A socially conscious horror film that addresses homophobia, trauma, and other issues facing our community, Spiral (directed by Harpoon producer Kurtis David Harder) hits Shudder today, and it’s pretty damn spooky. Set in 1995, the story follows interracial gay couple Malik (the … [Read more...]
Fantasia 2020: ‘Class Action Park’ Spills the Tea on the Most Dangerous Theme Park in History
“It was a place where death was tolerated.” One of the most legendarily dangerous waterparks of all time and the subject of countless youtube videos and oral histories, the now-defunct Action Park finally gets its own full-length documentary. Part of Fantasia Festival’s virtual … [Read more...]
‘Spree’ Review: A Wild Ride into America’s Dystopian Hellscape
“Hey guys, how’s it going? It’s Kurt from Kurt’s World.” A violent satire about a wannabe social media influencer (Joe Keery) who decides to start murdering people while driving for an Uber/Lyft-style rideshare company, Eugene Kotlyarenko’s well-received Sundance film Spree … [Read more...]
“AVIVA” Review: The Wildest Movie of the Year Has Arrived!
Daring. Modern. Wildly bold. These generally aren’t the words that spring to mind when one thinks of Boaz Yakin, a director who followed up an awesome debut (1994’s Fresh) with anonymous studio fluff (Remember the Titans, Uptown Girls) and snoozy torture porn (he produced the … [Read more...]
The Best Queer Films at Visions du Réel 2020
The first online version of internationally adored Swiss film festival Visions du Réel concluded on Sunday and this year’s crop of LGBTQI+ documentaries did not disappoint. A few highlights: “I had to question others’ memories so our own would appear.” The death of Frédéric … [Read more...]
“Extraction” Review: Chris Hemsworth’s Silly New Kidnapping Thriller
The white savior narrative is alive and well in Sam Hargrave’s Extraction, Netflix’s latest action romp starring Chris Hemsworth as a black-ops mercenary tasked with recovering the kidnapped son (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) of an imprisoned Bangladeshi mafioso. A generic retread of Tony … [Read more...]
WOW’s Berlinale Film Diary #2
Following the long-winded European Shooting Stars Award ceremony and the premiere of Stéphanie Chuat & Véronique Reymond’s Schwesterlein, an above-average Nina Hoss joint about her queer brother’s (Lars Eidinger) fight with cancer, cinema legend Abel Ferrara (King of New … [Read more...]
Killer Nurses in Rotterdam: “La Dosis” Film Review
There’s nothing scarier than a health care professional that wants to kill you. From real-life mass murderers like Niels Högel to fictional butchers like Dr. Giggles, the thought of a doctor or a nurse intentionally harming their patients is deeply chilling. A new Argentine film … [Read more...]
Rough Trade in Rotterdam: “Los Fantasmas” Film Review
A film about straight rough trade victimizing gay men, Sebastián Lojo’s debut feature Los Fantasmas looks great and feels authentic, but fails to capitalize on its loaded premise. The first Guatemalan production to compete at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the story … [Read more...]
WOW Film Review: 1917
An overtly imperialist shitshow that can easily be blamed on rabid nationalism, filmmakers tend to cast a critical eye when portraying WW1 on film. From Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front to Kubrick’s Paths of Glory, movies about The Great War usually show it as the … [Read more...]
