA brings three new genre films to home video.

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KINUYO TANAKA DIRECTS Blu-ray Review: A Beguiling 6-Film Career

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:02:01 -0500

The Japanese actress' transition behind the camera is explored in a new Eclipse series boxed set from The Criterion Collection.

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BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS Review: Yuen Woo-ping Roams His Gallant Martial World with an Ensemble Cast

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 06:02:06 -0500

A constellation of Chinese martial arts stars shines in this epic historical action film, including Wu Jing, Jet Li, Nicholas Tse, among others.

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Fantaspoa 2026 Review: IAI

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:00:07 -0500

About twenty-five years ago, Japan's special kind of horror suddenly spread over the world like a virus. This horror had none of the fun exuberance of slashers, none of the tongue-in-cheek references to popular culture, and none of the gorefests to splatter audiences with (those exist too but are a different brand). Dread and the occasional jumpscare turned out to be, when well used, extremely frightening. This special kind of horror was often bloodless, mean-spirited and surprisingly effective. They were also not expensive, so it's easy to see how industries worldwide jumped on the format. Nowadays it's a staple and you need something special to stand out from the crowd. Writer and first-time director Sakai Zenzo gives it a shot by making his film Iai...

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LEE CRONIN'S THE MUMMY Review: An Old Monster, A New Nightmare, Courtesy of James Wan and Jason Blum

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 10:32:10 -0500

Universal’s once hyped, subsequently derided “Dark Universe,” a misguided attempt to create a Marvel-style shared universe featuring newly imagined incarnations of the studio’s classic monsters, may be done and dusted, but the mummy, the stumbling, wrapped-in-bindings undead avatar of vengeance, isn't. At least not yet, anyway. Universal will try again, of course, but until then, studio executives concluded that resurrecting the well-regarded action-adventure series starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz would result in better box office. Rather than let a recognizable brand go to waste, Warner Bros. decided to step in with a new take of their own, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. Presumably titled to avoid potential confusion, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy isn’t your great-grandfather’s mummy. It’s not your grandfather or even your...

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AMRUN Review: Austere and Solitary Observer with Confused Psyche

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:02:05 -0500

Jasper Billerbeck, Laura Tonke, Lisa Hagmeister, and Kian Köppke star in this historical drama.

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MĀRAMA Review: Combining the Personal and Political, In Gothic Form

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:02:02 -0500

Ariana Osborne, Toby Stephens, and Umi Myers star in writer/director Taratoa Stappard's gothic horror mystery.

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MILE END KICKS Review: Contemporary RomCom Captures a Challenge of Epic Proportions

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Barbie Ferreira, Devin Bostick, and Stanley Simons star in director Chandler Levack's music-laced romantic comedy.

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NORMAL Review: Holy Hellfire of Violence and Mayhem on Main Street

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Bob Odenkirk, Henry Winkler, and Lena Headey star in director Ben Wheatley's action thriller.

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BALLISTIC Review: Mother Undone by Her Son's Battlefield Death

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Lena Headey stars in director Chad Faust's unexpectedly nuanced and consistently engrossing drama.

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CITY WIDE FEVER Review: Not Really a Giallo Homage, And That's Ok

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:32:03 -0500

Josh Heaps’ City Wide Fever is a real oddity. On the surface, it’s a small DIY thriller that looks shot on the cheap, which already narrows down its appeal. But if you get on its wavelength over the course of its very brief 70 minutes (sans credits), you might even start to feel a small twinge of nostalgia. Said nostalgia comes from a very different source than advertised. Billed as an homage to giallo, this certainly has a setup those Italian films would have a field day with: A film student named Sam (Diletta Guglielmi) finds a USB in a park one day, containing the life and work of forgotten director Saturnino Barresi, including his unfinished final film, which gives this one its title. As she investigates the...

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ERUPCJA Review: Of Turning Points and Volcanoes

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Charli XCX, Lena Góra, Will Madden, and Jeremy O. Harris star in Pete Ohs' effervescent, gracefully-wrought film.

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MARGO'S GOT MONEY TROUBLES Review: Complicated, Layered, Coldly Calculating, Warmly Effusive

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Nick Offerman star in David E. Kelley's new series.

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REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE Review: Earnest, If Stagey, Tale of Unwavering Faith

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Acts. Questions. Steps. Leaps. All words with which 'of faith' can be easily and appropriately clipped on, and applied especially to Caroline Golum's Revelations of Divine Love, a micro-budget marvel of faith-based cinema that dramatises (and implicitly modernises) the writings of Julian of Norwich, a 14th century 'anchoress' whose eponymous and influential text detailed social upheaval from within the thick stone walls of a church. We find Julian (Tessa Strain) at the beginning of her tale, ailing from a mysterious illness. Her last rites prompt vivid and fervorous visions of Christ which bring her back from the brink, immediately qualifying her for the honored position of local anchoress. For all the spiritual plaudits this brings, she will remain in a bricked-up room at the edge...

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Overlook 2026 Review: TRAUMA, OR MONSTERS ALL Brings A Thirty Year Project Full Circle

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:00:15 -0500

It's been a little over thirty years since indie horror godfather Larry Fessenden burst into the consciousness of the underground with his sideways vampire epic, Habit. In the decades since then, he and his Glass Eye Pix production house have shepherded some of American horror's most unique storytellers to the big and small screen as a producer while still managing to take time to direct his own idiosyncratic features challenge the present notions of what horror can be in these tumultuous times. It took almost twenty years for Fessenden to return to his monstrous reimaginings with 2019's Frankenstein riff, Depraved and 2022's wolf man story, Blackout. With this Mad Monster Party trio of existential horrors now out in the world, he is here to cap...

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INFILTRATE Review: Generic Actioner Elevated by Superior Stunt Work

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 21:02:09 -0500

James Mark directed the action thriller, starring Orphée Ladouceur-Nguyen, Tim Rozon, Mitra Suri, Alain Moussi, and Lisa Berry.

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THE CHRISTOPHERS Review: Art Forgery Comedy-Drama Excels On Every Level

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:02:09 -0500

Steven Soderbergh's film stars Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel, with James Corden, Jessica Gunning.

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BUNNYLOVR Review: Opaque Character Study of a Cam-Girl

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Katarina Zhu stars in and directs a striking drama, co-starring Austin Amelio, Perry Yung, and Rachel Sennott.

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THE TRAVEL COMPANION Review: Friendship and Filmmaking Commingle in Deadpan, Bittersweet Comedy

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Directed by Travis Wood & Alex Mallis, the film stars Tristan Turner, Anthony Oberbeck, and Naomi Asa.

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Diagonale 2026 Review: MOTHER'S BABY Masks a Paranoid Thriller Within an Ambiguous Psychological Portrait

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:32:03 -0500

Marie Leuenberger and Claes Bang star. Austrian filmmaker Johanna Moder tackles post-partum depression and potential psychosis as a slow-burning paranoid thriller, where maternal anxiety is filtered through an unreliable perspective and edged with traces of dark humour.

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CHAO Review: Joyful and Hilarious Comic Adventure

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Director Yasuhiro Aoki's stellar debut feature explodes on the screen with controlled chaos.

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EXIT 8 Review: Purposely Repetitive, Yet Never Dull Horror Thriller

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Genki Kawamura directed; Kazunari Ninomiya and Yamato Kochi star.

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GILDA Blu-ray Review: The Atypical Noir Gets a Fresh Restoration

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:00:00 -0500

Probably like many people of my and slightly older generations, I was first introduced to Gilda from a scene in The Shawshank Redemption, during which the prisoners are watching the film and one insists that his friend pause in asking a request until the titular character is introduced via a famous hair flip and verbal quip. I had already seen some Rita Hayworth films, and yet it took me years to see the film that introduced, or re-introduced her, to a wider public. Criterion Collection have reissued Spine #795 with a new 4K restoration, Blu-ray (there is still the DVD for those who prefer that version), and while Gilda, directed by Charles Vidor, is something of an atypical film noir, it is worth both this restoration and its place...

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Diagonale 2026 Review: WHITE SNAIL Subverts Girl-Meets-Boy Into Anti-Romance

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 14:02:02 -0500

Austrian-German filmmakers Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter's fiction debut reworks social drama conventions into a psychologically driven, docu-fiction hybrid centred on an unstable relationship shaped by loneliness, death and an implied autocratic backdrop.

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HAMLET Review: Thrillingly Cinematic Internal Journey Into Personal Hell

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Riz Ahmed, Morfydd Clark, and Joe Alwyn star in director Aneil Karia's modern-day adaptation.

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THE YETI Review: Chilling Premise Undone by Lukewarm Craft

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Brittany Allen and Jim Cummings star in this lackluster old-school creature feature.

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MERMAID Review: Curious Mix of Crime Thriller and Theatre of the Absurd

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:02:09 -0500

Tyler Cornack's action-comedy-horror stars Johnny Pemberton, Avery Potemri, Kevin Nealon, Kirk Fox, Julia Larson, Devyn McDowell, Tom Arnold with Robert Patrick and Kevin Dunn.

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THE LAND OF SOMETIMES Review: Careful What You Wish For

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:02:04 -0500

Ewan McGregor, Alisha Weir, Andrei Shen, Asa Butterfield, Helena Bonham Carter, and Mel Brooks star in the British animated musical adventure.

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STAR WARS: MAUL - SHADOW LORD Review: The Galaxy's Most Dangerous Survivor Returns

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 03:01:00 -0500

After the Clone Wars, Maul plots to rebuild his criminal syndicate on a planet untouched by the Empire.

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Diagonale 2026 Review: PORTRAIT OF NOWNESS Assembles a Fragmented Mosaic

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 19:02:07 -0500

Co-created by Juri Rechinsky and Mario Hainzl, the film constructs a first-person docu-experiment in which body-camera footage across multiple continents reframes notions of everyday life through contrasting conditions of normalcy.

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Diagonale 2026 Review: THE STORIES Turns Familiar Tragicomic Family Saga Tropes into Finetuned Crowd-pleaser

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 18:02:06 -0500

Abu Bakr Shawky's film unfolds as a multi-generational family saga that situates an intimate love story within the shifting social and political landscape of Egypt from the 1960s to the 1990s.

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Diagonale 2026 Review: WAX & GOLD Probes Memory and Myth of Ethiopia's Beloved Autocrat

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 16:26:04 -0500

Austrian filmmaker Ruth Beckermann uses the spatial and historical layers of the Hilton Addis Ababa to examine how the legacy of Haile Selassie is constructed, negotiated and contested through personal memory, archival material and competing narratives.

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YOUR FRIENDS & NEIGHBORS S2 Review: Lifestyles of the Rich and Criminal

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Jon Hamm, Amanda Peet, and Olivia Munn return in the ensemble dramatic series, with James Marsden joining as a mysterious new, ultra-wealthy neighbor.

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Diagonale 2026 Review: ROSE, Sandra Hüller Excels in Period Drama Examining Pursuit of Freedom Through Cross-dressing

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Austrian filmmaker Markus Schleinzer's third feature casts Sandra Hüller as a woman who adopts a male identity within a Protestant farming community during the Thirty Years' War in order to secure property, labour autonomy and social legitimacy otherwise inaccessible to her.

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THE DRAMA Review: Viscerally Affecting Comedy?

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:22:04 -0500

Kristoffer Borgli's The Drama sits somewhere between much of Lars von Trier's output and Sean Price Williams's The Sweet East on the artful edgelord spectrum; albeit closer to the latter's live action South Park than the sometimes incisive work of the former. The Drama is a fantastically constructed film that, for the most part, threads a delicate needle of unnerving and broadly funny; largely sidestepping cringe comedy to create something more unique, and certainly more affecting. While the opening scenes almost lull viewers into a state of knowing comfort with the trappings of a romantic comedy (Nancy Meyers interiors and cultural, high-paying jobs included), surprisingly sharp editing, Daniel Pemberton's prickly woodwind score, and some bold sound design choices hint at something darker looming. During a...

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Home Video Roundup: DEATHSTALKER and More New Releases From Kino, The Criterion Collection, Warner and Made By Mutant

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Dave Canfield aka The Creature Feature Preacher here to opine on all things physical media. I’ve got titles from The Criterion Collection, Warner Brothers and Kino and a very special vinyl release from Made By Mutant. It’s a rich mix of the new, the retro and the arthouse. I’ve been waiting for Dante’s Peak to hit 4K for awhile. It has the perfect blend of kitschy earnestness and spectacular disaster effects as well as a first rate cast featuring Pierce Brosnan as the hunky volcano expert and Linda Hamilton as the hot single mom. The secondary cast isn’t bad either, featuring John Carpenter regulars Charles Callahan and Peter Jason. This has a lengthy 'making of' documentary and an audio commentary featuring director Roger Donaldson. ...

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BEN-HUR 4K UHD Review: Battles Between Good and Evil Look More Spectacular Than Ever

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 13:02:01 -0500

William Wyler's 1959 classic stars Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd. Features on the new 4K edition showcase more details of vivid filmmaking and cinematography.

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THE STRANGER Review: Senseless Actions, Racist History

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:02:12 -0500

François Ozon adapts Albert Camus' classic novel, giving a deeper context of understanding the protagonist's senseless actions, based on France's racist colonial history.

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THE KILLER Review: John Woo's Achingly Romantic Bloodbath Returns to Cinemas

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 11:02:11 -0500

The power of the gun is terrible and beautiful in equal measure in the work of John Woo, the inarguable alpha dog of the Hong Kong heroic bloodshed genre, whose unrelentingly and entertainingly violent streak in the late 80s and early 90s defined an era of melodramatic excess in action cinema. An infinite ammo clip here, a slow-motion dove there, symbols of devotion and faith scattered everywhere, there's never been a cliche Woo didn't define and then transcend, all in the name of high-calibre visceral emotion. Plum in the middle of his Hong Kong golden era (sandwiched between two A Better Tomorrow films and the furious double-header of Bullet in the Head and Hard Boiled) is The Killer, perhaps the most achingly romantic he has...

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