Indie
Film Review – Omaha
***This Review Contains Mild Spoilers*** In tone, style, and execution, Omaha (2025) is one of those archetypal indies that makes a big splash on the festival circuit. These films are usually intimate in scope, grounded in its world building, and may not always have the happiest of…
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Film Review – The Substance (Second Take)
There is no escaping the pairing of body horror and The Substance (2024) since its premiere at Cannes. It is impossible to look up anything about its premise or even watch the trailer and not see the term. According to Wikipedia, body horror “is a…
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Film Review – Bad Things
Writer/director Stewart Thorndike makes explicit the influences that pervade Bad Things (2023). A spooky hotel and the violent events that happen inside of it will undoubtably call to mind Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, The Shining (1980). Thorndike makes several visual and thematic callbacks to that film, and keen observers will have a running…
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An Appreciation – Five Easy Pieces
Whenever we talk about Five Easy Pieces (1970), the conversation almost always comes back to the infamous diner scene. Oil rigger Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson) tries to get a specific food order, to which the waitress sternly declines. After a heated back and forth, Bobby coolly stands…
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Film Review – 7 Days
When our lives change from what we deem is “normal” for us, these changes will inevitably bleed into the arts. The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted our social lives to video calls and Zoom, as well as becoming aware of what shelter in place and lockdowns…
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Film Review – Jungleland
Life is not easy for brothers Stanley (Charlie Hunnam) and Lion Kaminski (Jack O’Connell). They live on the fringes of society with no other family or friends to help them. Life is an endless struggle just to get through each day. When we first meet…
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Film Review – Black Box
Black Box (2020) is an ingenious sci-fi thriller that makes a lot out of a little. I don’t mean that as a backhanded compliment, but to illustrate that good storytelling doesn’t need to rely on big budgets or extravagant production value. In fact, many blockbusters…
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Film Review – The Rental
The premise is all too familiar. A group of people travel out to a remote location for a weekend getaway, only to fall prey to an unknown danger stalking them from the shadows. There have been countless horror films that have utilized this set up:…
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