Notorious killers the James Boys, Odessa (Dave Larson) and Kyle (David Gunn), who murdered their parents in cold blood, have escaped from San Quentin and find themselves on the run from a nationwide manhunt in a turbulent thunderstorm. They decide to seek shelter in a random suburban household, taking hostage the ‘gee golly’ All-American nuclear…
Tótem [Janus Contemporaries] Blu-ray Review
Seven-year-old Sol (Naíma Sentíes) is preparing to celebrate her father Tona (Mateo Garcia)’s birthday along with her mother, aunts and other relatives at her grandfather’s house. Casting a pall over the entire event is the fact that Tona is terminally ill and does not have much longer to live. Amid the stresses and the hustle…
Fata/Morgana [Mondo Macabro] Blu-ray Review
a.k.a. Left-handed Fate (1965) Starring Teresa Gimpera, Marianne Benet, Marcos Martí To be honest, I’m not sure what I just watched. The cover art, tagline, and back cover suggested a very different movie than what I experienced. It is a Spanish film from the mid-1960s and Mondo Macabro’s release has cover art that make the…
A Man On His Knees [Radiance Films] Blu-ray Review
What would you do if you suddenly and inexplicably found yourself the potential target of a hitman? This is the precise situation that Nino Peralta (Giuliano Gemma), simple husband and father who works at a coffee stand, finds himself in when he is told that he is one of eight targets for elimination by one…
The Beast Within (2024) [Well Go USA] Blu-ray Review
10-year-old Willow (Caoilinn Springall) lives with her mother (Ashleigh Cummings) and father (Kit Harrington) deep in the woods in a heavily isolated existence apart from civilization. Occasionally in the middle of the night during a full moon, her father and mother covertly disappear into the woods where they do not return until the following morning….
Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy [Criterion Collection] Blu-Ray Review
Criterion Collection, in collaboration with Strand Releasing, bring for the first time in high definition in North America, Gregg Araki’s crazy, influential Teen Apolcalypse Trilogy, comprised of the films Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation and Nowhere. It’s been a long time coming, so let’s dig in! Totally F***ed Up from 1993 follows the lives…
Tattooed Life [Radiance Films] Blu-ray Review
Tetsu (Hideki Takahashi) and Kenji (Kotobuki Hananamoto) are brothers, very different in temperament but bonded by blood. Tetsu is a hardened yakuza hitman who finds himself on the other end of a Yakuza altercation, but is saved by more sensitive and artistic Kenji, leaving Tetsu’s attacker dead. They are both forced to skip town for…
I Remember Mama Blu-ray review
George Stevens’ I Remember Mama is considering to be one his biggest achievements in the director’s career. The 1948 drama was based on John von Duten’s play, which was based the novel by Kathryn Forbes which was called Mama’s Bank Account. The film has a mighty fine cast with Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Sir…
Viva La Muerte! [Radiance] Blu-ray Review
A young boy named Fando watches as his father is executed by firing squad after the Spanish Civil War under the Franco dictatorship. He comes to discover that it was his mother who actually turned his father in due to their conflicting political ideologies. The film follows Fando as his imagination conjures up bizarre and…
Exhuma [Well Go USA] Blu-ray Review
Exhuma begins when a well-to-do Korean-American family solicits help from a geomancer and his team of shamans to aid in discovering why their infant is in constant unrest, hospitalized and crying non-stop. The world-weary geomancer (Choi Min-sik of Oldboy and I Saw the Devil) discovers that the source of the disturbance is at an ancestral…