Spiritwalker (2020) – Yoon Jae-keun

Hitting digital, DVD and Blu-Ray today from Well Go USA Entertainment is this Korean bare-knuckle action flick with some sci-fi undertones that keeps things moving right until the last frame. The film gives a new spin on familiar territory, and features solidly constructed, and executed action and fight sequences. Ian (Yoon Kyesang) isn’t who he…

Memory’s Legion (2022) – James S.A. Corey

The complete Expanse short story collection is now together in one bound book, Memory’s Legion, which I’ve been waiting for, to add it to my collection of Expanse novels in their pride of place in my apartment. Eight tales take us through the timeline of the universe’s narrative, giving us a glimpse of side stories…

A Classic Horror Story (2021) – Roberto De Feo, and Paolo Strippoli

I love taking a look at foreign horror films, because all filmmakers approach the genre from their own experiences, their culture, and their influences, and what scares some people may only be entertaining to others. The Italian film, A Classic Horror Story, plays our very enjoyable, and has a couple of shifts from horror sub-genre…

Apostle (2018) – Gareth Evans

There’s a lot to unpack in Gareth Evans’ film, Apostle, there are concepts of religious tenets, blood, sacrifice, family, worship, deification, and faith, all of it wrapped up in a character driven tale starring Dan Stevens and Michael Sheen. If you try to take it as the straightforward tale that the film’s plotline offers, you’re…

A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) – Ursula K. Le Guin

I had never read the Earthsea books as a youth. I think as previously mentioned, the only fantasy book I read when I was younger was The Lord of the Rings, and I never tackled anything after that, because how do you top that? I’ve found over the past few years, however, that I’ve been…

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) – Chris Columbus

The magic of Harry Potter continues in Warner Brothers’ second instalment of what would go on to be an insanely profitable franchise. Director Chris Columbus returned for a second outing, with this adaption of the second book in the series (which was still being written at the time – can you remember the time when…

TIFF 2021: The Devil’s Drivers dir. Mohammed Abugeth and Daniel Carsenty

Shot over the course of eight years, The Devil’s Drivers is a fascinating documentary that ends up feeling incomplete. Revving and running between the borders of Palestine and Israel, the film feels constrained by its 90 minute time. Brushing gently against the political and religious situations that permeate the area, the narrative elects to follow…

TIFF 2021: Encounter dir. Michael Pearce

From the beginning of the film, thanks to the way the film is told, and the willing suspension of disbelief that is inherent with cinema, we believe Malik (Riz Ahmed) and his conviction that a microscopic parasitic alien organism has come to the planet and is slowly taking over, manipulating people to their own end….

TIFF 2021: Attica dir. Stanley Nelson

Taking a look at the five day rebellion, and hostage taking in September of 1971 at Attica prison, Nelson’s documentary is a stark, unflinching look at the prison system, the industry of it, the culture and race clash that is inherent in it, and the larger world as a whole. Filled with interviews from those…

TIFF 2021: Dear Evan Hansen dir. Stephen Chbosky

Mental health. Suicide. Depression. Loss. Grief. Loneliness. These issues are usually trapped in the individual, and though a number of us share in these things, it’s never a shared experience. We are held in the prison of our issues, in a society where social media presentation, the illusion of life being better than it is…