Review by Zach Dennis
Creed was so aspiring not only because of the impeccable directing by Ryan Coogler (who returns to this movie in a producing role only) but by Coogler’s incredible focus on the nuances of modern masculinity. The frustrating part of this second Creed is that it picks up this beat again, but lacks the subversion that its predecessor possessed.
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Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali star in director Peter Farrelly’s Green Book
Review by Courtney Anderson
Green Book uses vital pieces of Black history as plot devices to tell the story of a loud-mouthed racist who learns to be less racist because of that time he became friends with a cool Black guy.
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Tim Blake Nelson stars in the Coen Brothers’ Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Review by Lydia Creech
The Coens are obviously fascinated with the genre, and they’ve gotten the chance to do feature-length treatments several times in the past. Here in the short format, they get a chance to really flex their storytelling skills to quickly get the audience invested and then wrongfoot them.
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Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant star in director Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Review by Reid Ramsey
“Caustic wit. That’s my religion,” sighs Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) during an early conversation in the new movie Can You Ever Forgive Me?. This one line sums up, perhaps too simplistically, the overall attitude of the movie.
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Review from Festival du Nouveau Cinéma at Montreal by Clément Hosseart
Season one lured some of his viewers with a pastiche of procedurals, where the detective and his partner are your average local cops. Like Broadchurch, but with less of a Scottish accent, and with more cows. Season two mixes things up with some of the most literally down to earth science-fiction you will find.
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“Rowdy” Roddy Piper stars in director John Carpenter’s They Live
Retro Review by Nadine Smith
Though its iconography may have been appropriated by the alt-right, They Live remains one of the most radical and unapologetically leftist films ever produced in the shade of Hollywood’s superstructure. In a world plagued by centrism and civility, They Live is still a much-needed reminder that debates don’t win revolutions. When literal Nazis are in the streets, appealing to both sides or “reaching across the aisle” is, to quote from the film, like pouring perfume on a pig.
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A conversation between Nadine Smith and Mike Thorn
Rob Zombie’s two films work together to form a very complex and thoughtful exegesis on American serial killer mythologies, with the first film primarily exploring social, familial and institutional systems while the sequel delves into the intricate and vexing connections between violence and un- (or sub) consciousness.
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Review by Clément Hossaert
Built on the foundations of the book written by Shirley Jackson, this new edifice gives each of its characters a wing, a corridor and a past to live on, and a burden of trauma to deal with.
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Festival Coverage by Andrew Swafford and Jordan Collier
For four days in October, the 10th annual Knoxville Horror Film Fest screened 14 feature films (and dozens of shorts) spanning indie horror, documentaries, and cult classics from around the world. Coming on the heels of the programmers opening their own independent theater in Knoxville (Central Cinema), this was the biggest year ever for the Knoxville Horror Film Fest. Andrew and Jordan were able to catch 12 of the features during their time at the fest, including KHFF’s first-ever world premiere.
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Retro Review by Zach Dennis
Jaws 2 does neither and as a follow-up to Jaws feels out of its depths and floundering, but I’m not sure it ever had a chance to swim.
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Tony Todd and Michael Culkin star in director Bill Condon’s Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh
Review by Courtney Anderson
Candyman and Farewell to the Flesh both strike me as a movies that could’ve made for a fascinating interrogation of vengeance, racism, and historical erasure, but end up being a mangled White Savior™ stories where the villain is also the victim, one whose story is refurbished as a weapon against him.
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Anne Heche reprises Janet Leigh’s iconic role in director Gus Van Sant’s Psycho
Review by Reid Ramsey
Having set out to make a nearly shot-for-shot remake, Van Sant’s Psycho only barely strays from the original. That seems to be the purpose, though. In interviews he has talked endlessly about his desire to show Hollywood what a genuine remake is like.
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By Mike Thorn
This list is relatively predictable in many ways, leaning heavily on popular late twentieth and early twenty-first century films (mostly American), but there are several surprises throughout. Ultimately, I hope the list provides a helpful entry point for curious newcomers, or maybe even leads some lifelong fans to reconsider previously ignored films or discover something new.
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Chloë Grace Moretz stars as Carrie White in director Kimberly Peirce’s Carrie
Retro Review by Alison Swafford
Kimberly Peirce’s remake of Carrie is a much kinder version of the story. It is a version that understands Carrie’s pain and one that goes out of its way to give every character a sense of humanity, softening the blow of the story’s cruelty while making its evils sharper in their recognizability. Does this make it a better film?
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Brian Peck and James Karen star in director Dan O’Bannons’s Return of the Living Dead
Retro Review by Nadine Smith
Nowhere is the evolution and mutation of the zombie and its corresponding genre more apparent than in Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead (1985). Loosely adapted from a novel of the same name by John Russo, Romero’s co-writer on Night of the Living Dead, Return is a horror-comedy with an upfront awareness of the genre’s boundaries and peripheries.
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Festival Coverage by Zach Dennis, Lydia Creech and Alison Swafford
For eleven days in September, the Toronto International Film Festival screened over 250 feature films from around the world. Established in 1976, it has been described as the “most important film festival in the world.” Zach, Andrew and Lydia were able to attend the festival for numerous days and caught 31 features from 12 different countries during that span.
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Retro Review by Clément Hossaert
The Alien and No-Face chillingly epitomize the absolute black void of a cultureless environment. They represent not only the void of space, and the existential dread of our ultimate comeuppance, but the fact that this hopeless and infinite void is actually looking back at us with a judging glare.
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Nicholas Cage stars in director Panos Cosmatos’s Mandy
Review by Lydia Creech
I’m sure Mandy will find its niche and hit the cult status it’s aiming for (it’s well on its way), but I’m fine with being left behind.
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Shannon Purser and Noah Centineo star in director Ian Samuels’s Sierra Burgess is a Loser
Review / Personal Essay by Courtney Anderson
I’m always waiting for the movie where there’s a fat girl that actually does have a love interest, or at least isn’t spending the entire movie commiserating her weight. Which is what I thought Sierra Burgess Is A Loser would be. And it wasn’t. At all.
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Jeff Bridges stars in Francis Ford Coppola’s Tucker: The Man and His Dream
Retro Review by Nadine Smith
Tucker is not about the real Tucker or even the product he made, but about the image he made and sold of himself, his car, and a certain post-war way of life. That’s what any car dealer or filmmaker sells us: aspirations, ideals, and the possibility of independence. In Tucker, the image that Coppola sells us of himself is identical to Preston Tucker, and I'd argue that Coppola used that image in order to build a case for himself.
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