Rather than recalling Bahrani’s past strengths, The White Tiger only serves to draw out the director’s worst instincts. Filmmaker Ramin Bahrani has long focused on issues of class in his works, examining how the economic factors created by U.S. capitalist structures shape and subsequently…
Episode Description: This week, we continue our look at 2020’s very strange summer movie season by tackling the first wide release of the summer — and it was a doozy. Hinges are no longer hinged in the thriller Unhinged, directed by Derrick Borte. Russell…
The Ultimate Playlist of Noise abandons an interesting conceit for a far more staid one but still manages to be charming enough in spurts. Sound of Metal meets The Perks of Being a Wallflower in The Ultimate Playlist of Noise, Hulu’s new teen dramedy that chronicles a…
Hunted isn’t a bad film, but the genre aficionados who are likely to seek it out won’t find much genre styling to sustain them. Vincent Paronnaud’s new horror-thriller Hunted opens with a campfire tale brought to life using a gorgeous animation style that combines black,…
Episode Description: We are back! 2021 is a new year, and after taking a break due to COVID (perhaps counterintuitive, we know), we are ready to talk weird summer movies once more. This month, we are looking back at the very strange summer movie…
Max Cloud is an utter waste of underground action star Scott Adkins’ talents, and curious DTV aficionados should look elsewhere for their genre thrills. For those with an affinity for the DTV market, Scott Adkins is likely a household name, a bright-shining light in a…
The Last Blockbuster is little more than a celebrity-filled version of the same conversation you have with your friends when reminiscing about the “good ole days” of pre-Internet movie renting. Corporate nostalgia gets quite a workout in The Last Blockbuster, Taylor Morden’s breezy documentary on…
The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee delivers what no one was asking for — a film featuring an octogenarian Paul Hogan and a litany of senior citizen cameos delivering dated references and lazy jokes with no payoff. The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee is a strange film…
Like Fences before it, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is another well-intention August Wilson adaptation that can’t seem to rise above its stagy origins. Adapted from the 1982 stage play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a film that stubbornly refuses to shake its…
Kala azar is an obvious, stultifying, and facile lecture masquerading as art cinema. Kala-azar is the Indian name for Black Fever, a potentially fatal parasitic disease, and according to the official synopsis for the new Greco-Dutch co-production Kala azar, the feature debut of writer-director Janis…
