ScreenAnarchy: Reviews

BEING HEUMANN Review: Disability Rights Biopic That's Both Feel-Good and Bittersweet

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 17:02:05 -0500

While we tend to go through life without paying much attention to this fact, most of the things that surround us every day, making our lives more comfortable, are there as the result of someone dedicating a considerable, at times, insurmountable amount of time and effort to put them there. One such thing is curb cuts, and one of such people was the late Judith Heumann, an iconic disability rights activist, whose memoir, published in 2020, has become the basis of the new film by Sian Heder, a sort of spiritual follow-up to her Best Picture-winning CODA. Being Heumann doesn’t strive to cover its heroine’s whole journey, like many biopics do, opting instead to draw her portrait by highlighting one, albeit not brief, page of...

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SILVER SCREAMERS Review: Filmmaking in Your Golden Years

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 10:32:10 -0500

Growing old isn’t easy. Aside from the obvious physical changes – going bald, grey hair, wrinkles, back pain, body aches, and so forth – there’s the question of what you do with yourself once you’ve reached retirement age and no longer have the energy to do everything you want. Bringing of all this up when you’re in your mid 40s could be seen as an overreaction on this reviewer’s part, but it’s something you can’t help thinking about at this stage. It doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom, though; there’s still plenty for people to do in their golden years. Silver Screamers is an amusing, affectionate documentary that shows how senior citizens can still remain productive, upbeat and have lots to share with...

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I PLAY ROCKY Review: Making Of Biopic Leans Heavily into Underdog Nostalgia

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 09:02:09 -0500

For Sylvester Stallone (Anthony Ippolito), a little-known, struggling actor-turned-screenwriter, the phrase “I play Rocky” in Peter Farrelly’s (Ricky Stanicky, The Greatest Beer Run Ever, Green Book) biopic about the making of 1976’s Best Picture winner, Rocky, becomes a life-altering mantra, an expression of supreme self-belief. Time and again, Hollywood producers Irwin Winkler (P.J. Byrne) and Robert Chartoff (Toby Kebbell) return to the actor-turned-screenwriter and his screenplay, increasing their offer, sometimes doubling or even tripling it, but Stallone remains steadfast. Stallone will sell the script to Winkler, Chartoff, and their studio boss, Sandy Maddox (an imperious Tracy Letts), only if he gets to play the title role himself. While the audience certainly knows the outcome (he holds out, wins the role, and goes on...

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PARADISE LOST Review: Yeon Sang-ho's Thriller About AI's Role in Grief Is More Underwhelming Than Thought-Provoking

Thu, 05 Nov 2026 15:32:03 -0500

Director Yeon Sang-ho ('Train to Busan') doesn't make the most of some interesting and timely ideas in his latest film.

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Morbido 2026 Review: LA MANCHA (YOU'RE IT), García Bogliano Brothers Unite Powers for Unconventional, Experimental Playground Terror

Thu, 05 Nov 2026 13:15:00 -0500

Inside an amusement park, a group of children and teenagers become trapped in a dark curse connecting them to a parallel world.

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Morbido 2026 Review: TALKING TO A STRANGER, Gigi Saul Guerrero Shines in a Distressing Maternal Nightmare

Thu, 05 Nov 2026 12:00:00 -0500

Consumed by prescription pills and overwhelming guilt after a tragic house fire kills her young son, a grieving mother becomes the prey of a demonic entity that takes the boy's face to fracture her family.

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GODZILLA MINUS ZERO Review: Bigger, Badder, Sadder, And Louder Than Ever

Thu, 05 Nov 2026 09:02:47 -0500

In 2023, director Takashi Yamazaki reinvigorated the long-running Godzilla film series with Godzilla Minus One, a complete reimagining of the iconic character and its origins that floored audiences and critics alike. With a human story that explored the lingering fallout of the end of the second World War while also introducing one of Godzilla’s most fearsome and impressive avatars to date, Minus One quickly rose to the top of fan rankings and even scored an Academy Award win for Best Visual FX from a scrappy skeleton crew that included the director, himself. Yamazaki returns to the series with a follow up that has very big, one might say monstrous, expectations to live up to. Does this sequel fit the bill? Boy, does it ever. Bigger,...

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Kino Chases Italian Thrills with New ITALO-CRIME 4K Release

Thu, 05 Nov 2026 09:02:09 -0500

Plus more descents into criminal behavior from KL Studio Classics! -- Walter Hill's 'Johnny Handsome,' 'Tomas Alfredson's 'The Snowman,' and James Dearden's 'A Kiss Before Dying.'

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NEW GROUP Review: The Horrors of Falling in Line

Wed, 04 Nov 2026 16:02:04 -0500

Yuzu Aoki and Anna Yamada star in director Yûta Shimotsu's film, heading for Shudder.

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WILD HORSE NINE Review: Colorful and Beautiful, Yet Bloody Ephemeral

Wed, 04 Nov 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Writer/director Martin McDonagh's latest film stars John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Mariana di Girolamo, Ailín Salas, with Tom Waits and Parker Posey.

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György Pálfi's HEN Review: Cackling All the Way

Wed, 04 Nov 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Director György Pálfi's new provocation stars Ioannis Kokiasmenos, Maria Diakopanagioti, and Argyris Pantazaras. The language(s)? "Greek, Cackling."

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TRAUMA OR, MONSTERS ALL Review: Things That Go Bump in the Night. And Those Who Hunt Them Down.

Tue, 03 Nov 2026 14:02:02 -0500

Larry Fessenden directs. Laetitia Hollard, Aitana Doyle, and Barbara Crampton star.

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THE LAST TEMPTATION OF BECKY Review: Time to Kill the Nazis Again

Tue, 03 Nov 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Lulu Wilson, Kate Siegel, and Brandon Flynn star, with James Urbaniak and Neil Patrick Harris.

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Busan 2026 Review: INHERIT, Seductive Thai Insect Horror

Mon, 02 Nov 2026 19:02:07 -0500

Director Banjong Pisanthanakun's thriller stars Davika Hoorne and Thitiya Jirapornsilp. (Watch the trailer.)

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Made in Prague 2026 Review: LITTLE THIEF, Brisk, Assured Small-Town Heist Comedy

Mon, 02 Nov 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Czech filmmaker Ondřej Hudeček's brisk Moravian heist comedy turns pandemic-era insurance fraud into a small-town Robin Hood story, mixing regional farce with sympathy for its flawed hustlers.

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QUEEN AT SEA Review: A Masterclass in Acting, Writing, and Directing

Fri, 30 Oct 2026 10:02:10 -0500

Returning to feature-film filmmaking after an altogether too long 18-year hiatus, writer-director Lance Hammer’s (Ballast) drama, Queen at Sea, revolves around an incredibly difficult, nearly impossible end-of-life decision. As Leslie’s (Anna Calder-Marshall) dementia robs her of her mind, memory, and identity, how much agency or autonomy should she continue to receive, whether from her loving husband, Martin (Tom Courteney), of almost 20 years, her daughter, Amanda (Juliette Binoche), a middle-aged professor on sabbatical, or the state’s relevant institutions, when, inevitably, they’re called upon to intervene on Leslie's behalf and her best interests? From its first moments mirroring Freud’s primal scenes to its last devastating moments, that question hovers over Queen at Sea as it unfolds over several days, weeks, and months. For the...

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EVEREST: THE OTHER SIDE Review: Documenting a Disastrous Expedition

Fri, 30 Oct 2026 09:02:09 -0500

In films like Meru and Free Solo, Jimmy Chin set a high bar for mountaineering documentaries. His latest, co-directed with Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, is an extremely challenging work that questions the very idea of climbing. Everest: The Other Side is pitched as a story about Jim Morrison's attempt to be the first person to ski down from the summit of Everest. Morrison wants to ski the North Side, a steep rock face that narrows through two couloirs. He will be joined by his wife Hilaree Nelson, an elite climber. Since the North Face is in the Republic of China, the skiers have to run a gauntlet of political obstacles. Furthermore, they need a support team of Sherpas, cinematographers, doctors, logistics experts, and patrons. That's on...

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THE FIRST FILMS OF SAMUEL FULLER Blu-ray Review: Birth of a Genre Master

Thu, 29 Oct 2026 19:50:07 -0500

Samuel Fuller's first three genre flicks, all independently produced, introduced an irascible, pungent cinematic voice.

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CLOSURE Review: Grief and Hope Entwine in This Powerful, Beautiful Doc

Thu, 29 Oct 2026 11:02:11 -0500

A film by Michał Marczak.

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Brooklyn Horror 2026 Review: SPLIT ROCK Explores the Horrors of Nature

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Clark Backo and Drew Ray Tanner encounter horror in the desert, courtesy of director Ryan Glover.

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Home Video Roundup: THE PINK PANTHER MASTERPIECE COLLECTION 4K, DEADLY BLESSING 4K, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR 4K, More from Kino

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:02:11 -0500

The Pink Panther Masterpiece Collection 4K One of the fun things about reviewing physical media is that it gives me a good excuse to go down all kinds of rabbit holes looking for trivia. The character of Inspector Clouseau from the Pink Panther films is a case in point. Most people only associate Peter Sellers with the role of the bumbling French detective. It might surprise you to learn that no fewer than three separate actors have played Inspector Clouseau. Four, if you count the Roger Moore cameo in Curse of the Pink Panther (1983). In 2006 the series was revived, starring Steve Martin in The Pink Panther (2006), and was successful enough to get a 2009 sequel imaginatively titled Pink Panther 2. Steve Martin is a truly great comedian...

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WELCOME II THE TERRORDOME Blu-ray Review: Contemporary, Raging Folklore Restored

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 10:00:00 -0500

It took until (the shamefully late year of) 1994 for the first independent feature film by a Black Britsh woman got a theatrical release. But when it finally happened, Welcome II The Terrordome was worth the wait. A film that deftly combined folklore, science fiction, and hip hop, the feature debut of Ngozi Onwurah is a song of love and anger, a call of the ancestors and a scream to the society in which she lived. And while it has had VHS and DVD releases in the past, it finally has a long-awaited restoration from Criterion. Filmed over a few years in stages as the funding was cobbled together, it tells the story of the people who live in what is colloquially called Terrordome, a neighbourhood where...

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THE DEADLY SPAWN 4K Review

Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:00:00 -0500

There’s a vast spectrum of cinema to love out there, from pre-Code salaciousness, to grimy grindhouse flicks, to the masters of film in the Criterion Collection. Today, I’m to review one of the more indie, DIY movies to come out of the early ‘80s, The Deadly Spawn. There are a few versions of this release from boutique genre company Synapse Films: a limited edition of 5,000 4K/Blu-ray with slipcover; a Blu-ray standard edition, and a 4K standard edition, which is what I received for review. The street date is November 10th, and as of this review, all editions should be available, but I only see the 4K/Blu-ray combo limited edition and older DVD release for order on the Synapse website. I did find the Blu-ray...

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BREEDER Review: Creepy Poodle Lady Extends Dinner Invitation, with Discomfort and Dark Humor on the Menu

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Daniel Doheny, Dot-Marie Jones, Maddie Phillips, and Tanaya Beatty star in a film by director and writer Alex Goyette.

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Brooklyn Horror 2026 Review: SENDER, You've Got (Some Freaky) Mail

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Britt Lower, Rhea Seehorn, Anna Baryshnikov, David Dastmalchian, and Jamie Lee Curtis star in director Russell Goldman's "psychological conspiracy-laden thriller."

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Guillermo del Toro's Glory, FRANKENSTEIN 4K Review

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 09:00:00 -0500

Frankenstein has always been Guillermo del Toro’s white whale, as anyone following and paying attention to the director, knows, and we’re big fans of GDT here at ScreenAnarchy. (See Kurt’s original festival review out of TIFF here and one of our signature, team capsule collection of thoughts here.) I don’t have a ton of love for Netflix these last few years, but financing this Gothic opera with a focus on family melodrama is one of the best decisions any studio has made in the last decade, at least. Thankfully, they’ve also made the rare choice to unleash one of their films on physical media, and Frankenstein is out now from the Criterion Collection in your choice of Blu-ray, DVD, or a 4K/Blu-ray combo release, which...

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Brooklyn Horror 2026 Review: MOUNTAIN KING, A Different Kind of Family Movie

Mon, 26 Oct 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Directed by Gabrielle Christensen, the film stars Hannah Deale, Carter Sirianni, Iryna Malygina, Keoki Trask, Juan Paulo Munevar, and Sarah Kim.

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GHOST IN THE CELL Review: Joko Anwar's Prison-Set Horror Comedy Is a Gory Riot. On Digital Tomorrow.

Mon, 26 Oct 2026 09:00:00 -0500

Dimas, an investigative reporter from Jakarta, is trying to finish an edit on a deforestation expose when he is framed for his editor's horrific murder and tossed into prison. He ends up in the rough Cell Block C, where he gets taken in by Anggoro, a respected convict who spends half his time in solitary for protecting fellow prisoners. Anggoro runs with a tight, weird crew of social outcasts. They include Six, an inmate who claims he can see spirits (this is important), alongside a low-key smart former professor, a religious man, and a con artist. They are all just trying to get by without drawing the attention of the incarcerated hitman, Tokek. Things get messy fast (and by messy we mean...

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Camera Japan Rotterdam 2026 Review: THE OBSESSED

Sun, 25 Oct 2026 08:00:05 -0500

Director Takahashi Wataru may not be a household name yet among anime fans, but the man has built an impressive resumee already. An assistant to Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli, he was one of the people working on the change from traditional animation to digital, doing the actual camera shots, the compositing, and later moving to CGI, working on such classics as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. And he worked for other studios as well: he did storyboards for several Crayon Shin-chan films and directed four of those himself. Last year he made an anime version of a very popular novel by Ishii Shinji called Obsessed Man, released here with the title The Obsessed, about a man called Guiseppe, who constantly becomes obsessed...

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KEN RUSSELL'S THE DEVILS Review: One of 2026's Best Films Was Released 55 Years Ago

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 16:32:04 -0500

[Uncensored, restored, and rereleased, Ken Russell’s The Devils, a controversy-courting masterpiece of religious horror, repression, and persecution, returns for a limited theatrical run under the auspices of Warner Bros. and its Clockwork specialty film division.] Condemned in 1971 for its supposed blasphemous themes, prolonged onscreen nudity, and depictions of sadomasochistic torture, The Devils was — and remains — far more than mere provocation aimed at offending reactionary moviegoers or right-wing cultural critics. Even now, conservative-leaning Catholics will take offense at the themes, ideas, and messages embedded in Russell's (Altered States, Tommy, Women in Love) film. That alone makes The Devils essential viewing for contemporary audiences, as vital today as it was 55 years ago. For Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed), a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest, celibacy,...

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A TALENT FOR MURDER Review: Mirren and Ehrenreich Elevate an Otherwise Middling Psychological Thriller

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Over five decades, Patricia Highsmith wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories. Of those singular works, seven stand out in the popular imagination: the five Ripley-centered novels, Strangers on a Train (published in 1950 and adapted by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951 into a noir classic co-starring Farley Granger and Robert Walker), and The Price of Salt (aka Carol), written under a pseudonym and published in 1952. Despite other work and additional successes, longtime Highsmith fans and, thus, publishers, hoped Ripley would return for a sixth, final novel. She never did. Highsmith passed away in 1995 after a lengthy battle with cancer and other chronic ailments. While Highsmith’s history as a racist, antisemite, and all-around misanthrope has been well documented, she remains among the...

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Chicago 2026 Review: NO REST FOR THE WICKED, Beautiful Genre Mashup Queer Romance

Fri, 23 Oct 2026 10:02:10 -0500

For almost the first half of No Rest for the Wicked, the only thing marking it as a genre movie is its score, full of ominous electronic drones and sharp strings. The look, with foreboding aerial shots of the Faroe islands' craggy mountains and almost only natural lighting for night scenes, is also a hint; it just seems rude to think that non-genre films aren't capable of this level of literal darkness. Suffice to say that it looks and sounds like a genre film. But the content of its early scenes undercuts the sense of dread its aural and visual world conjures. Perhaps more than dread, the literal and metaphorical darkness are meant to clue us into how stuck protagonist Baldur (Egor Venned) feels on...

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THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS 4K Review: Nerve Jangling, To Say the Least

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 18:35:06 -0500

Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins star in Jonathan Demme's chilling adaptation of Thomas Harris' novel.

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WILDWOOD Review: Often Breathless, Usually Reckless, Always Enchanting

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 13:02:01 -0500

Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, and Cary Mulligan star in the animated action-adventure from director Travis Knight and LAIKA Studios.

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CLAYFACE Review: Newly Revived DCU Saves Its Best for Third

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Ranked by one supposedly well-respected site as only the 73rd “best” Batman villain, Clayface’s journey from the comic book panel to the big screen has taken a long, not quite circuitous route. Thanks to horror auteur Mike Flanagan (The Fall of the House of Usher, Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House), a longtime fan of the DC character and his multiple iterations, including the two-part “Feat of Clay” origin story featured on Batman: The Animated Series, James Gunn, the current co-lead of DC’s film division, became intrigued by Flanagan’s unexpected pitch for a standalone live-action film for the DC character. Unfortunately, Flanagan’s numerous commitments, including the recent Carrie series for Amazon's Prime Video and next year’s The Exorcist: Martyrs, removed him from consideration as...

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KLARA AND THE SUN Review: Uneven, Unwieldy Adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's Bestselling Novel

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Taika Waititi's new film stars Jenna Ortega, with Amy Adams and Natasha Lyonne.

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Brooklyn Horror 2026 Review: POSTHUMOUS, Tapes from the Darkside

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 10:02:10 -0500

Throughout the years, such films as Wolf Creek, The Babadook, The Loved Ones, Lake Mungo, Talk to Me, and many others collectively contributed to turning the audience into a proverbial Pavlov’s dog: A new Australian horror movie is always a reason to get immediately excited. This year, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival features two such films in the program. One is the festival’s Closing Night Film, Kick On, which has already received its share of much-deserved praise since premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival. The other one is Posthumous, Josh Tanner's debut feature, which also helps to uphold the reputation of Australian horror canon. Zoe (Sophie Lowe) comes back to her childhood home in hopes of dealing with some personal stuff. This journey is stalled...

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Chicago 2026 Review: THE SPIRAL Turns a Family Story Into a Faustian Nightmare

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 09:02:09 -0500

In the Italian Oscar entry, the family that makes a deal with the devil stays together.

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London 2026 Review: CLUB KID, Jordan Firstman's Warm and Tragic Bad Dad Dramedy

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 19:02:07 -0500

A stealth rebuild of a middling Adam Sandler film proves to be one of the year's best and most affecting films.

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Brooklyn Horror 2026 Review: ERIE, Debut Found Footage Horror Overcomplicates Its Own Style

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 13:02:01 -0500

In the late 1990s, the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, experiences an epidemic of inexplicable deaths. One of the victims is Iris Scott (Aimee Paxton), whose strange death in the woods is eventually ruled a suicide, like most of the other cases. Her sister, Stella (Carly Stewart), isn’t content with the explanation and, having discovered that Iris isn’t the only one, wants to dig deeper, roping their brother Oscar (Grant Crater) into her investigation. An aspiring journalist, Stella plans to tape the process and all potential findings in hopes that it might advance her career. As the title card at the start of the film informs us, these tapes will be later found in the possession of one of the deceased. Erie, which premiered at Beyond...

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Brooklyn Horror 2026 Review: SLAY, Witty Tribute to Classic Slashers

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0500

While AI obviously (and rightfully) suppressed pretty much all other dangers to humanity as the villain of our times, the rabbit hole that is social media and influencer culture is still too great a fodder for filmmakers to pass up. The paradoxical nature of this bubble, inhabited by people whom we call “content creators”, but who mostly produce something entirely ephemeral, is great material to have all kinds of fun with. Which is exactly what Kyra Elise Gardner’s second feature, Slay, is doing, mixing the digs at the Gen Z-brand of pop culture with classic tropes of the good, old “slice and dice” subgenre. At the center of it all is our influencer final girl – Chloe Cruze (Zoey Luna, who also co-wrote the story...

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WICKER Review: Witty Modern Fairy Tale Hits the Spot

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 11:00:00 -0500

Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Elizabeth Debicki, and Peter Dinklage star in prickly yet delightful film.

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Brooklyn Horror 2026 Review: PATHETIC FALLACY, True Big Bold Beautiful Journey

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 12:02:12 -0500

Every film festival program, no matter how expansive and diverse, usually has a bunch of movies that objectively aren’t bad, but aren’t particularly great either. When thinking about such films and what might be weighing them down, the conclusion you come to most of the time is that, while often adequately executed, they are simply not original enough to evoke any true feeling. From scene to scene, or sometimes, from frame to frame, you more or less know what to expect next, which traditionally makes it harder to be really excited about anything that happens on screen. Adam Egypt Mortimer’s Pathetic Fallacy, which premiered at Fantastic Fest and was recently shown at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival at one of their secret screenings, doesn’t have...

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VIRGINA Review: Boys Do Cry

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 11:00:00 -0500

While not in every culture in human history has elevated male children to the point of all but killing (or even that) their female children, too many have long-held beliefs that boys bring luck and prosperity, whereas girls (despite doing at least half if not more of the work to maintain a society) are a burden. But gender is a social construct, we can't control the weather, and if you decide girls are as important as boys, you might find your society better for it. But this was not the way in some regions of the Balkans, even as recently as the late 19th century, and a disturbing custom is the focus of Virgina, written and directed by Serbian filmmaker Srđan Karanović (Something in Between, A Film Without...

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Toronto After Dark 2026 Short Film Short Review: MOIRA, An Ambiguous European Arthouse Gem

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 10:02:10 -0500

A patient shot of a damp London metro platform opens Anastasia Mischenko's superlative short film Moira. It's a shot that instantly evokes the static-adroit Euro-cinema of early 2000s Bruno Dumont, and the more recent work of Milagros Mumenthaler (The Currents). A woman leaves the platform and returns home to discover her partner in the middle of vocal sex. She stands in the threshold of the doorway, not entirely in the house, while the camera holds on her face as she processes the sounds coming from the bedroom upstairs. She leaves and makes her way across London on transit, through bleak, partially-desaturated autumn fields, bricked alleyways, and at one point through the Greenwich foot-tunnel (under the Thames) in all its curved walls and fluorescent lit glory. The...

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Toronto After Dark 2026 Review: MY LOVE FOR YOU IS DEEP, BUT THE DEVIL LOVES ME DEEPER

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 14:02:02 -0500

Alice is a dreamer. She wants true love, intense love, and reciprocated love. She is not finding it in the clubs with her girlfriend, though, and her current boyfriend is clearly not into her. You can hear it in his voice on the phone before he brutally dumps her in person. But she is young, and attractive, and willing to do anything, including a pact with the Devil, a glowing-eyed man who prefers the booth in the back of the local dive bar, to make this happen with the next fellow who comes along. That would the be tall, dark and slightly dim Luke, a goth-adjacent photographer with a slow manner of speaking and a voice that is a dead ringer for Ryan Gosling. Pacts...

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CHRISTIANE F. 4K Review: Under the Influence

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:02:01 -0500

"We could be heroes," sings David Bowie, if only these kids could get off the heroin just for one day.

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Chicago 2026 Review: A CITY IN THE FOREST, Rallying Cry for the American Left

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 11:02:11 -0500

Throughout A City in the Forest, which tracks various forms of opposition to Atlanta's "Cop City" from 2020 to 2023, the filmmakers shout that they are press to ensure that they are not attacked by police who are violently arresting and assaulting protesters. In two scenes, people being arrested cry out to the filmmakers for help, but they do not engage; remaining as close as they can to capture the cops' violence while doing their best to avoid it themselves. The inclusion of these moments forces us to consider the many forms combatting state violence (against people and the environment) can take, and either question or affirm the importance of documentation as a form of protest in itself. The choice to include what some on...

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Camera Japan Rotterdam 2026 Review: CHIMNEY TOWN: FROZEN IN TIME

Sun, 18 Oct 2026 12:00:05 -0500

Six years ago, CGI-special effects specialist Hirota Yuusuke directed his first feature film, the anime Poupelle of Chimney Town, which I happened to like a lot. He just released his second feature, and it is... a sequel to Poupelle of Chimney Town. That first film was based on a series of children's books written by Japanese comedian Nishino Akihiro, and apparently there is plenty more where that came from. Nishino wrote the script for this sequel and helped produce it. The new film is called Chimney Town: Frozen in Time and played at the Camera Japan Festival in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, where I caught up with it. Chimney Town: Frozen in Time takes place some time after the events in Poupelle of Chimney Town. In...

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ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM Review: Mesmerizing Blast from the Past

Sun, 18 Oct 2026 09:02:02 -0500

In 1972, director, editor, producer, and actor William Greaves, whose body of work includes Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968) and Nationtime (1972), gathered the remaining luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance in Duke Ellington’s apartment on 157th. This meeting resulted in four hours of footage but didn’t become a movie – until now. Greaves’s son, David Greaves, was one of four cameramen who were involved in the original shoot. Decades after the fact and years after William Greaves’s passing in 2014, David edited the footage of that meeting, compressing it into an hour and forty minutes of the enthralling whirlwind that is Once Upon a Time in Harlem. Based upon a formal description, it might seem to the audience going in blindly into this film, which was...

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