Screening today and again on Thursday at the Slamdance film festival is this taut, tightly written and paced thriller starring three talented young women, Helen Rogers, Alexandra Tushen and Lauren Molina. It’s the Christmas holidays and three BFFs, Holly (Rogers), Cali (Tushen), and Mel (Molina) are hanging out and trying to figure out what…
Category: Did You See That?!? (Tv & Film)
Cabiria (1914) – Giovanni Pastrone
The first recommended title following my screening of Intolerance for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film is this epic tale set during the Punic Wars. Apparently the director of Intolerance, D.W. Griffith, was highly influenced by this film when he saw it, and created Intolerance to tell his own epic. The film…
The Atticus Institute (2015) – Chris Sparling
Available from Anchor Bay today on DVD and Blu-Ray is this horror film that takes us inside paranormal research in the 1970s. Made to resemble a documentary, I ended up being a little divided on this title. In terms of horror and scares, there is nothing new here, all the beats are measured out into…
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) – Monte Hellman
The next road movie I take on for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book’s recommendation following Easy Rider is this flick that stars James Taylor (yes that James Taylor) as The Driver. The Driver, and his pal, The Mechanic (Dennis Wilson), work together, with as little dialogue as possible, as they…
Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Through the Ages (1916) – D.W. Griffith
The next section of the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book is Historical, with the first one being this epic-sized film, running three hours, that interweaves four stories through the ages. This is a lavishly produced, but lumbering film that was one of the first films that seemed like a real trial…
Vanishing Point (1971) – Richard C. Sarafian
The first recommended title for my screening of Easy Rider from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book is this road movie that doesn’t let up until the credits roll. Barry Newman is Kowalski, an ex-cop, a believer in right and wrong, and the freedom that was the American dream that seems…
Boardwalk Empire: Season 5
HBO’s Emmy and Golden Globe winning period series comes to a close this week, with its final season being released to Blu-Ray and DVD today. A truncated eight episode season wraps up storylines for the show’s characters as Nucky Thompson’s (Steve Buscemi) career seems to be coming to an end. Set six years after…
Housebound (2014) – Gerard Johnstone
The Toronto After Dark 2014 winner (and for good reason) hits DVD and Blu-Ray courtesy of Anchor Bay today. I had missed this New Zealand horror-comedy when it screened at TAD this year, because I was in Hawaii, so was glad I was afforded the chance to screen a copy before it’s home video release. Let…
Chinatown (1974) – Roman Polanski
The final recommendation following my screening of The Big Sleep from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book is one of my favorite Jack Nicholson films, and undeniably one of the best noir films ever made. Jack plays detective J.J. Gittes, and it’s the 40s in the city of Angels. Hired on a…
The Imitation Game (2014) – Morten Tyldum
Benedict Cumberbatch turns in a masterful performance as Alan Turing in Moreten Tyldum’s Biopic/WWII Thriller, The Imitation Game. Based on the book by Andrew Hodges, with a screenplay by Graham Moore, the film follows the life story of brilliant mathematician, Alan Turing, slipping back and forth through his life, centering on his youth in school,…
The Mind Reels 