Elements of Madness

“Who wants to live forever, Forever is our today, Who waits forever anyway?” – “Who Wants to Live Forever” by Queen What does it mean to live forever and what does it say about those who seek it? For some, it means the literal concept of immortality wherein characters of both fiction and reality seek any means necessary to put a stopper on one’s biological clock, to cease the degradation of one’s genes.

Academy Award-nominated producer Bill Kong (Hero; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) joins EoM Presents to talk about his latest project, The Furious. He speaks to the importance of balancing strong acting performances with intense martial arts action, the expertise of director Kenji Tanigaki, and their goal to “outdo our ancestors” with the hand-to-hand combat in this film. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Your denial of the importance of objectivity amounts to announcing your intention to lie to us. Noone should believe anything you say. – John McCarthy, computer scientist and “Father of AI.” Commodification is a natural occurrence in society. An extension of the barter system, instead of merely trading goods for other goods, it enables individuals to earn money based on the services they provide.

There is a delicacy and there is a purpose to making a movie that tells the story of a cult, especially when telling the story of Heaven’s Gate, the cult that is responsible for the highest casualty rate by mass suicide on U.S. soil. While cult enthusiasts or die-hard Simpsons fans (“The Joy of Sect” episode) may know the story here, nothing can prepare audiences for the story as it unfolds in Michael Gallagher’s (Funny Story) feature.

Longtime stunt performer and action choreographer Kenji Tanigaki is the director of the new brawler film The Furious. Tanigaki joins this segment of EoM Presents to break down how the propulsive action was constructed with a combination of distinct sound design, modern environments, and cinematography that keeps the fights in the center of the frame. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Thomas Manning: I want to start off by talking about the emotional core of the film.

It’s fitting that a documentary about one of the greatest bands of all time comes from The Roots drummer and all-around music geek Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. It’s even more fitting that the man who holds the most memorable afro this side of town has his documentary premiering opening night at Tribeca Film Festival 2026.

A great time watching something can come in a 90-minute, 120-minute, 180-minute format, or any format in between. Sometimes you get really lucky and a hilarious, awkward, heartfelt great time comes in a 13-minute format. Thankfully, Blake Winston Rice’s DISC, which he directed and also co-wrote with Victoria Ratermanis (Bad Painter), is exactly that, a hilariously awkward and heartfelt good time, and is lead by the always fantastic Jim Cummings (The Last Stop in Yuma County).

Chum feels like one of those shark movies that crawled out of the direct-to-video section of the ‘90s and somehow made its way into the modern release calendar. It follows nearly every familiar beat that fans of bad B-horror have come to expect: hokey dialogue, questionable decisions, and continuity errors so glaring that they stop becoming distractions and start turning into the main event.

In 2007, singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles released Little Voice, her second album, the one that helped her breakthrough with tracks like “Love Song,” “Bottle It Up,” “Morningside,” and (personal favorite) “Many the Miles.” Since then, she’s released several studio and live albums, EPs, co-starred in comedy series Girls5Eva (2021-2024), and both written the music for and starred in the Broadway production of Waitress: The Musical. A multi-hyphenate, an artist, and, some may forget, a person.

Actor and martial artist Joe Taslim (The Night Comes for Us; Mortal Kombat) joins this edition of EoM Presents to talk about his role in The Furious. Directed by Kenji Tanigaki (Enter the Fat Dragon), this film is a blistering display of some of the finest martial artists in the world facing off against each other. In this conversation, Taslim discusses the emotional arc of his character and working with co-star Xie Miao (Eye for an Eye series).