Guillermo del Toro served as executive producer on Andy Muschietti’s Mama an interesting take on a ghost story that also explores the roles of parents, specifically mothers, while fostering some interesting and enjoyable scares with some pretty solid special effects. Sisters Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nelisse) were thought lost when their father took…
Tag: framing
Barbarian (2022) – Zach Cregger
Wow. Writer/director Zach Cregger blew me away with this one, completely subverting my expectations while playing with the traditional horror rules in this fantastic thriller of a film. From his framing to camera movement to casting to the way he doles out the story, Cregger plays with an increasingly film-savvy and educated horror audience and…
Insidious (2010) – James Wan
Director James Wan, and writer Leigh Whannell’s Insidious is a fairly solid ghost story, though it took me forever to come around to it. My first experience seeing it was in the theatre, where I couldn’t get over how a couple in front of me was scared by everything that was happening on the screen….
The Untouchables (1987) – 4K Review
For a lot of people, Carrie, Scarface, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, or even Phantom of the Paradise was their introduction to Brian De Palma. For me, it was The Untouchables in 1987. And for the first time, I started to take notice of the language of film. I was a teen, wholly fascinated by…
Dick Tracy (1990) – Warren Beatty
It’s been a long time since I sat down to watch this film, it may be since it first came out, or at least when it first hit video. I remember wanting to really get into this one when it first came out, I wanted it to be the next big summer blockbuster. So did…
To Live and Die In L.A. (1985) – William Friedkin
I don’t know how it happens, but between the watching and the re-watching, I constantly forget how awesome To Live and Die In L.A. is. I know it’s good, I love this movie, but I seem to be consistently stunned every time I settle in for this one. Amazingly I didn’t see this film upon…
Star Trek: The Kobayashi Maru (1989) – Julia Ecklar
With a framing story set after the events of The Motion Picture, but with the uniforms introduced in The Wrath of Khan, so sometime during the second big mission, The Kobayashi Maru is more a collection of short stories as each member in a damaged shuttle tells a tale of their encounter with the famous…
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) – Wes Anderson
The final title in The Directory, marking the end of my time with DK Canada’s exceptional The Movie Book is this fun, quirky film from writer/director Wes Anderson and starring Ralph Fiennes. Anderson packs the film with his favourite actors as he has done throughout his films. Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody,…
Gemini Man (2019) – Blu-Ray Review
It should have worked. An Academy Award winning director (though action is not his forte), a bankable lead actor, a solid supporting cast, and the seed of a solid story. Will Smith gets his Bourne on (a couple of times) in Gemini Man, the Ang Lee action film that comes home on blu-ray and DVD from…
Rumble Fish (1983) -Francis Ford Coppola
The next title on the What Else to Watch list following DK Canada’s The Movie Book’s recommendation of The Godfather is Coppola’s adaption of S.E. Hinton’s classic novel. Boasting an all-star cast, Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Dennis Hopper, Diane Lane (one of my first ever crushes that continues to this day), Laurence Fishburne, Vincent Spano,…
The Mind Reels 