Every week this summer, we’ll be taking an historical tour of the Hollywood blockbuster by examining an older film that is in some way a spiritual precursor to one of the weekend’s wide releases. Last week: David Cronenberg, in his years as an elder statesman of cinema, has taken the new Crimes of the Future […]
The phrase “elevated horror” is one I am very reluctant to use, since its meaning seems to generally land on something amorphous like “horror movies that people who think they’re too good for horror movies are willing to praise”. But there’s definitely something there, and “elevated horror” is as good a shorthand to describe that […]
A review requested by Brennan, with thanks to supporting Alternate Ending as a donor through Patreon. Do you have a movie you’d like to see reviewed? This and other perks can be found on our Patreon page! To begin with the low-hanging fruit, I would like to suggest that there should be absolutely no doubt […]
There was a stretch of time around the end of the 2000s and the start of the 2010s where Ti West was pretty much the hippest director of English-language horror films. And then, for absolutely no reason I can confidently point to, he simply wasn’t there any more. His last horror feature was The Sacrament […]
Setting aside the question the question of whether the end results are actually worth it – my answer would be “mostly, yes” – one must give After Yang the unhesitating credit that it is a complete work of narrative cinema, in which every element of the image and sound has been carefully positioned to work […]
The entity that is MTV has obviously changed considerably since the channel first killed the radio star in 1981. While anyone whose birth year starts with a “2” might only know it for reality series or teen soaps, MTV’s historical prominence as a conduit between music and mainstream culture cannot be overstated. While their previous […]
Check out Chris’s video interview with Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney, co-writer/directors of Strawberry Mansion Strawberry Mansion first came to the public’s attention when it virtually premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in the NEXT category, which focuses on films with bold, challenging content and form. It’s taken a little while, but the film […]
A review requested by Michael, with thanks to supporting Alternate Ending as a donor through Patreon. Do you have a movie you’d like to see reviewed? This and other perks can be found on our Patreon page! “Eraserhead is about David Lynch’s terrified disgust at the thought of being a father” is such a well-worn […]
Here Before, the debut feature from director Stacey Gregg, caught my eye for two reasons. First, it was nominated for the 2021 SXSW Grand Jury Award (pretty prestigious), and second, it stars Andrea Riseborough. After watching the trailer, I knew it was a film I wanted to see. The gorgeous cinematography alone, courtesy of Chloë […]
The French Dispatch isn’t the “best” Wes Anderson movie, and it’s maybe not even the “most” Wes Anderson movie. But I do think it might well be the most “fuck you” Wes Anderson movie, the one where you are either going to follow modern American cinema’s fussiest and most aesthetically controlling director where he is […]
A review requested by Andrew, with thanks to supporting Alternate Ending as a donor through Patreon. Do you have a movie you’d like to see reviewed? This and other perks can be found on our Patreon page! Officially, the 2009 independent psychological sci-fi thriller After Last Season cost $5 million dollars, which is both a […]
It’s missing the point, I know, but the question I feel compelled to start with is: did we need a revisionist version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? The 14th Century Middle English poem is a timeless favorite of medieval literature buffs, but how many of us can there possibly be? Certainly not enough […]
