If there’s one director we will constantly stand behind, it’s Guy Ritchie. He won us over long ago with his cockney criminal capers and since then has capably handled the worlds of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Norman Felton/Sam Rolfe and even Disney, but now he’s trying something completely different. Take a look at his latest filmic venture where Guy grabs another Hollywood star (following RDJ and Will Smith and Matthew McConaughey) and puts them through the lens de Ritchie…and this time around he trades his trademark quips and quotes for bullets and booms. All things said, this looks stellar and what’s also great is that this will be here in…
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Interview…Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro on Meatwad, Mooninites and New Jersey in ‘Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm’
One of the funniest and long-standing creations in the Adult Swim line up is the trio of distasteful fast food roommates otherwise know as the Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Frylock, Meatwad and Master Shake have made it through all sorts of hijinx and calamity over the years, even the recent pandemic. And while the world was facing the end of days, Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro were cooking up a brand new story for our heroes to star in: Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm. In the hilarious 75-minute adventure, the combo meal trio attempt to save the world from a plant-based extinction level event all the while taking potshots at Elon Musk,…
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Interview…Anthony Molinari Talks Stunts, Blunts and Good Vibes in ‘The Last Deal’
Black market marijuana dealer Vince is living the high life in Los Angeles, but everything changes when new laws pass making cannabis legal. With limited dispensary licenses available, Vince may be squeezed out of the business. He’s desperate to make one final score, but borrows money from the wrong people. The pic, a captivating profusion of HEAT and SAVAGES, nabbed Best Director at the Boston Film Festival, and later, the Jury Prize for Best Performance at the San Antonio Film Festival. The film stars versatile and seasoned stuntman-turned-leading man Anthony Molinari, and he squares off against Sala Baker (known to Lord of the Rings fans as Sauron) in the non-stop…
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Interview…Dominic Mariche and Calem MacDonald on Goo, Gore and Good Times in ‘Kids Vs. Aliens’
For all you film fans missing the days of Saturday morning cartoons and gleeful amounts of practical gore, Jason Eisener has something right up your alley. His gooey homage to weird, wild and extraterrestrial yarns from yesteryear will keep you entertained for the full run time. His latest is a raunchy throwback thrill ride about kids fighting aliens…and you really don’t need much more of a premise than that. Suffice to say, there is a whole lot of fantasy and sci-fi elements mixed in for good measure which makes this genre stew overstuffed (and gross) yet highly surprising and satisfying. We saw Kids Vs. Aliens last September and spoke to…
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Sweet Trailers…Best and Brightest of 2023
2022 is officially in the history books, and what’s on the horizon for 2023 looks nothing short of legendary. That is not hyperbole. The slate of films set for release this year seem like the universe aligned to keep film fans smiling for a full calendar year. Two very big months look to be March and June and there will be some heavy competition for your dollars on the silver screen. It’s no surprise that a lot of tent pole films will be sequels or superhero titles (or both) but there’s also some highly anticipated features coming from mega-star directors. To us, this is a pretty eyebrow-raising list but no…
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Interview…Casper Kelly, Andrea Laing and Justin Miles on ‘Adult Swim Yule Log’
If you’re looking at the calendar, we are just four days from Christmas. That might seem like eons to children, but if you’re an Adult Swim fan, then you already got your present courtesy of Casper Kelly and his warped take on the classic yule log starring Andrea Laing and Justin Miles. The acclaimed writer/director dropped his anti-holiday bomb on the world following the Season Six finale of Rick and Morty. Well, that bomb went boooom, and 91 absurdly shocking minutes later Kelly has another hit on his hands, as well as the channel’s first-ever live-action feature. This is just as dense, bizarre and out of left field as his previous…
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Interview…Director Elijah Allan-Blitz on Brie Larson, Ideas and Dreams in ‘Remembering’
Where do ideas come from? And where do they go when they’re forgotten? Well, leave it to Elijah Allan-Blitz to throw his hat in the ring and give us an infinitely charming short called Remembering. This endearing and inspiring effort shows the kind of big-picture concepts running through the Emmy award-winning director’s mind. The short film should leave all viewers clamoring for more – if not for a deeper dive into this captivating concept but just more time in this world. Good news is that in our interview Allan-Blitz told us that, yes, this is a proof of concept exercise that could dive deeper into plenty of trades/professions/creatives. Huzzah! This…
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Back to the Orchestra: The Sound of VCRs, Analog TV, and Flying Cars
Some things have certain smells that have the capacity to transport to a very specific place. Be it your mother’s cooking or the perfume of the one you shared your first kiss with, you can go to a specific memory and relive it over and over. How about the cinema? Can the smell of stale popcorn, artificial butter flavoring and dirty carpets take you some place? The same thing happens with sounds and music. Film scores have been part of cinema ever since sound was incorporated into the reel. Can you imagine Indiana Jones fighting Nazis without John Williams’ score in the background? Or Marty McFly riding his skateboard without Alan…
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Interview…Composer Nathan Johnson on Harpsichords, Travelogues and ‘Glass Onion’
For those of you needing a classically clever whodunnit to add to your cinematic plate this holiday session, look no further than Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion. The next installment in Benoit Blanc mystery series is whip smart, hilarious, exquisite and layered…you know, like an onion. Herein, Johnson and company outdo everything in their last detective yarn. Bigger stakes, bigger laughs, bigger onions – it’s an exceptional outing! Every element just sings, and again Rian enlists his cousin Nathan Johnson to write a fitting score to accompany the masterful story. While subsequent yarns in the series are meant to be stand-alone events, the further adventures of the Kentucky-fried character required Johnson…
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Interview…Fest Friends: Natalie Metzger, Joe Badon, Tiffany Kimmel, Dawn Luebbe and Margaret Miller
Fantastic Fest 2022 was one of the very best – it’s certainly tops in my book for all the years we’ve covered and attended. One take away that is more impactful and enduring than seeing some gonzo foreign film, sitting for a secret screening or getting in on the ground floor for the next big genre spectacle is the people. Whether it’s the fans, the festival staff (including those hard-working volunteers!) or the filmmakers, there is a certain kind of magical haze that only exists on the festival circuit. Moreover, I fondly (and sometimes fuzzily) recall the conversations, chance encounters and unexpected friendships that have emerged from being in the…
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Interview…Director Cyrus Neshvad on ‘The Red Suitcase’
Director Cyrus Neshvad’s The Red Suitcase is a heartbreaking story of a 16-year-old Iranian girl who is visibly terrified after picking up her red suitcase at the airport. She is seen to be lost in thought and taking her time to leave the departure lounge. What awaits her on the other side of the automatic doors is even more daunting than we thought. In the story, Neshvad uses the narrative as a metaphor for things the main character Ariane (stunningly played by Nawelle Ewad) faces culturally and personally; she does not accept how things are, the life her parents gave her, or the traditions that exist in her own country.…
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Interview…Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead Dig Deep into Sci-Fi with ‘Something In the Dirt’
Filmmaking dynamic duo, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead are scientific anomalies in cinema. Their stories are so uniquely their own and so much so, they find themselves at the forefront of the genre landscape. But they’re also at the forefront of their own cinematic lens. If infamous is when you’re more than famous, then “in cinema” means, they are actually IN the movies. Yet for all the intergalactic yarns that have endeared them to scores of festival crowds, they try to dive into people more than plots. And when they do, even something as seemingly simple as that becomes a huge hot pot of thought-provoking ideas and genres. Sci-fi, comedy,…
