‘WRONG TURN’ Director Mike P. Nelson Talks ‘Temple of Doom’ Nods and Cuts to Avoid an NC-17 Rating

February 22, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged Horror, Interviews, Mike P. Nelson, Talking With..., Wrong Turn 1 Comment

It’s sometimes in the strangest places that the sweetest things lurk. Or such is the case with Mike P. Nelson’s 2021 sequel/reboot of the Wrong Turn franchise, a film series which began in 2003 and went on to spawn five sequels. Despite a dedicated fan base, the backwoods inbred cannibal horror franchise never managed any notable critical or commercial success but in flipping the script and starting basically from scratch, Nelson and writing partner Alan B. Elroy have breathed new life into a series that now shows no sign of running out of gas and a whole new highway of ideas to explore. Read More

“NOMADLAND” Named Best Picture of 2020 by Seattle Film Critics Society

February 15, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Awards Tagged Nomadland, Seattle Film Critics Society Leave a comment

Seattle, WA – The Seattle Film Critics Society (“SFCS”) announced the winners in 20 categories for the 2020 Seattle Film Critics Society Awards on Monday, February 15, 2021.

Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland proved the big winner this year, landing five awards, including Best Picture of the Year. The film, documenting one woman’s turn to a modern-day nomadic lifestyle following the 2008 economic recession, also earned Zhao the Best Director award and a win for Best Film Editing. Frances McDormand was named Best Actress in a Leading Role, while Joshua James Richards’ work behind the camera secured a win for Best Cinematography. Read More

The SXSW 2021 Movies Already on Our Radar

February 12, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews, Lists Tagged Alien On Stage, Gaia, Here Before, I’m Fine (Thanks For Asking), Introducing, Jakob’s Wife, Language Lessons, Ninjababy, Offseason, Selma Blair, Sound of Violence, Swan Song, SXSW, SXSW 2021, The End Of Us, The Fallout, The Oxy Kingpins, The Spine of Night, Witch Hunt, Women is Losers, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror 1 Comment

SXSW has a history of bombast. What was once a modest Austin festival that celebrated the local scene, music, and emerging artists grew into one of the largest and most-attended festivals the world over. As crowd sizes grew so too did the prestige and scale of debuts with massive blockbuster movies like Furious 7 or Ready Player One playing to salivating fans willing to wait hours to see the world premiere. Read More

Tender ‘MINARI’ Tells a Specific Story of Family Struggle With Universal Appeal

February 9, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alan Kim, Lee Isaac Chung, Minari, Noel Kate Cho, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Steven Yeun, Youn Yuh-jung 1 Comment

The pull of the American Dream lies at the heart of Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari, a story about a Korean immigrant family seeking out their chunk of economic ascension on Arkansas farmland. Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) is Jacob Yi, an uncompromising patriarch dedicated to leaving his illustrious career of chicken sexing behind (more on this later) to grow crops from back home for the ever-increasing Korean-American population. Read More

Sundance 2021: ‘SUMMER OF SOUL (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised)’ Finally Televises the Revolution…And It Rules

February 3, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Documentary, Questlove, Reviews, Summer of Soul, Summer of Soul (…Or, Sundance, Sundance 2021, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised) 2 Comments

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised), Ahmir Khalib Thompson’s (aka Questlove) infectious collection of never-before-seen-footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival (defamed for generations as “Black Woodstock”) is both a musical spectacular blowout and a powerful deconstruction of the Black experience of the era. In a lyrical collage of glorious music and sociological study set at the end of the Civil Rights Movement, Summer of Soul looks through the lens of performance, activism, and musical genealogy to speak to our country’s history, black identity, and the all-transformative power of soul. The musical segments alone make Questlove’s Sundance-winning documentary an absolute must-see. The sociopolitical commentary that runs throughout however makes it essential. Read More

Sundance 2021: Stunning Performances Make ‘MASS’ A Sorrowful Reflection On The Aftermath of Violence

February 1, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews, Most Popular Tagged (Jacob Isaacs, Ann Dowd, Fran Kranz, Martha Plimpton, Mass, Reed Birney, Sundance, Sundance 2021 3 Comments

Two sets of parents, Jay (Jacob Isaacs) and Gail (Martha Plimpton), and Linda (Ann Dowd) and Richard (Reed Birney), meet six years after a tragedy that forever changed their lives. A swirling character-focused chamber piece about responsibility, guilt, grief, parenting, and forgiveness, Mass is an incredibly difficult weepy that honestly confronts challenging material. To go into the specifics of those details is to deny the reader of the hard-fought suspense that the filmmaker works to achieve so do try to go into this as blind as you can. Read More

Sundance 2021: Oral Histories and Prison Hierarchies Make Up ‘NIGHT OF THE KINGS’

February 1, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Bakary Koné, NEON, Night of the Kings, Steve Tientcheu, Sundance, Sundance 2021 1 Comment

As a piece of metafictional drama, Philippe Lacôte’s Night of the Kings delivers a wholly unique spin on the power of storytelling, weaving a story within a story that’s characterized by Shakespearean turns and prison-palace intrigue. Deep in the first of Côte d’Ivoire’s Abidjan lies “La Maca” prison. There, the inmates run the asylum. Read More

Sundance 2021: Porn Industry Is More Business, Less ‘PLEASURE’ In Phenomenal Star Is Born Cum-Up

February 1, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews, Most Popular Tagged Casey Calvert, Chris Cock, Dana DeArmond, Evelyn Claire, Kendra Spade, Mark Spiegler, Ninja Thyberg, Peter Modestij, Pleasure, Reviews, Sofia Kappel, Sundance, Sundance 2021 2 Comments

The porn industry is first and foremost just that: an industry. Pleasure, the stunning expansion of Swedish writer-director Ninja Thyberg’s 2013 short of the same name, takes an unfiltered and decidedly hardcore look at how the porn industry operates through the lens of newcomer “Bella Cherry” (an incredible Sofia Kappel). A Swedish transplant that just arrived in LA with her mind set on being the next big thing in porn, Bella declares at passport control that she’s in the States for pleasure but soon discovers that she’s there for business. And business can be a sticky situation. Read More

Sundance 2021: Clifton Collins Jr.’s Work As a ‘JOCKEY’ is Backbreaking but Soul-Affirming

January 31, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Clifton Collins Jr., Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Jockey, Moises Arias, Molly Parker, Sundance, Sundance 2021 1 Comment

Every rider has a laundry list of injuries: cracked ribs, broken collar bones, shattered hips, busted noses. Riding on a professional circuit comes with no shortage of physical, social, and spiritual wear and tear and Jackson (Clifton Collins Jr.) is already well into his sunset years in Clint Bentley’s spirited but gentle horse drama Jockey. Read More

Sundance 2021: Robin Wright Proves Herself in Wyoming-Set ‘LAND’

January 31, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Demian Bichir, Erin Dignam, Jesse Chatham, Land, Robin Wright, Sundance, Sundance 2021 1 Comment

Everybody hurts sometimes. But for Edee (Robin Wright), hurt has pervaded every nook and cranny of existence in Wright’s somber, self-reflective directorial debut Land. We know of Edee’s loss only through fragments: the glimpses of a husband and son inauspiciously missing. The thinly-veiled threats of self-harm made to her sister (Kim Dickens.) Edee is an irrevocably altered force for reasons that are all too clear. Read More