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Punk by the Pacific: San Pedro Gears Up for Punk In The Park 2025

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4K Blu-ray Review: Dark City - A Noir-Soaked Sci-Fi Masterpiece of Identity and Illusion

Alex Proyas’s Dark City is a noir-infused science fiction mystery that blends philosophical musings with striking visual storytelling. Released in 1998, it came just a year before The Matrix, and though less commercially successful, it remains a cult favorite and a profoundly influential work in its own right. With a dense atmosphere, shadowy aesthetics, and themes of identity and reality, Dark City is a fascinating meditation on what it means to be human—wrapped in a pulpy detective tale with science-fiction flair. The film opens with protagonist John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) waking up in a bathtub in a grimy hotel room, suffering from amnesia. A dead body lies nearby. He quickly discovers he’s being pursued—not only by the police, led by the world-weary Inspector Bumstead (William Hurt), but also by a group of pale, sinister figures known only as “The Strangers.” As Murdoch scrambles to uncover the truth about his identity and his past, he begins to notice peculiarities about the city ...

Following Films Podcast: Dermot Mulroney and Salvador Litvak on GUNS AND MOSES

  Today we’re joined by two remarkable guests: acclaimed actor Dermot Mulroney, whose filmography spans everything from My Best Friend’s Wedding to Young Guns and Yellowstone… and director Salvador Litvak, whose bold new film Guns & Moses is already sparking conversation across the country. Inspired by real events, Guns & Moses follows a desert rabbi who becomes an unlikely warrior when his community is attacked—blending the intensity of an action-thriller with the heart of a deeply personal story. It’s a film that takes on antisemitism, courage, and what it means to protect what matters most… all with style, grit, and yes, a little Hitchcock flair. Guns & Moses is now playing. For more information, visit the official website .

Blu-ray Review: Dexter: Original Sin – A Bloody Good Return to Form

  Few television antiheroes have carved their niche into pop culture quite like Dexter Morgan. With his soft-spoken menace, rigid moral code, and disarmingly clinical charm, he became an icon of the Golden Age of Television. Dexter: Original Sin, the new prequel series on Paramount+ and Showtime, dives into the origin story of Miami’s favorite forensic analyst-slash-serial killer. It’s a bold, bloody resurrection—one that largely works, especially for longtime fans eager to see how the Dark Passenger was born. Set in 1991, the series begins with young Dexter (Patrick Gibson) navigating his final days as a pre-med student and wrestling with something far darker than career anxiety: the awakening of his homicidal urges. The central premise is clear from the first episode—Dexter isn’t just tempted to kill; he needs to. Under the guidance of his adoptive father Harry (Christian Slater), a world-weary Miami Metro homicide detective, Dexter begins to harness this urge through “The Code”—...

Blu-ray Review: The Friend - Grief, Grace, and a Great Dane

In The Friend, Scott McGehee and David Siegel deliver a tender, bittersweet meditation on grief, creativity, and unexpected companionship. Adapted from Sigrid Nunez’s award-winning novel, this quietly powerful film captures the complexities of loss and the strange, sometimes redemptive places where solace can be found. Led by a soulful performance from Naomi Watts and the remarkable on-screen presence of a Great Dane named Bing, The Friend is a deeply felt character study wrapped in the gentle absurdity of real life. Watts stars as Iris, a seasoned New York writer whose seemingly stable life is disrupted by the suicide of her longtime mentor and closest confidant, Walter (Bill Murray). As a final, bewildering gesture of their bond, Walter bequeaths his enormous and emotionally wounded dog, Apollo, to Iris—a self-described cat person living in a tiny apartment with a strict no-pets lease. What begins as an inconvenience quickly becomes something far more profound. Apollo, the grief-stri...

Blu-ray Review: The Wedding Banquet (2025) – A Joyful Reimagining of Queer Love and Family Legacy

Andrew Ahn’s 2025 reimagining of The Wedding Banquet breathes vibrant, contemporary life into Ang Lee’s 1993 classic, proving that some stories—when handled with heart, humor, and vision—grow deeper with time. While the original film offered a poignant reflection on gay identity and familial obligation in a pre-marriage equality era, Ahn’s version builds upon that foundation, crafting a richer, more complex tapestry of queer experience, immigrant culture, and chosen family in a world where acceptance still carries weighty caveats. At its core, The Wedding Banquet (2025) is a screwball comedy of errors built on a foundation of very real, very modern anxieties: reproductive healthcare, green card limbo, generational trauma, and the fear of never being enough for the people we love. But what distinguishes Ahn’s version from so many modern remakes is that it doesn’t chase nostalgia. Instead, it revisits the soul of the original—its humanity, messiness, and quiet subversion—and expands it w...

Review: Mr. Blake at Your Service!

Gilles Legardinier’s Mr. Blake at Your Service! is a whimsical, heartwarming film that melds English wit with French charm in a story about grief, healing, and rediscovery. Adapted from Legardinier’s own best-selling novel ( Complètement Cramé! ) and brought to life under his directorial guidance, the film offers a compelling blend of comedy, emotional depth, and feel-good nostalgia. With the legendary John Malkovich in the title role, the movie leans into its strengths—rich character interactions, quirky humor, and a universal message about second chances. At the center of this tale is Andrew Blake, a widowed English businessman who finds himself aimless and emotionally adrift after the death of his wife, Diane. Seeking solace, he travels to France to revisit the manor where he and Diane first fell in love. However, a misunderstanding turns his quiet pilgrimage into something far more unexpected—he ends up being mistaken for a domestic job applicant and is “hired” as a butler at the...