There’s been a surge in recent years of horror directors tackling social media influencer culture and #chadgetstheaxe is the newest attempt and succeeds largely because of its dedication to the authenticity of recreating the live stream experience through it’s personalities, chat integration and slick editing. Opening with one influencer, Steve Spice, showing his followers (dubbed “The Spice Squad”) an abandoned […]
“I would equate it to like organs inside a body, you need all the organs to match together to pump whatever goo is inside your body like pee, and blood.” These are the colorful words Alfred Costella (Vinny Curran, Resolution) uses to describe what a film is, in terms of working parts, when asked by a talk show host (Bill […]
Cleverly dropping viewers into the film within the film, Timothée Hochet and Lucas Pastor’s debut feature Stéphane opens mid-scene as an up and coming director named Timothée (Bastien Garcia delivering a perfectly nuanced debut feature performance) shoots his latest action-packed, espionage short. He and his actors are interrupted by a peculiar man named Stéphane (Lucas Pastor himself, unrecognizable under makeup) […]
“This is the kind of place that will make you feel uncomfortable, I can promise you that.” is how we are introduced to Tyler Cornack’s Tiny Cinema. Unfortunately for me I was only uncomfortable due to a number of cringeworthy moments. Several of the chapters are bogged down by lowbrow humor that missed the mark and had me rolling my […]
After the words “The following actually happened. My dad asked me to tell you it didn’t.” flash across the screen viewers get their first glimpse of the lead as Chuck (Patton Oswalt of Young Adult and Ratatouille delivering another heartfelt and hilarious performance) finds a puppy in the park while on a walk with his son Franklin. He’s seen ripping […]
When a research scientist makes national headlines by seemingly proving the existence of an afterlife and opening a facility that facilitates the peaceful transition to the other side for research purposes, people from all over the country travel to be the first ones to experience it. Two lost souls, Rose (Katie Parker) and Teddy (Rahul Kohli) arrange travel plans with […]
Recently I sat down with Bryan Connolly (director, co-producer, co-editor, “kinda writer”) and John Gholson (lead actor) of ‘Make Popular Movies’ – an improvisational comedy film about making movies that are a commercial success, as well as the many hilarious situations that arise in the process. ‘Make Popular Movies’ screened at the 2022 edition of the Chattanooga Film Festival where […]
One of the most exciting things about independent movies is being able to bring to life a concept that big studios wouldn’t fund, such as Bryan Connolly’s scathingly accurate satire of the Hollywood film industry Make Popular Movies. After opening with an absurdist skit involving a disruptive gorilla in a theater, which turns out to be a shoot for a […]
“I guess I do believe that we live in The Matrix because, I don’t know. Sometimes I look around and I just feel like I’m in a video game anyway, and instead of health points I’m just trying to get likes.” These are the words that open Nick Corirossi and Van Alper’s film Bolt Driver, which serves as both a […]
There’s few voices in independent film who can weave a cinematic universe with enough depth to rival some of Hollywood’s biggest studios in terms of layered storytelling spanning multiple movies, however it seems to be second nature to filmmaking duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead who alongside their longtime producer David Lawson Jr. aim to do precisely this every time […]