Chevalier (2015)

While sailing a luxury yacht in the Aegean Sea, six men, associated with each other by work or family, decide to play a game of who is “the best in general.” The group’s composed of seemingly disparate yet wholly indistinguishable men - the only qualities identifying them are their jobs and strange array of quirks. However, they’re wholly equipped to judge each other from everything to their choice of sleeping trunks to their silver-shining techniques.

Read More

Berberian Sound Studio (2012)

Earlier this week, I went on a Toby Jones inspired flight of frenzy, leaving me hungry for all things Toby. Instead of a selfishly long post about the many ways I adore Toby Jones, I thought I would perform a service to the indie horror community and parlay my passion into a review for an underseen, incredibly eerie film that also happens to star my lil' sweetheart, 2012’s Berberian Sound Studio. The plot of this film is as deceptively simple as a Kafka story.

Read More

A Ghost Story (2017)

I watched A Ghost Story in the filled-to-the-gills Texas Theatre at the Oak Cliff Film Festival. As I hunched in the dark, nearly seated on top of the sweetest group of English teachers I’ve ever met, I was a little stunned at the size of the crowd. Even Jodorowsky’s newest film didn’t draw a crowd like this.

Read More

Ghost World (2001) #BluRay

Based on a 90s cult comic released in 2001, it was an eerily prescient look into the future, foretelling the rise of hipster culture and beautifully encapsulating the struggle of twenty-something Millennials in the 2010s before that struggle had ever begun. It’s a coming of age story focalized through two teenage girls that don't have sexual awakening at its’ center. It’s a movie that, like people, goes through cycles, and those who’ve loved it at one point in their lives may find that it gains and loses and regains relevance as they age, change, and grow.

Read More

Friday the 13th: The Game (2017)

Folks who’ve been regularly reading my writing here and at Rue Morgue for a while have learned a few key points about me over the years. I think the 80s was the best decade for horror movies; that Sissy Spacek never got a fair shake as a leading lady; that I’m a Virgo; and that I absolutely love Friday the 13th. Indeed, one of my first pieces for CineDump was a paean to the series—its’ place in popular culture, its’ role as supreme artifact of the Reagan Era, and its’ personal significance to me.

Read More