Smile 2 (2024 | USA | 127 minutes | Parker Finn) On a superficial level, Smile 2, writer/director Parker Finn’s sequel to …
Author: Tony Kay
A Legendary Italian Composer Lends Live Backup to a Horror Classic
Italian horror cinema from the ‘70s and ‘80s has amassed a fervent cult over the last four decades, and one of the …
Maxxxine Serves up Girl Power Marinated in Gore and Grime
Maxxxine (2024 | USA | 104 minutes | Ti West) Maxxxine may be set in a Reagan-era Los Angeles that’s been buffed …
Slasher Tropes Get Deconstructed, In a Violent Nature
In a Violent Nature (2024 | Canada | 93 minutes | Chris Nash) Any filmmaker who takes on the tropes of horror cinema with …
SIFF 2024 Notebook: The Primevals
The Primevals (2023 | USA | 90 minutes | David Allen) It sounds strange with hindsight, but there was a time when …
SIFF 2024 Notebook: I Saw the TV Glow, Dragon Superman, and Oddity
I Saw the TV Glow (2024 | USA | 100 minutes | Jane Schoenbrun) Jane Schoenbrun’s mesmerizing follow-up to We’re All Going …
Tony’s Favorite Films of 2023
In 2022 it felt like moviegoing came (almost) all the way back (for the seemingly dwindling number of people who were willing to go into the theaters). As the year winds to a close, we’re sharing lists of our favorite films we’ve seen (so far).
Spider-Man Takes an Unmissable Journey Across the Spider-Verse
There’s a point (two, actually) to this rather involved setup: One, make a good enough movie and superhero burnout becomes irrelevant; and Two, Into the Spider-Verse’s brand-new follow-up, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, sustains its predecessor’s hat trick and then some. Simply put, I can’t imagine a better, more thoroughly satisfying mainstream movie emerging this year.
The Boogeyman: Scaring Up Another Stephen King Adaptation
The Boogeyman (2023 | USA | 98 minutes | Rob Savage) My introduction to Stephen King’s writing happened in junior high, when I …
SIFF 2023: Circus of the Scars Revisits Jim Rose’s crazed Circus Sideshow
For a few years in the ‘90s, The Seattle-born Jim Rose Circus Sideshow was everywhere. How this band of sideshow misfits scraped, lifted, regurgitated, and self-mutilated their way to international notoriety (for awhile, at least) is told with a veteran carnival barker’s rumpled, robust zing in Chickory Wees’ great documentary.