Film and TV Reviews and Podcasts
There are no talking heads, no title cards (save for the occasional running clock to show the passing of the day), and no opening crawl giving the history of the bar or who these people are. Some stay throughout the entirety of the film, some try to stay and end up drinking too much, and some we only meet halfway through, but each one the Ross brothers feature makes a memorable impression.
The Invisible Man Returns may not be as engaging and thrilling as 1933’s The Invisible Man. But it does have the pedigree of having Vincent Price’s first horror movie performance and what a performance it is. Price enters the shoes of the Invisible Man well and embodies what it means to be this potentially tragic character even if the character beats are a bit muddled on the page.
In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Kyrsten joins me to talk about Community Seasons 2-5 and for a feature review of The Lovebirds, both are currently available to stream on Netflix.
It’s a tale as old as time: man buys a secondhand deerskin jacket. Man falls in love with said jacket and begins talking to it as if it’s a real person. Man begins converting his entire wardrobe to 100% deerskin. Man’s jacket tells him that it’s so great that it wants to be the only jacket left in the entire world.
In the midst of a global pandemic and stay at home orders all over the country, I am coping by watching movies and podcasting about them as if they were part of a Film Festival. In this episode, Kyrsten joins me as we review 2019’s Richard Jewell and the brilliant Middleditch & Schwartz improv specials on Netflix. We then chat about a bunch of other comedy streaming selections.
Unfortunately, the lack of characterization and an ultimately surface-level bit of social commentary keeps Vivarium from being the strong science fiction thriller it could have been.
Each of Midnight Gospel’s eight episodes is so endlessly rewatchable; you may need a second viewing to wrap your head around the heady dialogue, or just to catch all the rich sight gags.
In the midst of a global pandemic and stay at home orders all over the country, I am coping by watching movies and podcasting about them as if they were part of a Film Festival. Here is my coverage of cOVid-19 Film Festival Days 20-38: Sci-fi Showcase (April 6-24, 2020). For the spotlight review, frequent guest ad contributor Ben calls in to talk about Alex Garland’s Devs with me in a non-spoiler and spoiler review.
Despite its flaws, Son of Frankenstein still manages to be a more than worthy entry in the Universal Monster canon and an acceptable continuation of the Frankenstein story.
Dracula’s Daughter is a strong follow up to Dracula. Although Bela Lugosi’s performance as the Count drove the original film to iconic status, his absence from this film isn’t felt as heavily as one would expect. Due to a strong story, sharp writing, and careful plotting, Dracula’s Daughter stands on its own while also providing a strong coda to the events of the first film.
Though it underperformed commercially compared to the success of The Wolf Man six years later, the legacy of 1935’s Werewolf of London is indelible even if the film itself is slightly uneven and muddled with too many protagonists.
As with most animated franchises aimed at a younger audience, the sequel is generally used as an opportunity for world building, and director Walt Dohrn literally makes it his primary objective from the opening minutes.
In the midst of a global pandemic and stay at home orders all over the country, I am coping by watching movies and podcasting about them as if they were part of a Film Festival. Here is my coverage of cOVid-19 Film Festival Day 16: Netflix Spotlight (April 2, 2020). For the spotlight review, Tiny calls in to talk about Tiger King with me in a spoiler review.
Clocking in at a tight 91 minutes, Blow the Man Down works as efficiently as a hardened seaman in establishing its bona fides. Still, if you’re anything like me, you’ll wish Krudy and Cole had made a more memorable set of circumstances, or had something new to say about the noir genre.
In the midst of a global pandemic and stay at home orders all over the country, I am coping by watching movies and podcasting about them as if they were part of a Film Festival. Here is my coverage of cOVid-19 Film Festival day 6: Programmed by Mike White. For the spotlight review, Mike calls in to talk about Freaks with me in a mostly non-spoiler review.
The Obsessive Viewer 