You know, if someone tells you that you need to go to a solstice party, I hope that movies have taught you to avoid them. Not the protagonists of this film, who have gone from trying to get to a music festival and end up being sacrificed to a pagan goddess who can sense their greatest fears and make them true. As The Verve once sang, “Now the drugs don’t work. They just make you worse.”

Written and directed by David Creed, this has the kind of running time we like — 74 minutes — and plenty of gore, which we also appreciate.

I wish there was more originality here. It’s professionally made, has a same sex couple without making a big deal about it and moves quickly enough. But it left me wanting more. Then again, it’s Creed’s first full-length film, so here’s hoping he learns and grows from this and makes his next attempt something truly great.

Director Fred Sciretta’s Eddie is the story of Eddie Sutton, who coached the basketball teams of the Universities of Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma State. During his college coaching career, Sutton is one of only eight NCAA Division I coaches to have had more than 800 career wins. And for 28 years, his teams only missed one NCAA tournament.

Yet this movie is about more than just the game, more than the conference championships and trips to the Final Four, but also addiction, the devastating 2001 Oklahoma State basketball team plane crash and the relationships Sutton had with his sons Sean, who served him as an assistant coach before taking over his job, and Scott, who played for him before becoming a coach.

Telling the tale of Eddie are some notable figures from the sports world and beyond, like former President of the United States Bill Clinton, NBA player Rex Chapman, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, University of Kansas head coach and Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Bill Self, ESPN sportscaster and Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Dick Vitale, and basketball analyst and radio host Doug Gottlieb.

I know nothing about basketball, but the human story here had me really interested. You’ll take away a lot here learning what makes a high functioning coach stay a winner and even discover something from the bad decisions he made along the way.

You can learn more at the official site. Eddie is now available on demand from Lionsgate, who were kind enough to send us a review copy.

“My Pepe philosophy is simple: Feels good man. It is based on the meaning of the word Pepe: To go Pepe. I find complete joy in physically, emotionally and spiritually serving Pepe and his friends through comics. Each comic is sacred, and the compassion of my readers transcends any differences, the pain, and fear of feeling good.” – Matt Furie

What do you do when the art you create is taken out of your hands and used in a way you never intended? That’s the story of this 2020 documentary, in which Matt Furie’s comic book character, Pepe the Frog, goes from MS Paint goofball silliness — it’s a frog that likes to urinate on things — and somehow becomes a symbol of hatred.

As Pepe becomes a meme, he becomes more than what his creator intended him for. To some, he’s an icon of the far right and white supremacists. Why would they start using a cartoon frog? Who can say? In 2016,the Anti-Defamation League listed Pepe in its hate symbol database and that’s when Furie started suing people who used his creation against the spirit he was created in.

Pepe was also used by protesters in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, a stance that its creator can agree with.

I know that we’ve forgotten so much about the last five or six years, but it was a big deal when white supremacist Richard B. Spencer got punched in the face. Remember that? He was trying to explain his Pepe pin when that happened.

Director Arthur Jones and his editing team of Aaron Wickenden, Drew Blatman and Katrina Taylor have assembled a truly wonderful film here, a story that is at once cautionary and affirming while pretty upsetting and depressing as well. It’s an emotional rollercoaster and pretty much the only happy ending — for now — is Trump’s social decline, if only because he was blocked from so many platforms.

This doc is definitely recommended, no matter where your politics may lie — you can read mine really easily throughout this — if only to show how art has power beyond its initial creation.

A lot of the YouTube videos that Becca and I watch are either trips to dead malls or videos of the past glories of malls. We were excited to see Jasper Mall, which is the story of one year in the life of one of those former shopping destinations and while it starts strong, it seems to hang on way too long, which is…well, a lot like a dead mall.

Directed by Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb (who worked together on GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling and The Rock-afire Explosion), I do have to say that I enjoyed a lot of the people within the film, like Mike McClelland, the custodian of the mall who was once a zookeeper. Also, I have no idea what accent Mike has, which sounds British at times, Southern others and then by the end, it comes and goes. It’s baffling!

I really wish this movie was about twenty minutes or so shorter. There are some magical moments here, like the Jewelry Doctor rocking out before he closes his store and the camaraderie of the old men that play dominoes.

Jasper Mall is still open, amazingly, after watching this film. I can’t say the same for places like the Towne Mall — yes, I realize there are a few shops still there — or Century 3. There was a time when my entire non-school existence was spent at the mall, buying music and movies, seeing the latest releases and expanding my pop culture knowledge at Waldenbooks. This movie brings back those feelings and more. It’s not perfect, but there’s some heart here.

Progressive lesbian couple Hannah Driver (Janelle Snow) and Jules Paradise (Amanda Powell) have added a child into their busy lives. However, Beau’s arrival has thrown everything they’ve built into an ever-growing storm.

That’s because their son has been diagnosed with 47, XYY which is when there is an extra copy of the Y chromosome in each of a male’s cells. For some, this means that they have learning disabilities, speech delay, low muscle tone (hypotonia) and may be quite tall. However, it was also once thought to be a reason why young men were more aggressive, but that has been ruled out.

However, this movie takes place from the 1990’s to today, a time when nobody understood 47, XXY or behavioral issues. Now, the dream of being a family may tear Hannah and Jules apart.

This film has a great cast, including Ed Asner as Hannah’s father Gunny, Sean Young (it’s been too long since I’ve seen her in a film!) as Hannah’s business partner Nat, Christian Stolte as the principal, Melanie Candra as Hannah’s campaign manager and Kirk Kellykahn as Hannah’s law partner.

The most important role is one that is not cast. We only hear Beau’s voice at the end of the film, but he looms large over every single moment in this story. It’s an incredibly brave choice and speaks to the abilities of both director Tracy Wren and writer Jennifer Cooley.

Rain Beau’s End is now available on global video-on-demand (VOD) service LesFlicks. You can learn more at the film’s official site.

Dementer has an intriguing premise: what if someone tried to escape a backwoods cult? How would they get past all the abuse? And how would they try to earn a living?

After fleeing one of those aforementioned religious groups, Katie (Katie Groshong), sleeps in her car and tries to make a living by working in a home for special needs adults. Her days are still filled with waking nightmares, remembering ritualistic attacks where she was whipped and beaten while a voice continually reminded her that “The Devils listen to the sound of the innocent.”

She’s convinced that those devils have targeted Stephanie (director Chad Crawford Kinkle’s real-life sister, also named Stephanie), who is living with Down’s Syndrome. Despite a series of rituals and even a sacrificed cat, Katie can’t keep the feeling that evil and sickness want to claim this innocent soul for their own.

Larry Fessenden, whose career has seen him act, direct (Wendigo) and produce (House of the Devil) plays a man who still has a hold on our protagonist. Is she able to see reality in the right light? Is she meant to be the child’s protector? Is she even qualified to do so?

In a world where representation is often discussed and not always acted on, this is a brave movie. Director Chad Crawford Kinkle has built the film around his sister Stephanie, saying that he has “gone to great lengths to create a bold genre film that embraces and properly represents the developmentally disabled, while still being both thrilling and disturbing. The result is a singular, deeply personal independent feature unlike any before it.”

In fact, it had been in the works a long time. Kinkle said, A year ago, my mother mentioned that she had a dream that I made a film with my sister Stephanie, who has Down Syndrome. I don’t think that I told her, but for a few years now I’ve had the idea of building a horror film around my sister.”

As for what he made, he sees it as more than just another movie: “The resulting film is something that I’ve never seen before. While certainly a horror film, it needed another description like; experimental, abstract, dream-like, nightmarish or even art house.  What seemed best is that it is more of a dark poem, since much of the script was written on intuition and not traditional story logic.”

There’s a lot of thought that went into filming this as well, as it has a look and feel, unlike so many recently released genre films that just seem to point and shoot the camera. The opening moments, which juxtapose children’s drawings with moments of sheer terror and the dreamy world of the special needs home are jarring.

I’m looking forward to what everyone involved in this film does next.

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher has been filmed several times, most famously in 1960 by Roger Corman and 2002 by Ken Russell. Curtis Harrington was a huge fan of the story, shooting a ten minute version in 1942 and a 36 minute take in 2002 with both starring himself as Roderick and Madeline Usher. There’s even been a TV movie that had Martin Landau, Robert Hays and Charlene Tilton.

Now, first-time feature director Patrick Picard has brought a fresh take to the story with The Bloodhound.

This movie is a tight 72 minutes, which is really the perfect length for a movie, and tells the story of Francis (Liam Aiken, A Series of Unfortunate Events), who comes to the home of his wealthy childhood friend JP Luret (Joe Adler, who was in the 2019 Twin Peaks).

JP claims that he is dying, another potential victim of the Luret family’s legacy of self-destruction and depression. The only other occupant in his home is his twin Vivian (Annalise Basso, Ladyworld), who may be just as damaged as her brother.

While violent and argumentative, JP wishes to connect with his friend and feel something, but it seems as if it’s impossible for the Lurets to ever survive.

This is a movie that mostly has two men sitting in a house and everything is uncomfortable between them. Somehow, it is not boring and instead fascinating. A big reason could be that the setting is incredible. And man, this movie did nothing to make me dislike rich people any less, because I really think that this story is much closer to truth than fiction. I can’t wait to see what Picard makes next.

The Arrow Video release of this film comes complete with brand new audio commentary by director Patrick Picard and editor David Scorca, four of Picard’s short films and a making of feature.

You can get this movie from MVD.

All of the time loop films of the last year or two — Happy Death Day 2U, Boss Level, The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, Koko-di Koko-da, Game Over, The Obituary of Tunde Johnson, Russian Doll, See You Yesterday — all follow that Groundhog Day-style approach of the same day happening over and over again. Of course, we can also point to 1990s 12:01 PM, which part of the Showtime 30-Minute Movie entries.

The idea is pretty rich and particularly so this year, where it really does feel like every day is exactly the same as we’re trapped in our homes. Of course, like all movie trends, this one has seemingly been done to death, but can Palm Springs — a movie that escapes my radar when it played Sundance in 2020 and then went to Hulu in July — do it better?

This movie succeeds because of the likability of its two leads, Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti, who have discovered a cave that allows them to repeat the same day endlessly. I kind of loved how this film didn’t seem like it was about that at all until JK Simmons murders Samberg to end the day. The trailer spoils this, I spoiled this and now, we must all realize what we’ve done.

Actually, the spoiler is just fine. The real beauty of this movie is how the characters actually grow instead of just experiencing day after day. It also benefits from a rich cast, which includes a great cameo from physicist Clifford V. Johnson, Dale Dickey, Jena Friedman, June Squibb (who was also great in another wedding movie, Table 19), Peter Gallagher, Camila Mendes, Tyler Hoechlin (who played the kid in Road to Perdition) and Meredith Hagner.

This is a film that matter of factly gets across very open sexuality — what would you do if you could sleep with the same people over and over?* — and explores what a time loop centered around a wedding really would be like. I really loved how Simmons’ character comes in and out of the story, along with the very real emotional damage these characters suffer as their bodies are often destroyed multiple times.

Director Max Barbakow hasn’t done many full-length films and neither has writer Andy Siara. I’m truly excited to see what they do next, as this movie could have been completely saccharine and instead became something wonderful. It’s surprising at nearly every turn and quite emotional.

Now, back to living the same day I’ve been living since last March.

*According to IMDB, Samberg’s character was trapped in the loop for somewhere between forty and forty million years.