FOLLOWING FILMS - Podcast, Movies, Music, and More

2017 Directed by: Ashley Avis Starring: Mischa Barton, Jackson Davis, Winter Ave Zoli, and Trent Ford DESERTED was inspired by photography Avis saw five years ago. She was on set and her DP approached her with photographs he had shot over the weekend. The photos of Death Valley struck a chord with Avis. She described them as "endless stretches of beauty and nothingness." She didn't immediately have the story, but she knew she wanted to tell one there. The film she developed is the story of being hopelessly lost in a place that is equally beautiful and dangerous. When Jae (Mischa Barton) is released from jail she returns to her former small-town home in California. Rural America often trades in gossip and judgement. With both subtle and at times downright obvious prejudice following her everywhere, she is looking for any excuse to get out of town. When she hears her brother Robin (Jackson Davis) and his girlfriend (Winter Ave Zoli) are heading north to attend ...

Directed by: Miles Joris-Peyrafitte Written by: Miles Joris-Peyrafitte & Madison Harrison Starring: Charlie Heaton, Owen Campbell, Amandla Stenberg, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Scott Cohen 24-year-old director Miles Joris-Peryrafitte intentionally decided to make a coming of age story while he was still connected to his youth. He wanted to capture the intensity and weight of adolescence before he was too old to remember what it was like. The problem with most coming of age stories, is they are being written and directed by adults who either romanticize or demonize youth culture. The films are either AMERICAN GRAFFITI or KIDS, both with merit but disconnected from any reality I ever experienced.  We easily forget what it’s like to make practical contact with life and feel love as a young adult. We too often focus on the lack of responsibility and view that time in life as a carefree romp. The lack of scarring can make the teenage years painful in ways that we as ...

2016 Directed by: Andrew C. Erin Starring: Julie Benz, Fionnula Flanagan, and Belle Shouse Written by: Daniel Farrands Jackie (Julie Bez) is in need of some help, she needs a place to stay. A sanctuary where she can reflect on the past and quiet her demons. The guilt of losing her child and an ongoing struggle with addiction are consuming her every thought. In this regard, Havenhurst appears to be a godsend. An insanely beautiful gothic apartment complex where the rent is what you can afford and the house rules are simple enough: live a virtuous life and you can stay as long as you wish. Break the rules…. A terrifying opening sequence featuring a cameo from Daniel Harris (Halloween 4, The Last Boy Scout, Hatchet) goes a long way to establish the brutal tone of the film. Interestingly, Farrands was also the screenwriter for Halloween 6. A film that was supposed to feature a cameo from Harris. I’m not sure if her appearance in HAVENHURST was in any way a response to her not re...

2016 Directed By Christopher Smith Starring: Tye Sheridan, Emory Cohen, Bel Powley, Stephen Moyer Christopher Smith has taken an obvious love of film noir and managed to craft one of the most impressive neo-noirs since Rian Johnson's 2005 film BRICK. Harper (Tye Sheridan), an arrogant but socially clueless law student, has become convinced that his stepfather (Stephen Moyer) is responsible for the accident that has left his mother hospitalized and comatose. We meet Harper (whose name is a nod to the 1966 Paul Newman film) drinking whiskey in a bar that's probably not the regular watering hole for most aspiring young attorneys. As if by accident, he finds himself in a conversation/conflict with Johnny (Emory Cohen) and his girlfriend, Cherry (Bel Powley). When the morning comes, Harper is faced with two choices, on one path he chooses to kill and on the other chooses to face his suspicions directly. Using a split narrative structure, Smith allows the viewer to ...

GO NORTH Directed By: Matt Ogens Starring: Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sophie Clark Kennedy and Jacob Lofland Films about young adults or children struggling with the reality of a dystopian future are nothing new. A BOY AND HIS DOG, LORD OF THE FLIES, and BATTLE ROYALE all predate THE HUNGER GAMES and DIVERGENT films by years if not decades. They have always been an effective way of conveying the isolation and hopelessness that accompanies growing into adulthood. So, with that in mind GO NORTH the latest film from director Matt Owens owes more to 1984 or BADLANDS than the ever so played out YA novel to film adaptations that have been infesting our multiplexes over the last 7 or 8 years. GO NORTH takes places in the wake of an ill-defined catastrophe that has wiped out most of our population. A small community of children and teenagers are left following former high school jocks as they attempt to hang on to the ashes of civilization. Josh (Schwarzenegger) is something of a...

Mexican journalism exists in a world of exploitation and aggrandizement that is uniquely its own. In newspapers throughout the country pictures of naked models are juxtaposed with images of cartel massacres. Sex and violence are interwoven as they quickly address the most base of our desires. There is an honesty in this kind of media that (while not high-minded) speaks volumes about what excites us and arouses our darkest senses.     WE ARE THE FLESH starts with a young brother and sister in a crumbling Mexican city. It’s safe to assume they have been roaming the streets for years in search of food and shelter.  Early in the film, they take refuge with an older hermit who quickly puts them to work building a cavernous structure inside his building. The hermit begins to act out on his fantasies and pushes the brother and sister to explore/take action on their most deplorable impulses. Director Emiliano Rocha Minter began working professionally in film a...

2016 Directed By: Cameron Cairnes and Colin Cairnes Starring: Meegan Warner, Ian Meadows, and Olivia DeJonge Whatever your thoughts on reality television are, most reasonable people would agree we have reached something of culture low point when you look at our media consumption. Sure, it can be argued that we are in the "golden age" of television, but I think of it as the "volume age." Some great stuff is out there, but for every STRANGER THINGS, we get five REAL HOUSEWIVES, literally five if you don't count reunion and recap shows. It's not so much that the studios have decided to make quality products as the sheer number of outlets have demanded micro-targeting, and in-turn some pretty interesting content and unique voices are being allowed to flourish. One of the side-effects of that niche programming has been a rise in horror series. While studios have always been willing to make low-budget gore fests for cinemas (because they were always ...

Ti West is one of the most influential and highly regarded directors working in genre film. While he made his name working on horror films (HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, THE INNKEEPERS and THE SACRAMENT) those of us following his career knew he would eventually move into other genres or more mainstream fare. He was just too damn good not to cross-over.  After finishing his last film West wanted to "do something different... to make a movie that was a real celebration of cinema." Is there anything more cinematic than a western? At the same time producer Jason Bloom and actor, Ethan Hawke (Paul) were looking to do an action western together. They saw this as an opportunity to finish out an unofficial trilogy of action films. SINISTER was their "action thriller" film, THE PURGE was their "action horror" film and Ti West pitched them what would become IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE, their "action western." I personally never saw SINISTER as an action film and T...

2016 Directed By: Thomas Dekker Starring: Rory Culkin, Britt Robertson, Lin Shaye, Louis Hunter, Natasha Lyonne and Daveigh Chase Grief is an experience most of us have a difficult time navigating. Most f ace loss and process it in their own way. We have a difficult time offering sympathy and helping our friends when they grieve . How can we offer any words of comfort or advice to help without sounding like a cliche? When someone shows an absence of grief or is devoid of emotion in what most would consider incredibly difficult times, it can be downright unsettling.  Jack (Culkin) returns to his family home to help his mother (Shaye) when his father is killed in a car accident. He claims to be at peace with the tragedy a few hours after it happens and offers no emotional support to his mother. In one of the more powerful exchanges in the film, Jack confronts his mother about how she is handling her loss. The scene is played (as are most in the film) fr...

Eight years ago the producers of DENIAL both had children who were applying to different colleges. After looking into Emory University in Atlanta, where Deborah E. Lipstadt is a professor of modern Jewish history and studies, they came across an announcement that the university had granted $1 million to translate portions of her Emory-based website, HDOT , which archives all materials from her trial into Farsi, Arabic, Russian and Turkish. This story inspired the producers to get a copy of her book and they immediately thought it would make a great movie. DENIAL is the highly anticipated theatrical follow-up to director Mick Jackson's Emmy Award-winning TV film TEMPLE GUARDIAN. In England, libel cases work a bit differently than they do here in the States, the burden of proof lies squarely on the shoulders of the defendant. Based on the popular and critically acclaimed novel Denial: Holocaust History on Trial, DENIAL is the story of Deborah E Lipstadt's (Rachel Wei...

About six years ago one of the largest man-made ecological disasters occurred on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. A failure so catastrophic that ripple-effects of the incident can still be felt to this day. Most of us were glued to our televisions over the course of 87 days while 3.9 million gallons of oil poured into the sea. We focused our attention on BP and what could possibly be done to stop the tragedy.  Director Peter Berg (Lone Survivor) has again teamed up with Mark Walberg (The Fighter) this time to tell the untold story of the heroic men and women who faced remarkable circumstances with exceptional bravery on one of our darkest days.  Mike Williams (Wallberg) is dedicated to his family and his career as the Chief Electronics Officer aboard the Deepwater Horizon. His work requires him to leave his wife (Kate Hudson) and daughter (Stella Allen) behind for weeks at a time, a sacrifice that he doesn't take lightly as he is fully aware of the risk he takes eve...

2016 Directed By: Jim Gufferson Starring: Donald Trump, Jeb Bush Ted Cruz and Jimmy Fallon ONE NATION UNDER TRUMP claims to be a “balanced examination” of the Donald’s bid for our highest office but as you’ve probably guessed it’s a superlative-laden puff piece. ONUT or O-NUT (as I like to call it) presents itself as a documentary but it's really just designed to prop up a candidate to those who already support him. The film is redundant in its message and execution and thereby adds nothing to our national conversation. At one point the narrator actually says "anything less than extraordinary simply wasn't in his DNA" when covering his book CRIPPLED AMERICA. I was fully prepared for a biased look at the candidate but I had no idea this film would be nothing more than the musings of a sycophant.  O-NUT : Trump :: Flavor Flav : Chuck D. My apologies to Falv and Chuck D for bringing them into this mess but I've never seen a film act as ...

2016 Directed By: Tim Kirkman Starring: Lucas Near-Verbrugghe, Aaron Costa Ganis and Michaela Watkins Most of us have a person in our lives whose memory we can't quite shake. No matter how many relationships come and go, questions bounce around in the back of our minds. Where are they? Who are they with? Are they happy? Do they think about me as much as I think about them? Dean (Lucas Near-Verbruggle) has eye trouble in both the literal and figurative sense. He needs new glasses and he has a difficult time seeing the past for what it was. He is a man in dire need of perspective. 15 years ago he was devastated when Alex (Aaron Cost Ganis) disappeared without warning. The lack of closure has left Dean heavyhearted and emotionally arrested. One day an email from Alex appears in Deans inbox. Almost as quickly as he left, he returns.We slowly find out why Alex left as they spend a weekend together in the Mojave Desert. The film is shot and performed in a naturalisti...

2016 Directed By Mark Potts Starring: Ben Crutcher and Winston Carter To describe Clark (Ben Crutcher) as apathetic would be a gross understatement in illustrating this unmotivated halfhearted shell of a man. Soon after encountering a spoiled bowl of  spaghetti and a broken microwave Clark is transformed into SPAGHETTIMAN. Yes, this is that tired cliche of a man fighting crime with an endless supply pasta. Imagine SPIDERMAN with pasta instead of webs and you'll be half way there. The difference being that our hero sees his metamorphosis as an opportunity to make some money. With great power comes great profitability. Potts and Crutcher who also share writing credits on the film allow Calrk to be an incredibly unlikeable lead. Some might describe him as narcissistic but that involves self-love and I'm not sure he's capable of affection. He is a shiftless slacker who doesn't care about himself, the people he saves or his roommate. The only real pleasure he see...

2016 Directed By: Christopher Phelps Lake Nowhere is designed to look like the slasher films of the VHS heyday. Not unlike the brilliant HOUSE OF THE DEVIL this film feels like it was somehow lost for the last 30 years. The attention to detail with regards to production design, film stock and sound mixing are stunning... and by that I mean they are appropriately terrible. But this film has more going on than a horror homage Grindhouse style knock off. It takes more than video denigration and tracking issues to make an entertaining film. That sort of gimmick could carry a film through its first act but the story and characters have to transcend the visual to make this a film worth your time. The trick to this film and what makes it so special is that its made with love. Most films like this are parody exercises made with a wink and a nod. Their only mission is to point out how dumb everything you are watching is. They are the film equivalent of a hipster wearing a shirt w...

Download MP3 In today's episode Nate and Austin compare Duncan Jones' best and worst rated films, Moon (2009) and Warcraft (2016), respectively. We all hated the acting in Warcraft (and pretty much everything else), Nate is seriously confused, and Spencer keeps squeaking his chair. Check back next Sunday at 7pm PST where we will compare Robert Zemeckis' Forest Gump (1994) and Beowulf (2007), his best and worst rated films. Also check out some behind the scenes pictures from Warcraft : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuXSH6msnjM Warcraft Notes Worst Rated PLOT : As an Orc horde invades the planet Azeroth using a magic portal, a few human heroes and dissenting Orcs must attempt to stop the true evil behind this war. Ratings : IMDb 7.4 | RT 29% C / 78% A Released : 2016 Director : Duncan Jones (Source Code) Writ er(s) : Charles Leavitt, Duncan Jones Cinematographer : Simon Duggan Notable actors : Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic...

  2015 Roger Corman and Charles Band Soapbox time... Its the middle of the summer and grandpa is cranky. Something happens when you get older, when you get married, have kids, slow down and in many ways start your life... you look back at your youth with reverence and want to give your kids all the things you once loved. One of the problems with being a film fan who discovered movies in the 80's is that world no longer exists. Independent theaters and video stores (staples of my youth) are all but erased from our cultural and physical landscape. I'm fortunate to live in a town that has one remaining video store and one revival house, both of whom are kept open with support of the retirees and college hipsters.      My kids will never know a world without Netflix, Hulu and The Pirate Bay. Born into a world where television is more synonymous with quality than film, something that was unthinkable a little more than a decade ago. But as far as I can ...

2016 Directed By Taika Waititi Starring: Sam Neill and Julian Dennison  Hunt for the Wilderpeople  effortlessly combines elements of a typical coming-of-age comedy with a fish out of water tale and despite treading on well-traveled ground manages to create something completely original. This film absolutely exists in its own world and while it might draw comparisons to others, those comparisons will only be surface level and in no way speak to the sheer originality of the film. Weened on Gangster Rap and foster care, Ricky is given what appears to be his last chance at family life in the New Zealand countryside. His caring Aunt Bella makes adjusting to rural living seamless.  When a tragedy strikes that threatens to ship Ricky to another home, both he and Hec go on the run. HFW is essentially about a troubled pre-teen and his reluctant guardian discovering what it means to be family. Sam Neill gives an understated, grumpy performance as Hec that ...