First Look Review - "Oddity"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-08-13
Over the last decade a crop of talented horror filmmakers has emerged from Ireland, with the likes of Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground) and Kate Dolan (You Are Not My Mother) quickly snapped up by Hollywood to helm instalments of the Evil Dead and M3GAN franchises. On the basis of his 2021 debut, Caveat, I suspected writer/director Damian McCarthy might be the most talented of this bunch, and his second film, Oddity, confirms my suspicions. In just two films, McCarthy has displayed more creativity, ingenuity and originality than many genre filmmakers manage across an entire filmography. As with Caveat, there are moments in Oddity that will have horror fans leaning forward and thinking "Well, that's something I haven't seen before."

bergenPAC presents An Evening with Judge Reinhold and screening of "Beverly Hills Cop"

(ENGLEWOOD, NJ) Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC) presents An Evening with Judge Reinhold and screening of Beverly Hills Cop on Friday, January 17, 2025 at 7:00pm. Celebrating the 40th year anniversary of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, here's your chance to hang out with Detective William "Billy" Rosewood, played by Judge Reinhold who co-starred in all four installments with Eddie Murphy including the latest 2024 Netflix release. ** Note: this show was rescheduled from September 27, 2024, previous purchased tickets will be honored at the new date. For inquiries, please contact the box office at 201-227-1030.

First Look Review - "Good One"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-08-09
New Zealand filmmaker Roger Donaldson was a founding member of the Aussie/Kiwi New Wave of the '70s before succumbing to the lure of Hollywood in the '80s, as did so many from that movement. That acclaimed wave of films tackled such subjects as gender, colonialism and inter-personal relationships, often by contrasting "civilized" people against the rugged backdrop of untameable terrain. Though it's set in the US, the spirit of that antipodean movement lives on in Good One, the writing/directing debut of India Donaldson, daughter of Roger.

First Look Review - "Detained"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-08-01
The success of Reservoir Dogs gave rise to a slew of '90s indie thrillers based around unscrupulous characters turning on one another in a single location as they attempt to unravel a mystery. Set entirely within a police precinct and centred on the questioning of a suspect, the post-Reservoir Dogs thriller director Felipe Mucci's Detained most resembles is Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects, right down to the inclusion of a mythical underworld figure.

First Look Review - "Starve Acre"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-07-31
The current crop of cinematic folk-horror hasn't yielded much of a harvest in terms of quality. Perhaps the 21st century just isn't a good fit for this sub-genre, which had its heyday (or hay day) in the '70s, particularly in Britain. The cream of this crop amounts to a handful of movies and TV shows made in the UK in that post-flower-power decade that saw many turn away from the progress of the modern world and embrace "the old ways." As such, folk-horror has become inextricably linked with beige and corduroy.

New Release Review - "The Beast Within"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-07-26
One of the best indie horror movies to emerge from the UK in recent years is Jennifer Sheridan's 2020 film Rose: A Love Story. Sheridan took a classic monster - the vampire - and managed to create something fresh by exploring how someone might deal with a loved one who happens to be such a creature. The film was focussed on a man who lives with his vampire wife in a remote part of England, and has found a way to make their unconventional situation work...until it doesn't. With The Beast Within, director Alexander J. Farrell and co-writer Greer Ellison attempt to do something similar with another classic monster, the werewolf.

14th Annual Axelrod Jewish International Film Festival to Take Place August 4-14

(DEAL, NJ) -- Live cinema is back! The 14th Annual Axelrod Jewish International Film Festival (AJIFF) runs from August 4-14, 2024 at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal. Two films will be screened at Bell Theater at Bell Works in Holmdel as well. The nonprofit festival features 10 award-winning Israeli and Jewish international films. Film series passes are available for $68 through July 15 ($78 after). Individual film tickets are $12.

New Release Review - "Only The River Flows"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-07-25
1990s media was obsessed with serial killers. Movies, TV shows and novels of the era were filled with dogged investigators tracking elusive murderers, an obsession likely sparked by the emergence of DNA tracing at the bginning of the decade, which revealed that many hitherto unsolved murders might actually be the work of lone killers. Filmmakers, TV showrunners and novelists used the premise of the hunt for a serial killer to tap into the angst that was in the air as an uncertain new millennium loomed on the horizon. Arriving within weeks of one another in the summer of 2024 are two '90s set thrillers that channel this angst, the American horror hit Longlegs and director Wei Shujun's thriller Only the River Flows.

2024 Teaneck International Film Festival presents "Politics is a Mother"

(TEANECK, NJ) -- The Teaneck International Film Festival, with the theme, Activism: Making Change, returns November 7-14, 2024. The "live" part of the festival runs November 7-10, ending with the premiere of Politics is a Mother, a documentary about NJ Senator Loretta Weinberg, at Temple Emeth (1666 Windsor Road) in Teaneck. Additional films will be offered online from November 11-14.