The Hateful Eight (2015) – Quentin Tarantino

Tarantino’s eighth film let him tackle the fringes of the western genre, and features a beautiful score by iconic composer Ennio Morricone. With his sharp ear for dialogue and engaging storytelling, Tarantino pays homage to the Italian Spaghetti Westerns and classic American films of the same genre, as well, apparently, to the 1982 classic Carpenter…

Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) – Amy Heckerling

Amy Heckerling directs from a Cameron Crowe screenplay, which he adapted from his own book, so you knew going on that with Heckerling and Crowe on board the film was in good hands. And then the cast was filled with up and comers, and an iconic scene which any teen boy who grew up in…

Annihilation (2018): Blu-Ray Review

Releasing from Paramount Pictures to blu-ray and DVD today is Annihilation a slow burn of a science fiction film from director Alex Garland. Based, subjectively, on the trilogy of novels by Jeff VanderMeer, it’s a gorgeous looking film A strange, possibly extra-terrestrial incursion in a swamp in Florida has claimed an untold number of teams…

Trailer Tracks: Backdraft (1991) – Ron Howard

  Ron Howard has become a brilliant director, and each of his films have simply wowed me, but this one, alongside Apollo 13, is my favorite. What a cast… Kurt Russell, Scott Glenn, Robert DeNiro, Rebecca De Mornay, William Baldwin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Donald Sutherland… gorgeous cinematography and a strong story…

TIFF 2013 – Hateship Loveship – Liza Johnson

I knew almost nothing about this film going into it – just that it had a wonderful cast and was based on a short story by Alice Munro, which I’ve yet to read. As such, it was nearly impossible for me to predict anything that was going to happen, and before long, I found myself…