Category Archives: Reviews
Review: Premika (Thailand 2017) – NYAFF 2018
Those in the mood for midnight movie fare need look no further than Premika, an absolutely bugnuts karaoke-themed horror movie out of Thailand. It’s funny, it’s gross, and it’s even a bit heartbreaking. Premika is gonzo filmmaking at its best, … Continue reading
Review: The Big Call (China/HK 2017) – NYAFF 2018
The Big Call, the latest from Oxide Pang, is so hilariously overwrought (even by Hong Kong standards) for its subject matter that I spent most of the first half of the movie convinced it was a sly parody. No such … Continue reading
Review: Dynamite Graffiti (Japan 2018) – NYAFF 2018
The 17th New York Asian Film Festival kicks off tonight at Lincoln Center and I could not be more excited. I’ve been coming to Subway Cinema’s annual extravaganza’s since before they even were the NYAFF, and they’ve never once failed … Continue reading
Review: Heavy Trip aka Hevi Reissu (Finland 2018) – Cinepocalypse 2018
As a region, Scandinavia only has a few instantly recognizable cliché cultural exports. Smoked fish, 70’s art porn, IKEA … and the blackest of black metal. I’m not much for the others, but I’ve been fascinated with the Scandinavian metal … Continue reading
Review: Satan’s Slaves aka Pengabdi Setan (Indonesia 2017) – Cinepocalypse 2018
I watch a lot of horror movies, and while I love them, I’ve become pretty jaded over the years. Maybe one out of every hundred are actually frightening, and then usually only for a moment or two. So when I … Continue reading
Review: Shanty Tramp (USA 1967)
CSB’s Jeff talked up the glories of this low-budget hicksploitation movie for years, so when the Brooklyn Alamo screened it, we had to go. Fortunately, the movie lived up (lived down?) to its reputation, with plenty of go-go dancing, race-baiting, … Continue reading
Review: Downrange (USA 2018)
Downrange is the latest step in Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura’s gradual move into the US market. Kitamura follows in the footsteps of luminaries of Asian cinema like Tsui Hark and John Woo, who were also set out to toil in … Continue reading
Review: Mom and Dad (USA 2017)
Mom and Dad, the latest film from Brian Taylor, one-half of the pair of madmen behind the miraculous Crank films, is similarly … well, apeshit bananas for lack of a better term. Taylor, working from his own screenplay, posits a … Continue reading
Review: The Avenging Eagle AKA: Long xie shi san ying; Cold Blooded Eagles (Hong Kong 1978)
Avenging Eagle is solid old school kung fu from the Shaw Brothers. It’s no pinnacle of the genre – there really isn’t that much to distinguish it from most Shaw martial arts films – but a good cast, baroque weaponry, … Continue reading
Review: Justice League (USA 2017)
Why did I even watch this? Masochism? Completism? I truly loathed Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (a movie as turgid as its name), and the execrable Suicide Squad, and had very low expectations for this Frankenstein’s … Continue reading