Films tackling the experience of refugees in Europe have mostly been authored by filmmakers from the sort of European countries that attract refugees. In attempting to empathise with people whose experiences they could never really comprehend, such filmmakers tend to deliver well intentioned yet patronising portrayals of refugees as angelic figures victimised by various cruel and exploitative systems.
(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- The ShowRoom and Parlor Gallery are proud to co-present Dedicated to David, a special film series celebrating the groundbreaking work of the late David Lynch. Known for his surreal mysteries, haunting dreamscapes, and uniquely American nightmares, Lynch redefined cinematic storytelling with films that continue to mesmerize, provoke, and inspire.
The Spring 2025 New Jersey Film Festival has added a benefit and out of competition screening to the line-up! They will be screening Bucha on Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 5PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901.
The idea of falling in love with the undead has long been mined for cheap laughs in horror-comedies. With his directorial debut The Dead Thing, Elric Kane (known to movie geeks as a host of the Pure Cinema podcast) takes this idea and plays it straight, using the concept of being in love with a ghost/zombie for an exploration of earthly isolation in an era where we seem to be more connected than ever before, and yet there's never been so much loneliness.
(MANASQUAN, NJ) -- Asbury Shorts USA, New York City's longest running non-competitive short film showcase returns to the revered Algonquin Arts Theatre in Manasquan on Saturday, March 8, 2025 to present their national touring "44th Short Film Concert- An Evening of the World's Best Short Films."
For a long time I mistakenly believed that when American news anchors in old footage promised the audience "film at 11," they were letting the viewers know a late movie was due to be broadcast. At some point in my teens I realised that of course it meant that the footage related to a news story had yet to be developed, but that it would be ready for screening by the next bulletin. Today we've become accustomed to seeing major events break on social media rather than on our TV screens, with cellphone footage of said incidents available within seconds while the mainstream media scrambles for permission to air such images; the idea of having to wait a couple of hours to see pictures of any newsworthy event is now unthinkable.
There's a growing sub-genre of horror movies based around the setup of a shy and nervous young woman embarking on a getaway with a bunch of people whose company makes her feel like an outsider. As circumstances spiral violently out of control, the young woman in question finds herself in the role of a slasher movie final girl. What differentiates these movies - which includes the likes of Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, Sissy and Birdeater - from your typical spam-in-a-cabin backwoods slashers is that the threat doesn't come from some supernatural force or rapey rednecks but rather from within the friend group itself, which is usually comprised of shallow, bitchy millennials or zoomers.
For some reason, the most popular sub-genre when it comes to original movies greenlit by Netflix and Amazon seems to be the spy comedy. These movies usually feature a variation on the same central setup, that of someone discovering a person they thought they knew well has secretly been living the life of a spy. By all accounts these films are uniformly awful. Director Neil Burger's Inheritance is made for neither Netflix nor Amazon but it has the sort of premise those streaming services seemingly can't get enough of. In this case it's a young woman who discovers her estranged father is secretly a spy.
The premise of director Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp's Presence might seem unremarkable: a family moves into a new home and begins to feel an otherworldly presence. What makes Presence stand out from the scores of horror movies with which it shares its surface setup is how the story is presented. Every event in Presence is seen from the point of view of the ghost/spirit/spectre/poltergeist/whatever-you-want-call-it.
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