Patron Exclusive Podcast Episode: Full Audio of Interview w/ Wyatt Rockefeller

Greetings friends! For all Patreon supporters at the Lieutenant level and above, the full audio of my interview with director Wyatt Rockefeller is now available.

I hope that you enjoy listening to it. If you’d like more of this kind of content, please feel free to tell your friends to subscribe. I really enjoy film blogging, but it also isn’t free. There are costs –both money and time– associated with doing it. That’s just the world we live in. The more support I have, the more I’ll be able to bring you.

Either way, thank you for reading, listening, and supporting. I love you all.

Listen to the interview now.

If you’re not a patron, you can read the interview here.

–Matthew


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Review: ‘The Last Letter from Your Lover’ is a lovely, if predictable, romance story

Last Letter From Your Lover.

Picture this: in the present, a young journalist discovers a series of love letters. They were written between a married woman and her paramour in the 1960s, and they tell of a passionate but star crossed affair. Naturally, the journalist searches for more of the letters and, eventually, finds love of her own.

This is the plot of The Last Letter From Your Lover. It isn’t entirely original, but it is a pretty good version of this kind of story.

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Review: ‘Blood Red Sky’ isn’t quite the film it could be, but is still fun

BLOOD RED SKY

An ill woman and her son are on a plane to New York. Awaiting them, a doctor with an array of ultramodern medical technology will give them the best chance to cure her ailment. Her plane is then, of course, hijacked. All of this is a slow build to a reveal that you can see coming from a mile off her ailment isn’t an ailment; she’s a vampire trying desperately to suppress the monster within, and the hijackers are about to find out that they aren’t in the movie they thought they were in.

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Review: ‘Settlers’ compelling performances and stunning production design keep it interesting

Settlers

A western, on Mars. That’s the pitch with Settlers, the debut feature from Wyatt Rockefeller, a film that tells the story of a family farmstead in the middle of nowhere on Mars. True to its pitch, the story is difficult and bleak, but it doesn’t quite live up to its potential, while it does feature excellent performances all around.

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North Bend 2021 Review: ‘Luchadoras’ looks at women fighting back

Luchadoras

Women have it harder in this world than men do. Some might dispute this (and they’d be wrong), but it is a fact. While it remains true anywhere you go, one of the worst places is Ciudad Juarez, in Northern Mexico. In this city, there is an ongoing trend of women being murdered and exploited. Luchadoras follows three women in the city who have discovered a means to empowerment within their lives, Lucha Libre.

It’s an interesting juxtaposition in the first place, but it only gets more powerful as the movie goes on.

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The Films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Ranked, Simon’s Edition

Marvel Studios' BLACK WIDOW

Matt loves a list way more than I do, not through any sense of my own hatred of them, but more than I find it hard to find the time or energy to rate art against itself. But Matt’s ranking of the Marvel movies was too interesting to resist texting him my own (very different list), which he then encouraged me to put up as a companion post. So here it is!

Please remember that A) lists aren’t facts, art is subjective and B) my value starts and stops at “is it creative/fun?” these days, so feel free to disagree. We’re both right.

Anyway, here’s my list of Marvels.

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North Bend 2021 Review: ‘Tailgate’ makes road rage terrifying

Tailgate

We’ve all been there. We’ve cut someone off, we’ve made unsafe turns, and we’ve tailgated. It’s rude, and we shouldn’t do it, and when we’re called out we probably shouldn’t be defensive about it.

Tailgate (Bumperkleef in the original dutch) follows an impatient father as he does exactly what the title suggests, and angers the wrong person in doing so. The result is, obviously, a deadly game of cat and mouse that will reveal the true character of those involved.

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North Bend 2021 Review: ‘Ayar’ is a fascinating experiment

Ayar

Ayar is another entry into the ongoing oeuvre of COVID-19. Taking place mid-pandemic, it follows a young mother trying to reconnect with her daughter. A simple enough premise, but rather than take the straight path to get there, director Floyd Russ new film opts for something more experimental and experiential, to fascinating results.

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Review: ‘Fear Street Part Three: 1666’ is an uneven, but still satisfying, end to the trilogy

Fear Street Part Three: 1666

As with most trilogies, the wrap up can be difficult. In this case, a great many story threads have to be wrapped up from two different time frames, and the film does so by diving into the past and the origin of the curse that haunts Shadyside.

The result is that Part Three: 1666 has the most responsibility of the three films, and strains a little bit under that weight.

Note: This review contains minor spoilers for Fear Street Part One: 1994 and Fear Street Part Two: 1978, both of which you should definitely watch before you watch this. It will also contain what might be considered minor spoilers for this film, so if you want to go in blind, let it be known that while I think this is the weakest of the three films, I still liked it and think you will too.

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North Bend 2021 Review: ‘Ninjababy’ will charm the pants off you

Ninjababy

There are unplanned pregnancies, and then there are unplanned pregnancies. Children turn your whole world upside down enough as it is, not having a plan only flips things further. Rakel (Kristine Thorp) is a twenty-something who is not living her best life. She’s unemployed, dropped out of school, and despite dreams of writing a graphic novel hasn’t made any effort to actually do that beyond occasionally drawing.

A few weeks after hooking up with Mos, an Aikido teacher, based solely on the fact that she thinks he smells good, she begins to feel unwell. A quick pregnancy test supplied by her roommate confirms it, but when she goes to the doctor she finds out that she’s not just pregnant, she’s six months pregnant.

Hilarity, as they say, ensues.

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North Bend 2021 Review: ‘CODE NAME: Nagasaki’ pushes the boundaries of documentary

Code Name Nagasaki

A man and a woman meet, fall in love, and have a baby. They are from different worlds, him from Norway and her from Japan. Things are happy for a time, but eventually, she returns home and severs all contact with her husband and son.

Decades later the son she left behind, Marius Lunde, is on a quest to track her down. There is a multitude of feelings involved, but ultimately he just wants to know his mother. Marius, along with his friend and filmmaking partner Fredrik Hana, set out to not only complete the task but film the whole thing as well.

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Review: ‘Pig’ is not the movie you are expecting, but is one of the best movies of the year

Pig

Nicolas Cage is something of an enigma. I don’t think that it is either surprising or a revelation to say that, but the man is one of the only true movie stars we currently have. He is known for his near-constant output as an actor, and for being willing to appear in just about anything. This volume of work is not always great (though it’s never exactly boring), but the one thing it accomplishes is that as a result we sometimes forget that he’s a really great actor.

In Pig, his latest film, he reminds us. Before I launch into this review, I should say this: Pig is one of my favourite movies of the year so far, and I firmly believe that you should see it as cold as possible.

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