Misundersood (aka Incompreso (Vita col figlio)) (1966) [Radiance Films Limited Edition] [Female Filmmaker Friday]

Out on Blu-ray on April 30, 2024, from Radiance Films 

Following the death of his wife, a man returns home to Italy where their two sons await their return. There, he decides to inform his oldest, but withholds the information for his youngest for his protection. Soon, things turn sour in the household with big secrets and burdens affecting all that live there. 

Continue reading

The Departed (2006): Limited Edition Steelbook [4K UHD/Digital]

In Stores April 23rd from Warner Bros.

I do not make it a secret that I don’t like “The Departed.” I never have liked it. I think one of the main reasons why I dislike it so much is that I had seen Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s 2004 original much earlier and was surprised with how cerebral and taut it was. “Infernal Affairs” was about betrayal, and loss of identity, and completely losing not only who we once were, but our own morality code. It’s shocking to me to know that “The Departed” is not only so infinitely dumbed down from its source material, but that Scorsese is capable of so much better than what he offers us.

Continue reading

Ada (2019)

Now Available for Rent or Purchase.

Released in time for International Women’s Month, Steven Kammerer’s “Ada” is a wonderful and beautifully acted tale of one of the world’s unsung heroes. Kammerer uses his short format to tell the tale of Ada Lovelace, a well beyond her time genius who envisioned the plans for the first ever computer program in the 1840’s. Her notes were later discovered by Alan Turing used as inspiration for the very first computer.

Continue reading

The First Omen (2024)

It’s been a very long time since we’ve seen a return to Richard Donner’s original supernatural series. The original “The Omen,” which was a response to the fame of “The Exorcist” has managed to live on as a horror gem in the ilk of “The Exorcist.” It’s ripe with storytelling potential and shockingly, “The First Omen” takes us back in to this world with near perfect success. If you had told me that “The First Omen” would be a weird, creepy, and memorable horror prequel a year ago, I’d have been as skeptical as ever. I doubted that “The Omen” really had anywhere left, especially after the painfully underrated “The Awakening” in 1991.

But Arkasha Stevenson’s debut is a brutally suspenseful unfolding of the origins of not just Damien, but the plot to conceive of the antichrist.

Continue reading