The Rolling Tape

We’re bringing you somewhere we’ve never been before: the world of reality television. Here on The Rolling Remote, we’ve covered just about every kind of show imaginable from medical dramas, science fiction, fantasy to vampires, medieval knights, and post-high school drug mules to Mexico, but somehow we’ve never ventured into the corner of television that can completely take over pop culture like almost nothing else.

Before the awards conversation shifts to Venice, Telluride, and Toronto, all genre heads descend upon Montreal, Canada, for the 30th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival, North America’s leading celebration of all things pushing the boundaries of genre storytelling. For three decades, Fantasia has championed everything from horror and science fiction to fantasy, animation, thrillers, and the unclassified, experimental in-betweens.

Mother-daughter tropes are pretty common on screen. A terminally ill patient and caregiving struggles have been shown on screen in myriad forms before. We have seen natural disasters become characters in films before. So, what’s special about this Christo Tomy directorial? The women, of course. Ullozhukku (2024)is the recipient of multiple coveted awards because it presents a mother-in-law-daughter-in-law dynamic free of the stereotypes that have long dominated Indian films.

As someone in the film criticism space who goes to the theater multiple times a week, attends film festivals, and just discusses upcoming releases regularly with friends, it’s hard for me to go into many films completely blind. Even if I haven’t seen a trailer, I’ve likely heard something about a movie before I sit down to watch it. Somehow, I got to Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, not knowing anything beyond the basic plot description.

The Evil Dead franchise has always been representative of horror at its most experimental. Ingenuity is in the series’ DNA, dating back to Sam Raimi’s original 1981 micro-budget cabin-in-the-woods triumph that changed the genre forever. Even at their most frightening, these movies have been defined by their ability to blend gruesome horror and ridiculous comedic thrills in ways most horror features wouldn’t dare attempt.

The 78th Primetime Emmy Award nominations were announced on Wednesday, July 8, with major acting and series categories revealed by Jeff Hiller and Emmy winner Liza Colón-Zayas. Hiller earned an Emmy nomination last year for Somebody Somewhere, while Colón-Zayas won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for The Bear. Among the biggest takeaways, The Pitt led all programs with 25 nominations for its second season.

This week we are locating the Kandarian Dagger… Evil Dead Burn is the third standalone entry, after Evil Dead (2013) and Evil Dead Rise (2023), and the the sixth installment in the “Evil Dead” franchise as a whole. It was originally slated to be released wide in theaters on July 24, but was moved up two weeks to July 10. The film is directed and co-written by Sébastien Vaniček, and produced by Rob Tapert and series creator Sam Raimi.

Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski, A Private Life gives the audience the chance to follow psychiatrist Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster) on a private investigation after the death of her patient, Paula Cohen-Solal (Virginie Efira). Lilian suspects foul play. A Private Life sees Foster back in the investigating chair, like in the classic 1991 thriller The Silence of the Lambs. But while the film certainly creates a case to be investigated, it’s not a rewarding one. By the end, it all feels muddled.

Night Nurse, the feature directorial debut of writer-director Georgia Bernstein, premiered earlier this year in the NEXT section of the Sundance Film Festival, and it arrives in theaters July 10 as, in Bernstein’s own words, “an erotic thriller which takes place in a retirement community.” Listen to our full conversation with writer-director Georgia Bernstein on all podcast platforms with an abridged transcription below.

Today, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) revealed the first three films to be shown at its 51st edition, all appearing in the Gala Presentation section. TIFF will continue to release its selection of films in the coming weeks, with the full slate set for August 11.