I love movies. Does that make me crazy? Yes, Filmcraziest.
Featured image: Eris Baker as Phoenix in Aisha Ford's short film, Cherry Lemonade. (Photo by Jessica Perez.) In Aisha Ford’s new short film Cherry Lemonade, Eris Baker stars as a young girl named Phoenix. She hangs out with her older brother, Kurt (Skylan Brooks), on a hot day in a lower-income neighbourhood. With this heat, the [...]
Featured image: Greg Finley as Tommy in Downeast. (Courtesy of Justin Cook PR.) Shooting on location in Portland, Maine, the new crime drama Downeast feels true to its setting and town as it depicts a gritty - albeit fictional - crime side of the town that’s more commonly seen in crime films set in Boston, Chicago or [...]
Featured image: Kevin Corrigan as Father Andrew and Thomas Jay Ryan as Father James in Scenes from an Empty Church. (Courtesy of MPI Media Group.) “New York is dead… It’s not dead, but it’s on life support,” narrates Father Andrew (Kevin Corrigan) to begin Onur Tukel’s newest film Scenes from an Empty Church. This is the usual [...]
Featured image: Marlon Kazadi as Taylor and Aleks Paunovic as Jim in Chained. (Courtesy of Nicola Pender PR.) Chained is the story of an abused boy, Taylor (played by Marlon Kazadi). Taylor finds a criminal, Jim (Aleks Paunovic), chained up beside a dead body in an abandoned warehouse. No one knows Jim is there other than [...]
I was able to speak with the film’s writer and director, Nicole Riegel, about her film Holler on my podcast The Filmcraziest Show. We discuss casting Jessica Barden in the role and Nicole wanting someone with a sense of humour fitting for women from Appalachian states; making the film in Riegel's hometown and this being like her coming-of-age story; bringing out the beauty of the town and playing with the colour red; as well as stolen library books.
The new comedy/thriller The Carnivores follows Alice (Tallie Medel) and Bret (Lindsay Burdge) as their dog, Harvie, is dying and is ruining everything, as there’s a sense for Alice that Bret cares more about the dog than her. These clouds of self-doubt start to cloud this dynamic, in a strange dark comedy where words won’t adequately describe the experience of the film. And of course, there’s a lot of ground beef… I was able to speak with the writer and director of the film, Caleb Michael Johnson, through an e-mail exchange.
The Corruption of Divine Providence is one of the strangest films I’ve seen in some time, and in this film’s case, that’s just a compliment to its ambitious world building. It follows the Séraphin family in the fictional, bilingual town of St-Michel, Manitoba, as the youngest daughter, Jeanne (Ali Skovbye), is nearly killed by a mysterious bleeding and is rushed to the hospital. That’s the jumping point for a film with near-exorcism, characters questioning their faith, and the town believing Jeanne is a miracle as everyone vies to figure out what’s happening. The film also stars Elyse Levesque, Tantoo Cardinal, Cory Sevier, David La Haye and Paul Amos, and is written and directed by Jeremy Torrie.
Jeremy Torrie was my guest on this episode of my podcast The Filmcraziest Show, where we chat some influences, originally wanting to make a miniseries, the world building and filming in Manitoba, and much more.
Here's a chat I had with Mindy Bledsoe, who directs, co-writes and co-leads the road trip drama THE IN-BETWEEN. We chat about how they traveled 4,500 miles to make the film, how Jennifer Stone came on board, as well as making people feel seen, as the film depicts characters with Type 1 Diabetes and CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome).
On this episode of The Filmcraziest Show, I was able to speak with Ryder McLaughlin, Nico Hiraga and Aramis Hudson, the stars of the new film North Hollywood. The film follows Ryder’s character Michael as he follows his dream of becoming a pro skater, which very much goes against what his father (Vince Vaughn) wants. All the while, he starts to drift away from his childhood best friends Jay (Nico Hiraga) and Adolf (Aramis Hudson).
The film offers a realistic and fun look at skateboarding culture, and the film’s directed by Mikey Alfred (a producer on Mid90s) in his directorial debut. Mikey is the founder of popular skate company Illegal Civ, which co-produces this film (and it also has Pharrell Williams and Noah Centineo as producers). The film also stars Vince Vaughn, Miranda Cosgrove, and Blake Anderson.
In this first of two interviews of my coverage of the new documentary Bastards’ Road, I was able to chat with Brian Morrison – the director, editor and cinematographer of the film – as well as founders of the music media company Aliceanna Collective, Daniel Strauch and Michael Marx-Gibbons, who provided three original songs for the film.
The documentary tells the story of Jon Hancock, a Marine veteran who walked 5,800 miles around the United States, using the solitude of the road and company of his fellow Marine brothers and their families of their fallen to successfully manage his wounds from war. This is as he goes across the country visiting his Marine brothers, as well as visiting those Gold Star families.
