Speaking Of Physical Media...

... and why would we speak of anything else... the unbelivable has happened! The fine folks over at Vinegar Syndrome have finally, finally, FINALLY, got the rights to release Richard Brooks' 1977 film Looking For Mr. Goodbar  -- and on 4K no less! This film contains my favorite Diane Keaton performance -- which is saying a lot since I'm a huge fan -- plus peak Richard Gere. It also has one of the most disturbing endings ever put on-screen so, you know, that's fun. Anyway this hasn't gotten a release since VHS way back in the day -- the story was that the rights to the music in the film made a new release cost prohibitive, but it would appear they got that sorted out! Pre-order the disc right here -- they won't ship until sometime in December but do expect to use up your pateince waiting, VS tends to be kind of slow on that front. Especially when it comes to these big sales. I cannot believe we're finally going to get Richard Gere doing push-ups in a jockstrap in 4K!! Just think how much better this gif will be:

That's not all Vinegar Syndrome has of import this month, though -- they're also releasing Red Rooms, the Quebecois serial killer thriller that I reviewed at Fantasia Fest last year and which I just re-watched a week or so ago and loved even more with a second view. This movie is fantastic. And they're releasing Bent, the searing gay holocaust drama that stars Clive Owen and which features Clive & Nikolaj Coster-Waldau memorably going at it in its opening scenes... 

Red Red Rooms, Stay Close To Me-ee-ee

Heads-up that one of my favorite movies from last year's Fantasia Film Fest is hitting some theaters today -- Quebecois director Pascal Plante's serial-killer-thriller Red Rooms is hitting 50-ish screens in the big cities and you can check this link to see if it's near you. Also you can read my review of the film right here, and I posted the trailer -- which quoted yours truly! -- right here. I haven't seen the movie since last July when I reviewed it and there's been so much good writing on the film hitting this week -- specifically I liked this piece and then this piece -- that I really want to watch it again myself. It does such interesting things with the genre, finding brand new and exciting ways to make your jaw drop in the face of any cynicism you might hold toward the over-worked and oft under-self-contemplative genre. A really fascinating spin on all of it, looking at the dark recesses of humanity through our true crime obsessions. Big recommend!

The Wolves of the Steppes

I don't know when, if ever, this movie will get a proper release here in the U.S., but I've just seen what will inevitably be one of the best movies of my year at the Fantasia Film Festival -- click on over to Pajiba to read my thoughts on Kazakh filmmaker Adilkhan Yerzhanov's Steppenwolf, a bleak-as-fuck war film that takes violence very very seriously while also being weirdly kind of funny, in the most harrowing sort of ways. In my review I shout out both Robert Zemeckis' Forrest Gump and the 1985 Soviet nightmare Come and See, if you'd like to have yourselves a lil' stroke trying to bridge the gap to put those two together. And yet somehow it all works, while starring one of the most vile lead characters I've ever witnessed. I even trotted out the word "masterpiece" which I never use for new movies (although I did hedge my bets with a "maybe" just in case). It's really a tremendous achievment to my eye -- an action movie that makes violence sickening. Anyway I really hope somebody releases it here in the States and I will keep my ear to the ground for that news.

Vroom Vroom, the Saying Goes

The Fantasia Fest in Montreal might've ended this past weekend -- and PS the Elijah Wood movie Bookworm that I reviewed on Monday just won the "Best International Feature" award -- but I'm still slowly but surely rolling out my reviews. Today comes my thoughts on first-time feature director Michael Pierro's gig economy horror flick Self Driver, which is about a ride-share driver who signs up for the wrong app, the devil's app, and rues the day! Read my thoughts here. I dug it -- it's the exact sort of lo-fi treat that I hope to uncover every year at Fantasia. I see weird and wild movies there that I'd never see anywhere else and I always leave happy I partook. 

Elijah Wood Bookworm Mania

I feel like I don't get the chance to sing Elijah Wood's praises nearly enough for how much I've come to like the dude, so I was very happy watching his latest movie Bookworm (which was the Opening Night film at this year's Fantasia Fest in Montreal) and realizing that I was watching an effortlessly winning performance from him -- perhaps his best to date? And so here was my chance! And sing his praises and the films I did over at Pajiba today in my review of the film, which reunites him with his Come To Daddy director Ant Timpson -- this is a lovely little family film with a dark edge that will hopefully find the right audience whenever it enters the world. Until then go read my review or if you'd prefer to stay spoiler-free until said prospective release date just hit the jump for some more photos of ol' blue eyes...

What Happens in Shelby Oaks, Stays...

Another day, another Fantasia Fest review -- this time we're talking the horror film Shelby Oaks from YouTube critic turned filmmaker Chris Stuckmann, which begins as a found-footage film and... doesn't stay that way for long. It's a movie with a thousand surprises and twists and turns up its sleeves and I mostly dug it! You can read my thoughts over at Mashable -- I tried to keep them as spoiler-free as possible but that proved impossible, so maybe wait to see the movie before reading the review. (And that won't be an issue because Neon, the house behind Longlegs, has already picked the film up for release.) The general gist of my opinion is that's it's clearly a first film in that Stuckmann has a LOT of ideas and he tries to put them all into one movie, to its detriment at times, but I look forward to seeing where he goes next very much. There's a lot of promise here. And I would love to geek out over his influences with him some time.

Cole Doman Got Me in a Haze

That is not a photo from the movie I am about to direct you to my review of, but it is a picture of the star of said movie -- it's actor Cole Doman, who you should hopefully recognize from writer-director Stephen Cone's wonderful 2015 film Henry Gamble's Birthday Party, and who stars in the queer thriller called Haze aka the movie I have now reviewed. I mentioned both Haze and Doman back in May when this film screened at NewFest but I wasn't able to catch it then -- thankfully it just screened at the Fantasia Film Fest in Montreal though, and there I did catch it. And if you head over to Pajiba you can read my review of the film, which sees Doman playing a young journalist who heads to his hometown to dig into a shuttered psychiatric hospital that left a trail of suicides in its wake. And if you really need to be sold -- the film also co-stars Sense8's own Brian J. Smith and those two go at it like gangbusters in the movie. Hot stuff!

Two Twistin' Reviews

I am a bit frazzled this morning (now afternoon apparently) as I try to figure out what I am doing now that I am back sitting at my desk after a whirlwind five days in Montreal at the Fantasia Fest -- hence the all-over-the-place posting earlier. (Not that that's exactly an outlier, given my millisecond long attention span). But anyway I've only just now realized I never linked to two reviews I had go up while I was away, so I need to do that now! First up my thoughts on the disaster sequel (not disastrous sequel) Twisters went out on Friday at Pajiba -- read those here. Mixed thoughts, they be, but it's fun enough.

The other movie I reviewed is my first official Fantasia review... well sort of, since it also got released in U.S. theaters over the weekend. It's Oddity, the second horror film from Caveat director Damian McCarthy, and this one is absolutely terrific -- read my thoughts here. I love love loved this flick. It totally freaked me out, in a fun way. Oh and I don't think I ever shared its trailer so watch that here:

Becoming One With The Becomers

Time is as they say a flat circle -- case in point I am in the middle of reviewing movies for the 2024 edition of the Fantasia Film Festival but in the past week two trailers for movies I reviewed at the 2023 edition of the festival have dropped! First it was the serial killer thriller Red Rooms (see that here) and now it's the psychotic body snatching tale The Becomers from writer-director Zach Clark (previously of White Reindeer and Little Sister). And yes...

... I have once again made the cut blurb-wise. My wordsmithery bears terrible fruit again, wah ah ah! I will never stop being giddy about this shit, sorry-not-sorry. Anyway The Becomers is a true trip and I think a lot of you are gonna dig is psychedlic slow-burn weirdness -- here is my full review at Mashable last year. I have been dying to revisit this movie a second time ever since seeing it last year, so I was extremely glad to get the email saying that it's dropping on August 23rd. Here's the trailer:

François-o-phile Takes Fantasia

As mentioned in my previous post I am indeed headed to the land of gorgeous Quebecois boys like François Arnaud and Théodore Pellerin tomorrow -- Montreal bound as the 2024 edition of the Fantasia Film Festival kicks off. I don't believe François is in any movies that are playing this year, so me using an image of him is especially gratuitous, but well you know me! Who doesn't want to stare at François, I ask you? Anyway click here to check Fantasia's entire line-up and if you're around Montreal I recommend going! I had a grand time when I went in person last year for the first time (I've been covering the fest before that for many years virtually) and I am very much looking forward to doing it again. If you're not in Montreal...

...  that's probably acceptable since I will see what needs to be seen and tell you about it. And then just like I did with Red Rooms in my previous post today I will keep you wise to when these movies are making their U.S. debuts. There are piles of excellent looking genre movies I'm hoping to cram under my belt over the next couple of weeks -- I will only be up there until Monday (I will be back on blog come Tuesday) but I've also got myself fully loaded up with screeners, and you'll be hearing about all the good stuff, I promise. I will be reviewing films for both Pajiba and Mashable and I'll link to them all from here. Fantasia runs July 18th through August 4th. Sacrée merde!

Enter the Red Rooms

It's been an entire year since I saw the Quebecois cyber killer thriller Red Rooms at the Fantasia Film Festival in 2023 -- literally, since I leave for Montreal tomorrow morning for the 2024 fest -- and I've spent many a moment in that time wondering when the film, which is terrific, might get a U.S. release. Well wonder no more -- today they dropped a poster and a trailer and a release date of September 6th! And, I might add as I always do in such situations, the poster and the trailer both features quotes from my review! 

Here is my full review at Mashable -- I did indeed say all of those things (it does out-Fincher Fincher dammit) and many more. It's a movie that's stuck itself firmly in my head this entire twelve months, and I'm very happy to see its getting a proper release here in the U.S. even though yes, you'll have to read subtitles. You'll manage! (Sorry I just got into a thing with a dope on social media who refuses to watch things with subtitles, which I thought was an attitude we'd abandoned to the dark ages at this point.) Here's the trailer:

Femme For Home

Excellent news for physical media lovers who also happen to like seeing actors George Mackay and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett have lots of gay sex -- their queer thriller Femme, about a drag queen getting complicated (and sexy) revenge on the closet-case who bashed him, is getting a proper beautiful blu-ray release thanks to Vinegar Syndrome! Click here and you can pre-order the movie right now -- VS usually takes a couple of months to ship things so I can't give a proper "release date" but when you get it eventually it'll be worth it as they really do their movies up proper. Here is my review of the movie -- I knew I'd eventually have a movie where I'm quoted in the trailer get onto VS and today is that day! As a rabid physical media nerd this brings me a fresh kind of joy. Anyway this movie is terrific, MNPP recommended!

All Ghosts and Gay Boys

George Mackay giving hot tradie is the theme of the weekend as Femme, the queer thriller starring him and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as haters-turned-lovers is finally finally finally hitting U.S. theaters. It's been a long road, baby, but we made it. I saw the movie at Fantasia last August and I reviewed it for Mashable right here -- then my review got quoted in the trailer right here -- and now it's out for all of you people to see whether you agree with me that it's hot, dangerous stuff. 

But wait! This is actually a crazy thick weekend for good movies. For one Pixar / Disney are re-releasing Luca into theaters -- when it came out at the height of the pandemic it went straight to streaming and I called it "Pixar's best film in years" and that remains true from where I stand; just now you can finally see it on a big screen! So make sure you do. Call Me By Your Name Jr. deserves the love. 

And then there is Problemista -- a movie I adore and yet a movie I have not had the chance to write a proper review of yet. I saw it at NewFest last summer but I haven't had the chance to see it again, which I need to do before I write about it. This has been out in some cities for a couple of weeks but it's going wide this weekend -- anyway once I do see it again don't be surprised if this makes it into my favorite films of 2024 list. Yes it's early, but come on. This thing's a hilarious beauty with some of Tilda's funniest work to date. Here is the trailer.  

And then there is the horror movie Late Night With the Devil also out today! Set in 1977 this found-footage gem is sort of a spin on the great Ghostwatch -- here is the gorgeous poster and the trailer if you missed that. I'm counting my words here because I still might write a review of this. Maybe today even. Stay tuned. it's worth writing about. And going to see!

But yes wait, wait, and keep on waiting -- there is even more. EVEN MORE. Like I said today is truly ridiculous. But don't worry I saved the worst for last. The new Ghostbusters movie called Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is in theaters now and... well I did write about this one. Click on over to Pajiba and you'll hear my thoughts. They are not kind, but they are not as unkind as my words for the previous one, Afterlife. So that's something! The franchise is making incremental mini-steps towards not totally sucking. Maybe if they make fifty more they'll get around to making a good one. 

Femme Is Here To Feed You

If you've been waiting and waiting and waiting for Femme -- the queer thriller starring Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George Mackay as a drag queen and the prick who gay-bashes him respectively, which I've been jabbering about excitedly ever since it was announced in May of 2022 -- then you've only got a wee little more to wait as we've finally got a U.S. release date! First it's dropping here in NYC on March 22nd, then in Los Angeles a week later, and you know et cetera et cetera from there. I saw this and reviewed it for Mashable at Fantasia Fest last year -- read my review right here -- and hey look I made it into the trailer...

We always love it when that happens! Makes me feel like a professional person. which, believe it or not, doesn't happen very often. Anyway I know some of us are tired of the cliche of gay men being attracted to their bashers (I know because I get comments on it every time I post about this movie) but I really do think Femme twists it into something interesting and ambiguous and dare I say hot. And hey listen, all I can say is I tend to see myself more in people making terrible choices on-screen. Maybe that's just me. Here's the trailer:

Feel free to gimme your thoughts in the comments...

Gays and Lesbians and Drag Queens, Oh My!

A pair of new trailers of note have landed today -- first up above is the trailer for Femme, the knotty queer thriller starring Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (from the Candyman remake) as a drag queen and our boy George Mackay as the closet-case who gay-bashes him. I reviewed this movie at Fantasia earlier this year right here and I genuinely think it's impressive how it twists itself into uneasy complications that will leave a lot of people annoyed and/or angry. People are complicated! Embrace complicated people behaving badly, please, otherwise we're just going to cursed with nothing but genital-less superhero movies for the rest of our days. And speaking of our complications having complications...

... here is the trailer for Eileen, which stars Anne Hathaway as the fresh femme fatale in town and Thomas Mackenzie as the girl who becomes obsessed with her. This movie is a wily one and never quite what you think it's going to be and I very much dug it at Sundance -- here is that review. Femme is coming out on March 22nd (yo this is an early trailer drop!) while Eileen is coming out on December 1st (phew, much sooner!) and you really must see both, says me.

I Wanna See What Your Inside Looks Like

Heads up on another good horror movie of the year 2023 hitting theaters -- director Bishal Dutta's It Lives Inside is out as of tonight and I quite liked this creep-fest! Here is my review from the Fantasia Fest where I saw it a couple of months ago. There are some really strong and terrifying scares in this one! (The swingset scene still haunts me.) Click here to see if the movie is playing near you, and here's the trailer (which I say don't watch if you're planning on seeing this, as I do with all horror movie trailers):

Who You Callin Femme

Another one of my Fantasia Fest 2023 reviews was posted over the weekend -- click over to Mashable to read my long awaited thoughts on Femme, the queer thriller starring Candyman's Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as a drag queen who gets gay-bashed by George MacKay, only to then start an oh so dangerous fling a few months down the road. It wasn't quite the movie I wanted it to be when I first heard about that plot -- I was really hoping for some juicy Paul Verhoeven erotic thriller vibes, but Femme plays it far straighter (so to speak) than that, for both good and a little for ill. I had mixed thoughts basically, although this might be an example of my expectations getting ahead of me. Anyway no date on release for this just yet and no trailer just yet but here is a clip that got released that I've not yet posted to tide you over:

Okay Wrap it Up

Pedro is very much summing up my true mood right there (via) -- this week's been an exhausting one, I am exhausted, and I am very very happy that this week is now over. For me, anyway -- Summer Fridays off, and all. My plans for this weekend consist of sleeping, and sleeping, and then sleeping some more. I do have one more review from Fantasia Fest hitting Mashable at some point but the way I feel right now I doubt I'll update this post to reflect that, so just check my page on that site if you care. Or I'll link to it on Monday. Links to all of my Fantasia coverage so far this year can be found here. I might do more next week if I'm able to catch up on sleep this weekend, but right now that's my literal only concern. SLEEP. Have a good weekend y'all. Bring on the zzzzzzzz....

Put It Lives Inside Inside You

I know I say this every time there is a new horror movie coming out but I really recommend not watching the trailer for It Lives Inside... even though I have included it below to tempt you. It seriously gives away too much -- horror trailer salways do but this one's especially egregious. You have been forewarned. Instead why don't you just go read my review of the movie from the Fantasia Festival where it just screened, which went up last night at Mashable right here.  I kept things spoiler-free. And you don't have too long to wait for this one -- Neon is releasing it on September 22nd. And I'll give you the vaguest possible outline -- it's about an Indian American girl who finds out that assimilating into suburbia comes with a price. Doesn't that sound good? It's good!

Wookie Wookie Wook-Ahhh!

Have you ever seen the notorious disaster, the Star Wars Holiday Special? George Lucas doesn't make it easy -- you have to be a hacker like the little girl in Jurassic Park in order to get your greedy paws upon it -- but it's possible. I personally had only seen clips -- mostly because I didn't care that much, as Star Wars has only been a thing I've liked fine enough but never been in love with. But I finally sat down and watched it start to finish last week after watching the doc A Disturbance in the Force: How the Star Wars Holiday Special Happened, which is about... well, the title says what it is about. Anyway that doc screened at the Fantasia Film Fest and I reviewed it right here for Mashable. And then I sat down and watched the Holiday Special and... wow. It's indeed a lot. But unlike half of the Star Wars things I have seen, my life felt noticeably richer for having experienced it. Bea Arthur sings with a rat-puppet from Food of the Gods, y'all! Just knowing that makes me stand taller.