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Articles by Andre Couture
'Dad & Step-Dad' Review – No Faux Pa To Be Found In This Comedic Masterpiece
Tynan DeLong’s entirely improvised feature Dad & Step-Dad brings laughs, head-scratches, and dadly pride. But it also broaches the existential dread we all share but hits dads differently: actually having to do things. As the titular dads interact glibly atop a bubbly yet transparent surface of social niceties, their actual familial relationships struggle under the weight of their insistence on paternal politics.
'Dad & Step-Dad' Review – No Faux Pa To Be Found In This Comedic Masterpiece
Tynan DeLong’s entirely improvised feature Dad & Step-Dad brings laughs, head-scratches, and dadly pride. But it also broaches the existential dread we all share but hits dads differently: actually having to do things. As the titular dads interact glibly atop a bubbly yet transparent surface of social niceties, their actual familial relationships struggle under the weight of their insistence on paternal politics.
'Before I Change My Mind' Review – An Intriguing Coming-Of-Age Debut From Trevor Anderson Original
Before I Change My Mind is a coming-of-age film with a lot on its mind. Films like it typically have some kind of wanderlust in terms of how they broach topics of what adulthood means to different people. While Robin (Vaughan Murrae) does explore this in Trevor Anderson’s film, they do not feel like the proper focus of his debut feature-length effort.
'The Animal Kingdom' Review
If you were living in a world where people out of almost nowhere start to mutate into animals, could you accept the ramifications for human rights it presents? Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom asks exactly this, in a framework that adopts a set of genre tropes to ease his argument along despite it coming across as somewhat jagged.
'The Animal Kingdom' Review
If you were living in a world where people out of almost nowhere start to mutate into animals, could you accept the ramifications for human rights it presents? Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom asks exactly this, in a framework that adopts a set of genre tropes to ease his argument along despite it coming across as somewhat jagged.
'She Is Conann' Review
Bertrand Mandico is quickly establishing himself as one of the goopiest, goriest, and horniest French fringe genre filmmakers of the moment, and his newest film She Is Conann strays not from that path. In a sprightly retelling of the Robert E. Howard Conan stories, an old woman (Françoise Brion) awakes in a medical facility and is escorted through the afterlife by Rainer (Elina Löwensohn), a hellhound shutterbug donning a diamond-monogrammed leather jacket.
'She Is Conann' Review
Bertrand Mandico is quickly establishing himself as one of the goopiest, goriest, and horniest French fringe genre filmmakers of the moment, and his newest film She Is Conann strays not from that path. In a sprightly retelling of the Robert E. Howard Conan stories, an old woman (Françoise Brion) awakes in a medical facility and is escorted through the afterlife by Rainer (Elina Löwensohn), a hellhound shutterbug donning a diamond-monogrammed leather jacket.
'A Place Of Our Own' Review
Laila (Manisha Soni) lives in Bhopal on her own, working with marginalized and underprivileged people facing constant hardships in their lives. Laila herself faces these issues, one night returning home to be harassed by a neighbor at her door demanding she perform sexual services for him.
'A Place Of Our Own' Review
Laila (Manisha Soni) lives in Bhopal on her own, working with marginalized and underprivileged people facing constant hardships in their lives. Laila herself faces these issues, one night returning home to be harassed by a neighbor at her door demanding she perform sexual services for him.
An Uneven Second Impression From Hugh & D.K. Welchman Original
Hugh and D.K. Welchman’s Loving Vincent released to universal acclaim in 2017, where the visual mediumbecame a little more innovative and collaborative: animated over physical performers, the filmmakers used van Gogh’s style in painting each frame evoking the mood of his works as it told their story of what may have happened in the last days of his life. The Welchmans have broadened their scope considerably with their adaptation of The Peasants by Władysław Reymont.
'Alienoid: Return To The Future' Review
Choi Dong-hoon has done it again. His sequel to 2022’s Alienoid properly kicks off the blockbuster season, providing a similar (if not identical) wide scope of his sci-fi magic epic. He aims for a natural zenith as well as subsequently closing up the unique can of worms he has left open for almost two years between films. But as the second film is built so airtight directly on top of the first, we must glance back at it for a moment.
'Alienoid: Return To The Future' Review
Choi Dong-hoon has done it again. His sequel to 2022’s Alienoid properly kicks off the blockbuster season, providing a similar (if not identical) wide scope of his sci-fi magic epic. He aims for a natural zenith as well as subsequently closing up the unique can of worms he has left open for almost two years between films. But as the second film is built so airtight directly on top of the first, we must glance back at it for a moment.
'Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros' Review Original
There’s something starkly simplistic about the Troisgros family’s cooking. Michel Troisgros and his two sons César and Léo run three restaurants in central France under the Troisgros name. Their specialty is simplicity, nothing more than a handful of a few ingredients yet prepared in a way that changes the way we think about those ingredients.
Kore-eda's Quiet Storm Is One Of The Year's Best
“Who’s the monster?” Kore-eda Hirokazu has always been a filmmaker who zeroes in on snapshots of lives being lived. He explains himself how the viewers could imagine what happened before and after, and while he might not necessarily call his previous films storytelling, some will respectfully disagree. For Monster, Kore-eda collaborates with screenwriter Sakamato Yuji for the first time, melding their similar styles together in perfect symbiotic cohesion.
Kore-eda's Quiet Storm Is One Of The Year's Best
“Who’s the monster?” Kore-eda Hirokazu has always been a filmmaker who zeroes in on snapshots of lives being lived. He explains himself how the viewers could imagine what happened before and after, and while he might not necessarily call his previous films storytelling, some will respectfully disagree. For Monster, Kore-eda collaborates with screenwriter Sakamato Yuji for the first time, melding their similar styles together in perfect symbiotic cohesion.
'A Still Small Voice' Review
New York City houses one of the oldest teaching hospitals in the US, the Mount Sinai Hospital. In it, there are a multitude of programs designed to aid healthcare workers and those in training for spiritual care. In a residency during the height of New York’s state of emergency, Margaret “Mati” Engel works tirelessly to tend to patients facing their own mortality, providing comfort where the medical staff cannot.
'A Still Small Voice' Review
New York City houses one of the oldest teaching hospitals in the US, the Mount Sinai Hospital. In it, there are a multitude of programs designed to aid healthcare workers and those in training for spiritual care. In a residency during the height of New York’s state of emergency, Margaret “Mati” Engel works tirelessly to tend to patients facing their own mortality, providing comfort where the medical staff cannot.
A Patchwork Of Humanity
Stained glass windows are nice to look at. They’re a medium usually associated with churches and religious institutions dominated by joyless biblical imagery. Their mosaic-like style of colored glass shards are assembled together to create an image that despite their vibrancy inspires a melancholic air of religious duty rather than how art manages to engage the senses in more positive ways.
A Patchwork Of Humanity
Stained glass windows are nice to look at. They’re a medium usually associated with churches and religious institutions dominated by joyless biblical imagery. Their mosaic-like style of colored glass shards are assembled together to create an image that despite their vibrancy inspires a melancholic air of religious duty rather than how art manages to engage the senses in more positive ways.
'Orlando, My Political Biography' Review
“Why don’t you write your biography?” “Because fucking Virginia Woolf wrote my biography in 1928.” In November of 2019, Paul B. Preciado delivered a lecture at an annual psychoanalytic conference in Paris, the École de la Cause Freudienne. Entitled Can the Monster Speak?, the lecture builds on a combined inspiration of Franz Kafka’s A Report to an Academy and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus.
'Orlando, My Political Biography' Review
“Why don’t you write your biography?” “Because fucking Virginia Woolf wrote my biography in 1928.” In November of 2019, Paul B. Preciado delivered a lecture at an annual psychoanalytic conference in Paris, the École de la Cause Freudienne. Entitled Can the Monster Speak?, the lecture builds on a combined inspiration of Franz Kafka’s A Report to an Academy and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus.
Genre-Blending Cautionary Tale Fumbles Promising Premise
Genre-blending cautionary tales have been in vogue since the rise of works like Black Mirror, Love, Death + Robots, Electric Dreams… and so on, even portions of Guillermo del Toro’s recent anthology series Cabinet of Curiosities. Their themes are mostly one-note, showing how humanity has strayed from its well-intentioned path to use its technological tools for sinister purposes on an institutional or smaller societal scale.
Genre-Blending Cautionary Tale Fumbles Promising Premise
Genre-blending cautionary tales have been in vogue since the rise of works like Black Mirror, Love, Death + Robots, Electric Dreams… and so on, even portions of Guillermo del Toro’s recent anthology series Cabinet of Curiosities. Their themes are mostly one-note, showing how humanity has strayed from its well-intentioned path to use its technological tools for sinister purposes on an institutional or smaller societal scale.
More Than Just A Toxic Personality
Investigation is the bread and butter of David Farrier, a journalist who excels in uncovering bizarre people — and the situations they stir up. This time the subject in question gets too close for comfort in Farrier’s life, and it’s not something he could ever have seen coming. After discovering an antique shop in his neighborhood that extorts people parking in their private lot after hours, Farrier chooses to write about its ludicrous practices that happen to be perfectly legal.
More Than Just A Toxic Personality
Investigation is the bread and butter of David Farrier, a journalist who excels in uncovering bizarre people — and the situations they stir up. This time the subject in question gets too close for comfort in Farrier’s life, and it’s not something he could ever have seen coming. After discovering an antique shop in his neighborhood that extorts people parking in their private lot after hours, Farrier chooses to write about its ludicrous practices that happen to be perfectly legal.
'When Evil Lurks' Review
Demián Rugna’s Terrified has been continually treating viewers with its unique vision of terror and continues to do so today with new viewers arriving at its haunted suburban landscape. His latest feature film When Evil Lurks takes Rugna’s relatively small scale approach and applies it to a larger world. By continuing to focus on small communities Rugna manages to keep the stakes and tension high while implicating just how far the ripples of consequence go.
Send In The Clown
The entertainment industry is full of toxic people surrounded by circles of apologists, standing at odds with those they’ve helped abuse and alienate. Dan Richards, former child star, receives a distressing phone call amid a tumultuous episode of clinical depression. Whatever future he had been planning for himself has now become impossible; instead, his next plan shifts to moving back to his home state of Florida to live with his parents.
Send In The Clown
The entertainment industry is full of toxic people surrounded by circles of apologists, standing at odds with those they’ve helped abuse and alienate. Dan Richards, former child star, receives a distressing phone call amid a tumultuous episode of clinical depression. Whatever future he had been planning for himself has now become impossible; instead, his next plan shifts to moving back to his home state of Florida to live with his parents.
'Deliver Us' (2023) Review
Cru Ennis and Lee Roy Kunz’s film Deliver Us sets itself apart from other titles in the religious horror genre by starting with a small focus and widening to something unexpectedly and suddenly on a grand scale. The filmmakers start to morph their story from its tight and arresting opening, serving what seemed like a private, personal approach of a divine miracle in the horror world, to something much more high-stakes and bombastic.
'Deliver Us' (2023) Review
Cru Ennis and Lee Roy Kunz’s film Deliver Us sets itself apart from other titles in the religious horror genre by starting with a small focus and widening to something unexpectedly and suddenly on a grand scale. The filmmakers start to morph their story from its tight and arresting opening, serving what seemed like a private, personal approach of a divine miracle in the horror world, to something much more high-stakes and bombastic.
'100 Yards' Review - An Introspective Exemplification Of What Modern Kung Fu Cinema Should Be
Directors Xu Haofeng and Xu Junfeng have on their hands a modern-day martial arts classic. Set in Tianjin sometime in the 1920s, 100 Yards focuses on Shen An (Jacky Heung) and Qi Quan (Andy On), two pupils of a wushu school, and the decision that must be made to settle on a successor for the school’s future. A private duel is fought between the two as their dying teacher watches and goads Quan on to defeat Shen An, the master’s son.
'Elevator Game' Review - Going Up?
The horror genre faces an excruciatingly disappointing deficit in showcasing elevators for what they really are — ghastly devices. Wherever we went wrong, director Rebekah McKendry is attempts to reclaim the fear deposited into this societally accepted concept of putting yourself in a metal box suspended by cables, and hoping you get out alive. McKendry is not new to the limitless possibilities of horror.
'We Kill For Love' Review
There has always been a special kind of attraction to the voluminous subgenre of erotic thrillers. But during the video store era of the eighties and nineties, it was impossible to ignore. Big name titles got checked out often to the point of renting out every copy, making smaller low budget titles get more exposure on the shelves of both local and chain video stores.
'Elevator Game' Review - Going Up?
The horror genre faces an excruciatingly disappointing deficit in showcasing elevators for what they really are — ghastly devices. Wherever we went wrong, director Rebekah McKendry is attempts to reclaim the fear deposited into this societally accepted concept of putting yourself in a metal box suspended by cables, and hoping you get out alive. McKendry is not new to the limitless possibilities of horror.
Landscapes Of A Troubled Existence
Astrakan puts us in the shoes of Samuel, an orphan who has been taken in by a moderately-sized family. His foster mother, Marie, is wistful despite her sunny personality and his father, Clément, is soft spoken but also quick to anger. Director David Depesseville taps into something that feels deeply personal when chronicling Samuel’s experiences. The more he encounters various chaotic circumstances that he finds himself in the midst of, the more he’s convinced he may be the sole cause.
'Justified: City Primeval' Review
Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) goes through a journey to realize just what kind of person he is by the end of the excellent original Justified series after 6 more-than satisfying season, although his ex-wife Winona (Natalie Zea) tells him early in season one: he is the angriest man she has ever known. This concept burrows deep underneath the goings-on of Givens’s investigation in Justified: City Primeval, where Raylan this time hunts down a man who may be just as rage-fueled as he.
'Justified: City Primeval' Review
Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) goes through a journey to realize just what kind of person he is by the end of the excellent original Justified series after 6 more-than satisfying season, although his ex-wife Winona (Natalie Zea) tells him early in season one: he is the angriest man she has ever known. This concept burrows deep underneath the goings-on of Givens’s investigation in Justified: City Primeval, where Raylan this time hunts down a man who may be just as rage-fueled as he.
Looking For Love In All the Wrong Places
Mutt is an accurately stressful snapshot of the life of Feña (Lio Mehiel), a trans man planning to pick his father up from the airport but constantly running into obstacles barring his way. He is determined to reconnect with his father, Pablo (Alejandro Goic) after having a falling out with his mother. But few things are ever so simple for him during this stretch of time, and Feña runs into some curveballs in the hours leading up to his father’s visit.
Looking For Love In All the Wrong Places
Mutt is an accurately stressful snapshot of the life of Feña (Lio Mehiel), a trans man planning to pick his father up from the airport but constantly running into obstacles barring his way. He is determined to reconnect with his father, Pablo (Alejandro Goic) after having a falling out with his mother. But few things are ever so simple for him during this stretch of time, and Feña runs into some curveballs in the hours leading up to his father’s visit.
A Personal Portrait Of Life & Death In Coal's Shadow Original
Elaine McMillion Sheldon spends devoted time unraveling the physical and emotional impacts coal mining has taken on various communities within the Appalachian region in her personal documentary, King Coal. Focusing more specifically in West Virginia where Sheldon is from, we take a glimpse into various lives that coal has affected.
'The First Slam Dunk' Review - A Real Hoop Dream
Chances are if you’re an American, you’ve probably heard of the Slam Dunk manga or anime series at some point. Created in 1990 by Takehiko Inoue, the story followed Hanamichi Sakuragi, the red-haired gang leader who gets into basketball due to a crush on a girl during his first year at Shohoku High School.
'The First Slam Dunk' Review - A Real Hoop Dream
Chances are if you’re an American, you’ve probably heard of the Slam Dunk manga or anime series at some point. Created in 1990 by Takehiko Inoue, the story followed Hanamichi Sakuragi, the red-haired gang leader who gets into basketball due to a crush on a girl during his first year at Shohoku High School.
'J005311' Review - A Heart of Darkness
8.0 The experience of J005311 is a more contemplative type, and those looking for a tighter sense of plot surrounding the mystery of its content will come to the film with unrealistic expectations. The story told here is a much older one, but within it, Kono crafts an inhabitable space of anxiety and dread that takes you prisoner until the very end. User Ratings (0 Votes) 0 Andre is an avid film watcher, blogger and podcaster.
'J005311' Review - A Heart of Darkness
8.0 The experience of J005311 is a more contemplative type, and those looking for a tighter sense of plot surrounding the mystery of its content will come to the film with unrealistic expectations. The story told here is a much older one, but within it, Kono crafts an inhabitable space of anxiety and dread that takes you prisoner until the very end. User Ratings (0 Votes) 0 Andre is an avid film watcher, blogger and podcaster.
'I Am What I Am' Review - Essential Interpersonal Cinema
8.0 I Am What I Am has a lot of positivity for its audience, even in a misunderstanding and uncaring world for those who don’t fit the popular mold. User Ratings (0 Votes) 0 Andre is an avid film watcher, blogger and podcaster. You can read their words on film at letterboxd and medium, and hear their voice on movies, monsters, and other weird things on Humanoids From the Deep Dive every other Monday.
'Mondays' Review - Not The Dull Workday You'd Think It Is
7.5 The film has such an admirable nature to it even if it’s a little inconsistent. It strikes a visual style at its start that it doesn’t maintain, to a slight detriment of its own tonal development, but Mondays excels in its writing--that fun, quirky tone that is established visually stays constant in its script. User Ratings (0 Votes) 0 Andre is an avid film watcher, blogger and podcaster.
Japan Cuts: Festival Of New Japanese Film 2023
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Japan Cuts: Festival Of New Japanese Film 2023
Japan Cuts: Festival Of New Japanese Film celebrates contemporary filmmakers with one of the most eclectic lineups each year, and Geek Vibes Nation is proud to cover the fest once it starts up later this month! It kicks off in-person on July 26th, running until August 6th at Japan Society in New York City.
‘Malum’ Review - A Bloody Good Time
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