Turning Red (2022)

Will be in Limited Re-Release on February 9th; will be preceded by the Sparkshort Kitbull. Check Local Listings.

You gotta give it to Pixar, when they decide to do something new, they approach it head on and go all the way. Although subtlety was never their strong suit, here “Turning Red’s” one big noticeable element is that it’s about as subtle as a brick on the head. With Domee Shi directing, “Turning Red” is a decidedly very Asian flavored coming of age film that’s drawn in the style of anime and Manga.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Gorilla My Dreams (1948)

Gorilla My Dreams (1948)
Directed by Bob McKimson
Written by Warren Foster
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Charles McKimson

It’s interesting to review “Gorilla My Dreams” as it’s a fun introduction of the ape villain Gruesome. While Warren Foster does a good job of bringing us new Bugs Bunny foil, Gruesome and this whole premise was applied so much better in the 1959 remake “Apes of Wrath.” I could swear I had seen this short before, but for a long time it was always the aforementioned. It goes without saying that set up for “Apes…” is so much cleverer than the one we get in “Gorilla My Dreams.” That’s not to say that this short doesn’t bring with it its own merits. It’s not a terrible short at all, all things considered.

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Departing Seniors (2024)

In Select Theaters & VOD/Digital on February 2nd.

Director Clare Cooney’s “Departing Seniors” is an ode to the classic giallo pictures of the seventies where someone is having psychic visions of a lurking masked killer. This masked killer though is lurking inside and around a high school, while the protagonist is a young man who is grappling with his own trauma involving his sexuality. While I give big respect to Joe Nateras for writing a movie that evokes the giallo pictures of the seventies, “Departing Seniors” misses on every other front. It’s a horror comedy that completely fails to keep its eye on the ball, centering so much more around teen drama and forgetting that it’s also supposed to be a horror movie.

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Attack of the 50 Foot CamGirl (2022)

Streaming on Tubi TV, and Amazon Prime Video.

It’s become almost a tradition for some filmmaker to remake Nathan Juran’s 1958 schlock monster movie. Pretty much every four or five years a new variation of the formula pops up with a studio inserting some kind of entity. Now that CamGirl’s are still a thing and much more relevant, Jim Wynorski brings us the Attack of a 50 Foot CamGirl. It’s the bare minimum in the scope of attempted cult filmmaking; your mileage may vary depending on what you’re willing to endure when it comes to seeing busty blonde fifty feet women.

I’m looking at you, Macrophiliacs.

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Rhyme or Die (2021)

I love Max R. Lincoln’s whole twist on the idea of people waking up in an abandoned warehouse and being tormented by a cruel game master. While “Rhyme or Die” sounds silly it actually manages to end as a very entertaining, gory and twisted short that uses the whole device of music as a test, rather than morality. Ironically the whole challenge of rhyming is used as a means of testing the morality of the players as we’re never sure what kind of weird games these people will play on one another to survive.

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Love and Work (2023) [Slamdance 2024]

The Slamdance Film Festival runs Digitally and In-Person from January 19th to January 28th.

Much as I tried I just couldn’t click in to Pete Oh’s world that he painted for the audience. Everything about his movie is a science fiction dystopia centered on the irony that everyone loves to be subjugated and work themselves to the bone. With the whole reversal of the concept of the working class, as well as the central plot of the narrative of two people accidentally learning what pleasure and relaxation feels like, I was relatively bored most of the time.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Slick Hare (1947)

Slick Hare (1947)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Tedd Pierce
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Virgil Ross

“Slick Hare” is one of the best Bugs Bunny shorts ever made. It’s also one of my all time favorites. It’s hilarious, it’s clever, it’s sharply written, and if you’re a fan of classic Hollywood, you’ll adore all the cameos from famous Hollywood heavyweights of the time. Hell, one of the icons of Hollywood, Humphrey Bogart, plays a large role in the short and helps set off the chain of events that involves Elmer Fudd trying to snatch Bugs and make him in to dinner.

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