When trying to program a horror (or “genre”) based film festival, you want to make sure you hit all the sweet spots that might be needed. One thing is for sure, The Furies definitely strikes “goriest film” off the checklist, and it’s wonderful.
Author: Andres Guzman
We had lots of fun with the latest Fast and Furious film, so we are excited to host another giveaway. This time, Hobbs and Shaw.
While, yes, we already have a review of Joker on our site that does have spoilers, this is going to full spoilers, nothing holding back. When Arianne saw the film before and wrote about it here, there was always a thought that whenever I would see it, I would give my two cents as well.
Well I saw the film on Monday, and I decided that I didn’t want to think about the film anymore, but many people have told me they loved the film and asked me how I felt and didn’t understand why I hated the film. So, join me in trying to find the words to explain why.
If you’ve ever wanted to see a Sion Sono film and watch him unleash himself entirely, I’d never thought that you could do so from the comfort of your couch, due to it being a Netflix film. So this gives you no excuse for you to watch the film for yourself. Unfortunately, it’s released on the same day as the Breaking Bad film, I still suggest making time to watch all two and a half hours of The Forest of Love.
To say there’s a resurgence of Stephen King adaptations the way some say would make it out like there was a drought of adaptations, which is obviously not the case. The longest gap between adaptations was 1976 to 1980 (Carrie and The Shining respectively) and also 2009 to 2013 (Dolan’s Cadilac and funnily enough, Carrie). We are running through his material at an alarming rate though, as four were made in 2017, and four were made in 2019. And depending on your own opinion, out of the 7 I’ve seen (Doctor Sleep hasn’t been released yet), 6 are great and one is mediocre – and to be fair, Pet Semetery may not be great, but it had some fun stuff.
The Laundromat marks Steven Soderbergh’s second film released by Netflix in this year alone. This film wasn’t shot on an iPhone like his last two films, Unsane, and High Flying Bird. While visually and stylistically, Laundromat feels like classic Soderbergh, it still is too messy to be continuously enjoyed. Don’t get me wrong, I very much was glad that I got to see The Laundromat on the big screen, and that others will be able to as well. I just personally believed that High Flying Bird should have had the same opportunity.
I recently wrote about the film when the trailer first dropped, and in my brief write-up, I stated that I’m not entirely sure what was going to happen in the film, and it’s true, I couldn’t predict this wonderful film.
Leading up to May of 2015, I kept hearing about a film called Spring, and it was described as Lovecraft meets the Before trilogy. Anybody who knows me should know this is a film calling my name. I remember missing out a screening of Mad Max Fury Road to see both Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead introduce Spring at a screening in Toronto. Even when the fire alarm went off in the theatre, I still hold that screening close to my heart. In a way, without Spring, there wouldn’t be no Film Queue or no UnderSCENE, or even a version of me who has fallen for film criticism. I have followed their growth as I’ve tried to grow as a writer, and that’s why it pains me to say that Synchronic was their first big-budget film was a (minor) miss.
The film opens in a room straight out of the 1950s and it’s filled with colour, as we watch a small tv that begins its black and white broadcast. It’s a program that has opening narration akin to The Twilight Zone, or Outer Limits or any science fiction based anthology show from the same time period. The program was called Paradox Theatre, and tonight’s episode was The Vast of Night. Using this as a framing device set up the film perfectly and told me exactly what type of film I was about to watch, but it didn’t tell me it would become my favourite movie of the festival.
I don’t think anybody can ever be remotely ready for a film by the Safdie brothers. We might make an exception if you’ve already seen the film, but let’s make it clear, Good Time does not become an easier watch on a second watch and I can’t imagine the same being the case with their Adam Sandler led film Uncut Gems.
The UnderSCENE 