Some documentaries exist simply to catalog a thing that happened. What’s the Story, Wishbone? exists to explain how something that should have been impossible not only worked, but worked so well that it is still lodged deep in the collective memory of an entire generation. This is the story of a television show that took an absurd amount of effort, coordination, and risk, yet somehow made all of that chaos look effortless on screen.
Read MoreA Soft Cry and a Hard Case: Reminders of Him Lands on Physical
I’ll admit it. Weeks ago, I heard a half-joking theory that Him, that Marlon Wayans horror flick, and Reminders of Him exist in the same universe. They don’t. Obviously. But the idea stuck in my brain just enough to nudge me toward a movie I probably would have skipped.
Read MoreMore Crowe, Less Cage: Beast Struggles to Land the Blow
Beast starts strong. The opening minutes drop us straight into a real ONE Championship arena, with genuine refs, real fighters, and a tangible sense of scale as our lead makes his way toward the stage. The cheers bounce off the walls and echo through the venue, lending the whole sequence an immediacy that’s hard to fake.
Read MoreMermaid Is a Sunburnt Fairy Tale That Never Quite Comes Alive
Mermaid opens with Tom Arnold rambling his way into the movie like he just wandered on set and they decided to keep the camera rolling. It immediately sets the tone. Loose. Slightly improvised. Familiar faces everywhere.
Read MoreThe Inverts: Screenlife Paranoia With Its Eye Wide Open
The Inverts is a zero-budget screenlife short that punches way above its weight, using paranoia, texture, and surgical editorial control to get under your skin in just six minutes. Written, directed, edited, and starring Evan Jordan, the film presents itself as a personal archive. An abductee assembles video evidence, testimonies, and found footage that suggest a hidden truth about the world and about himself.
Read MorePretty Pictures and Shaky Cons: Finding the Cracks in Forge
Jing Ai Ng’s Forge wastes no time easing the audience in. It drops you straight into the shady mechanics of the art trade, a world of quick handshakes, quiet reputations, and paintings that change identities faster than their owners. That opening is sharp and confident, almost deceptively so, because once the initial jolt fades, the film settles into a long stretch of careful setup that never quite regains that early intensity.
Read MoreWarm, Strange, and Patient: Revisiting The Taste of Tea
Some films announce themselves loudly. Katsuhito Ishii’s The Taste of Tea does the opposite. It drifts in, now newly restored, settling into the theater with a clarity and warmth that makes its long-cultivated reputation suddenly feel earned all over again.
Read MoreCosmic Kink With Feelings: Addison Heimann’s Touch Me Is Horny Horror Done Right
There are films that dare you to tap out, and then there are films that dare you to stay open. Touch Me very firmly belongs to the latter category. Addison Heimann’s psychosexual sci-fi horror comedy is loud, horny, emotionally sincere, and deeply strange, and somehow all of those things coexist without the movie collapsing under the weight of its own ambition.
Read MoreRenny Harlin Makes Plane Crashes Scary Again in Deep Water
Renny Harlin is back, and not quietly. Deep Water feels like the kind of movie Hollywood stopped making somewhere between post 9/11 seriousness and the rise of sanitized CG spectacle. It is big, pulpy, unapologetically intense, and more vicious than it has any right to be.
Read MoreMore Murder, Same Cozy Charm: Harry Wild Series 4
Somewhere between a warm cup of tea and a perfectly untaxing whodunit sits Harry Wild, a show that feels designed to be shared. I know this because after covering earlier seasons, I casually mentioned it to my mom and discovered she was already a fan. That pretty much seals the deal.
Read MoreContent: Found Footage for the Terminally Online
Adam Meilech’s Content is the kind of screenlife movie that makes you wonder why you ever doubted the format in the first place. This thing doesn’t just use phones and laptops as a gimmick. It weaponizes them.
Read MoreSaturday Morning Monsters: Why Tales from ’85 Feels Like Classic Stranger Things Again
At roughly 24 to 28 minutes per episode, Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 moves fast. Maybe a little too fast sometimes, but the short runtime keeps the energy high and the momentum constant. You finish one episode and immediately roll into the next, not because of obligation, but because it gets under your skin in that familiar Hawkins way.
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