Grand Isle follows Walter (Nicolas Cage) and his neglected wife (Strickland) who lure a young man (Benward) into their Victorian home to escape a hurricane. When the man is charged with murder by Detective Jones (Grammar), he must reveal the couple’s wicked secrets to save himself.
Kelsey Grammer plays a southern detective with an old-world charm, attempting to get the truth in a twisted case of breaking and entering turned murder. Buddy is a young, working-class father who gets wrapped up with one of the most volatile couples in town. (Nic Cage and Kadee Strickland) These two have secrets and a love/hate relationship for the ages. The plot seems cliche but it’s anything but. You will not be able to predict what’s coming next. I have to give credit where credit is due to co-writers Iver William Jallah and Rich Ronat. The script is much more emotionally complex than expected. It’s a film about deep down trauma and how we do or do not cope. With some decent fight choreography and a whole hell of a lot of weirdness, Grand Isle is a sick mystery no one will see coming. Cage is scary and bizarre as usual. Kadee Strickland is sexy as hell and damn lunatic. She pretty much owns this entire story. Luke Benward as Buddy, our main protagonist, gives a solid performance. Besides Strickland, Kelsey Grammer is my favorite part of this movie. While he is in fewer scenes than I’d like, his delivery and presence is exactly what Grand Isle needed to succeed.
The southern gothic thriller stars Nicolas Cage, Kelsey Grammer, Luke Benward and KaDee Strickland. Directed by Stephen S. Campanelli, the film was co-written by Iver William Jallah and Rich Ronat. Screen Media will release the film in theaters nationwide and on-demand December 6th.
The craziest thing is that to say much more about the plot is to do it a disservice. It’s almost indescribable. Love Is Blind challenges the notion of being an to heal inside and out. It’s about human connection.
The uneasy dread comes into the script immediately. An old colonial home in the middle of nowhere is a great place for fear to live. Add a locked door? Yup. I wanna open it knowing full well that’s a terrible idea because obviously bad things hide behind it. But don’t we always want what we can’t have?
Performances are incredibly natural. The chemistry between Simone Policano and Jeff Ayars is magic. The sound editing brings This Is Our Home into another terrifying realm. Brooklyn Horror Film Festival goers must have had an extra visceral experience in a theater. I will fully admit that I covered my eyes and got chills more than once. I had no idea what would be coming next and it scared the shit out of me. There are some truly startling scenarios that will keep you hanging on, every single second with your heart pounding. Beautifully framed and stunningly scored, This Is Our Home proves that if we’re not very careful, grief can consume us permanently.
Awesomely jarring nightmares, a killer soundtrack, combined with insanely good performances by the entire cast makes for a fantastic indie horror. There is more than face value to The Shed. Yes, there is a sick monster and buckets of blood, but all that aside the film speaks to much bigger issues. Our lead Stan has all the makings of a kid that’s about to lose it on society. He lost his parents, he’s in the custody of an abusive grandfather, he gets bullied at school. Stan and best friend Dommer are just trying to survive high school.
ZOMBI CHILD
This film has a unique narrative style. Long takes establishing backstory are a stark contrast to the teen angst driven by voice-over lover letters. Weaving the strange but true history of zombification and a young girl’s adolescent heartbreak, Zombi Child presents a story about the lengths we’ll go for love. Cinematically beautiful natural light adds to the atmosphere. Performances are everywhere from subtly grounded to flamboyant and frightening. The script is unexpected but the end result is a bit of a fever dream that will hypnotize audiences.
The admissions process is cutthroat. It is based on an essay and an interview. It begins with an AA and then an even luckier few continue on to the BA program. Students are studying things like Plato, Mandarin, Debate, and Calculus. They are earning their degrees in the same way any other student would outside prison walls. Professors do not give pass/fail grades. They are legitimately working with each individual just as they would at a stand-alone university. This is a college that just happens to be on prison grounds. Before they graduate, they must submit a senior project. The paper must be between 80-100 pages. It is the equivalent of a Master’s thesis. Here is a best option for part time 
College Behind Bars puts faces and voices to those benefiting from but genuinely fighting to improve their lives and thus, the world all we live in. We, the viewers, are forced to come to terms with the prison industrial complex, systemic racism, and our own moral compass. And the students are forced to come to terms with their pasts and their futures. College Behind Bars is both informative and eye-opening. It breathes life into the stories of a population oftentimes swept under the rug. You will cheer on the college students, no matter what your views on how they got their opportunity to learn and earn their degrees.
This teen thriller is so well written and acted that the foreboding behinds immediately and never lets up. Nothing good can come of white boy rage and resentment. But a whole lot of great can come from a brilliant young cast of this caliber. Jaeden Martell is captivating as younger boy scout brother Alan. There is something truly special about this young man’s ability to fill a frame with a powerful silence. Older, sort of ne’er do well brother played by Keean Johnson is a dynamic foil for Martell. Fueled by equal parts passion and pride, he inadvertently puts both boys’ lives in jeopardy. The other two young men that keep these brothers deeply mired in danger are complete opposites of one another. Daniel Zolghadri gives a phenomenal performance as Smitty, playing somewhere between a mob rat and a boy who is terrified to feel rejected. The fourth and certainly most brutal of the bunch is Red. Alex Neustaedter utilizes a physical and emotional volatility that is truly unsettling. You will keep one eye on him at all times because you know nothing good can come of his angry townie attitude. These four boys try to avoid getting caught robbing summer tourists but deceit leads the group down a deadly path. Writer-Director Kevin McMullin has crafted a real thriller. The cinematography is beautiful. Existing in a time driven by greed and favoring the elite, Low Tide proves that human nature reveals its flaws just as easily among children as it does adults. This film undoubtedly brings unsettling intrigue and true noir.
Jonas inherited his deafness from his maternal grandmother and grandfather. We learn so much from watching him communicate with and without his cochlear implants. We learn by watching the interaction between him and his grandparents. Genetics determined that Jonas and his grandparents had a tiny “typo” in a specific gene causing them to be deaf. Music became another way to communicate and bridge the generational gap. Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata was Jonas’ personal challenge he set for himself. His goal was to study for 7 months in order to perform it in a recital. The history of Beethoven’s own deafness weaved into this doc is stunning on every level. While rehearsing, Jonas’ music teacher explains the emotional impact of the piece not only to him but the audience. Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements is an ode to sound and silence.
The overall editing of Depraved is a masterclass unto itself. Utilization of flashbacks fills in the backstory gaps. The visual overlays of synapses firing are truly effective. We become Adam. It is damn near perfect. The special effects make-up is striking. The sound editing is hypnotizing and the score is breathtaking. Fessenden has given us a complex character study that subtly shines a light on issues from big pharma to the treatment of our veterans and beyond. It is a story about moral corruptibility at its finest. You will be left in awe. Depraved is a modern-day, movie monster masterpiece.
Jess Weixler easily represents us as the audience. Her sincerity and ability to relate on an emotional level are super refreshing. Her performance feels natural and grounded. Chained for Life also sees the return of Charlie Korsmo ( a childhood crush since Dick Tracy) as the eccentric Director. The level of commitment to this character makes me miss him on-screen all the more. And now we come to our leading man, Adam Pearson. I am completely obsessed with this man. He is phenomenal. I cannot remember the last time a performance felt less like a performance and just simply a documentary. He is mesmerizing and I implore more writers and directors to seek him out and create content for him. The world needs it. Giving voice to those who are almost always exploited for their unique appearance, Chained For Life is a special opportunity to explore inclusiveness, not just in film, but every day.
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