8.5
It is not everyday you walk away from a film and think the 30-minute, one-take aspect is the least interesting about it, but it is rings true for Ueda's layered horror comedy experience.
6.5
What is so interesting about Dukun's tackling of witchcraft as a horror subject is that the tension does not come from whether or not it is real, but from what the sadistic soul who practices it will do with her unregistered power.
7
Kanato Wolf's Smokin' on the Moon is a bait-and-switch exercise that begins with an anarchist sense of untethered visual chaos and grinds down to a cloying but effective buddy picture.
5
Scythian Lamb is a pointed, but utterly airless, exploration of a topic that Yoshida struggles to mold.
5.5
Attempting to highlight the idea that rumors have real-world consequences for the unlucky ones they concern, The Hungry Lion is a meditation on the effects of schoolyard buzz on one of its victims in a monopolizing, objective manner, which dryly makes its opinions heard through blank, repetitive sermonizing about the ills of the young people.
7.5
In possibly the most dreary film seen in decades, Yue Dong’s The Looming Storm presents an intriguing Chinese noir, set in a town sandwiched between four factories where a man’s obsession brings him to ruin. Bathed in melancholy, Dong crafts a fascinating mystery buttressed by a magnificent performance by Yihong Duan.
First, we took a look at five films to look out for at this year’s Fantasia Festival, now we’re going to highlight five films we’re excited to see in Montreal. There’s a huge number of titles to be excited for this
Montreal’s Fantasia Festival is almost upon us, and with its large number of great looking selections, we thought it would be a good idea to highlight a few titles we recommend checking out. Fantasia will be taking place July 12th through August
6.5
If you can get past the ridiculous CG blood (clearly I can’t), The Age of Blood is an entertaining period piece that proves the time period isn’t just reserved for Japanese and Chinese cinema.
6
Officially formed in 1973 and still doing shows to this day with its original members, The Wynners isn’t a very widely known band outside the members’ native Hong Kong, but there, they will go down in history as one of the most famous and prolific Cantopop groups ever.
5.5
Shot in just eight days, Richard Somes’ Filipino actioner We Will Not Die Tonight evokes a lo-fi version of Walter Hill’s The Warriors, delivering unrelenting violence from the first act that never lets up.
9
The assembled teenage tragedies that populate River's Edge aren't suffering in their nihilistic angst to provide a lesson, however, so much as they are there to exist and envelop you into their dead-end state of mind, living as they do in presumably hazardous proximity to an industrial district that is polluting the rivers that run behind the school from which they frequently skip.
6
The Blood of Wolves is a studied, committed throwback to the blood-soaked, abrasive Yakuza films in the vain of Kinji Fukasaku
6
There exists good intentions behind Harada's want to focus on the plight of Edo women and the disproportionate favoritism of the institution of marriage at the time, but lacking the follow-through and giving into broad populist appeals to entertainment makes these intents inherently shallow.
7
Kore-eda remains staunchly pragmatic in laying out this case as to make sure the “correct” lesson is taken away, and that makes the whole exercise falter significantly.
7.5
When it is knee-deep in prowling the ins and outs of the porn industry, the film shines as provocatively as Boogie Nights, but peering past this fun surface confronts you with little to no depth for the avatar doing the prowling.
