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Movie Review: Will Jewell’s ‘Concrete Plans’ (2021) Goes All-In

Concrete Plans

Will Jewell’s newest film, Concrete Plans, may not be the first time horror has branched out into eat-the-rich narratives, but does it connect on the level of some more modern favorites of the genre? Synopsis for Concrete Plans: High in the remote Welsh mountains, five builders are brought together to …

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Slamdance 2021 Movie Review: Jurgis Matulevicius’ ‘Isaac’ (2021) Is A Web Of Guilt

A man stands menacingly in front of a defeated, restrained man in a dark garage.

Guilt is always a complex emotion with a lot of nuance. Survivors guilt, deep guilt over a life changing mistake, guilt over neglecting a partner… guilt can manifest (and be handled) in a lot of ways. At its core, Jurgis Matulevicius’ directorial debut, Isaac (also known as Izaokas) uses it …

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Ivan Kavanagh’s ‘Son’ (2021): A Mother’s Love Can Be Deadly Movie Review

When I heard that Ivan Kavanagh (read our interview with the director here), the filmmaker behind Tin Can Man (2007 – read our review here), The Canal (2014 – read our review here), and Never Grow Old (2019 – read our review here) had a new project coming out called …

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Slamdance 2021 Review: Matthew Wade’s ‘A Black Rift Begins To Yawn’ Lovecraftian Horror Never Looked So… Bright?

Synopsis for A Black Rift Begins to Yawn: Through a mysterious circumstance, two former classmates come into possession of their deceased professor’s set of cassette tapes, which possibly contain recordings of strange signals from beyond the stars. As the women dig into the recordings, they begin to feel memories, the …

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Movie Review: The Vigil (2021) Fear Fights Jewish Faith

The Vigil (2021) is an inherently Jewish film. The reviewer is not, but will do his best to respectfully commentate from outside that perspective in this latest movie review. Synopsis for The Vigil: A young man agrees to fulfil the duties of a “shomer,” the ritualistic practice of looking after …

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Fantasia 2020: ‘Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies’ (2020) Review

Nudity in cinema today feels almost commonplace, a routine image that sits in the background as a plot device or character trope. But it wasn’t always that accepted. Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies examines how nudity was met all the way back in the 1800’s, up through its …

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