March 28th is a blessed day for all fans of Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! The deranged duo’s newest perversion, The Beefhouse Boys, premiered on Adult Swim, and, it should be noted, this glorious gift could have been ours much sooner if Eric Wareheim had his way. During the early days of Coronavirus Panic, he called on Adult Swim to “release the Beef” and let the show drop earlier.
Read MoreVFW (2019)
I first became interested in Joe Begos back in 2016 after watching his Almost Human and The Mind’s Eye. I knew he would soon be making bigger films and in 2019 he released two pictures. I have yet to see Bliss, the first of the duo to be released, but last night I checked out VFW.
Read MoreContagion (2011) #RetroReview
With Coronavirus being at the forefront of many people’s minds right now, I decided to freak myself out even more by revisiting Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion from 2011. An ensemble drama that samples from the medical thriller, disaster epic, and plague film genres, we experience the impact of a highly contagious novel virus on the world through the perspectives of a diverse cast of characters. Clinical but personable, global but intimate, and smart but accessible, the film believably illustrates how quickly a virus can spread and the unpredictable societal consequences it can unleash.
Read MoreThe Hunt (2020)
Hey, CineDump, you ever wondered what would happen if a meme generator, a Wikipedia article about Animal Farm, and a bucket of blood squibs got drunk and pity-fucked every French Extremist movie still hanging around at closing time? Well, in case you haven’t, The Hunt is here to answer that entirely hypothetical question. The plot of The Hunt is simplicity itself: a bunch of conservative trolls wake up in a Hunger Games meet budget store Battle Royale version of The Most Dangerous Game where they are systematically hunted by sleek, wealthy liberals until a predictable Final Girl smashes her way to the heart of the conspiracy a la You’re Next, leading to a climactic show-down full of shattered glass, weaponized homewares, and some good old-fashioned face trauma, much like the lively final minutes of Tarantino’s own conservative shitshow, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Read MoreGanja & Hess (1973) #RetroReview
To ease me out of the ugly world of doomed romances, star-crossed psychosexual throwdowns, and matches made in hell, I decided to come down easy with 1973’s Ganja & Hess. Dreamy, surreal, brutally sad and chaotically stylish, this film puts a new spin on the threadbare vampire mythos while tackling issues of mental health, addiction, spirituality, and the struggles of African Americans in an increasingly violent, unforgiving America. Like all good vampire tales, the movie looks at the process and consequences of transformation.
Read MoreThe Shining (1980) #AmourFoubruary
The Shining was re-released last year to the big screen, and through a series of misadventures, I ended up going to what felt like countless showings of it. Other than being impressed with the sound design more, more than anything else, being sequestered in what felt like numberless windowless rooms, watching the same story play out again and again, I think the movie’s true terror opened up to me. Now, I’m not suggesting that you drive yourself to the brink of unquiet desperation by endless repeated viewings of The Shining, but if you want to take part in the protagonists’ claustrophobic, doomed ennui, there’s no experience like the verite sort.
Read MoreDisappearance at Clifton Hill (2019)
I remember the first time I saw Niagara Falls. I was five years old, and as my father held me up to the rail at the observation deck, I was alternately mesmerized and horrified. Albert Shin's Disappearance at Clifton Hill brought me back to that moment.
Read MoreAntichrist (2009) #AmourFoubruary
This series originally started out as three films, the two already featured, and The Shining to cap things off, but it’s a leap year, my dears, and along with an extra day, I decided to treat myself to an extra dollop of depression and cover one more ode to ugly love with Von Trier’s much-maligned, impossible to ignore Antichrist. The story is oh-so-simple, and it’s all the uglier for it. An unnamed man, credited only as He, and his wife, She, engage in passionate sex while their infant son plummets from an open window.
Read More