Flamin’ Hot is essentially a story about the American dream. If you work hard enough and are hungry enough, success can be yours. While I love underdog stories and feel-good movies like this, ironically the movie itself isn’t keen to know these characters beyond their surface motivations. By the end of the movie, you will know the story, but the characters feel strangely paper-thin. Flamin’ Hot begins with Richard’s (Jesse Garcia) childhood, and his first entrepreneurial efforts when he sold […]

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Ella Patel (Dianna Agron) has a full and satisfying life. She’s a well-known interior designer, has a loving husband and a lovely home, she does volunteer work and is passionate about cooking. Yet, despite her happiness, everyone else looks at her life as lacking because she doesn’t have any children. Her friends pester her about it, her father expresses his disappointment, and Aidan, her husband, is resigned to the reality of their childless state. He doesn’t want her to commit […]

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I wouldn’t say there’s been a paucity of rom-coms in recent years, but it’s hard to find good and rewatchable ones. So it’s fantastic news for all us rom-com fans now that Rye Lane’s dropped on Hulu. It’s perfectly charming, with two wonderful leads, and makes great use of its South London setting. As we rom-com die-hards know, we always begin with the meet-cute. In When Harry Met Sally, it’s a carpool situation between strangers, while in Set It Up, […]

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There’s a certain iffiness to the true crime genre when true life tragedies are adapted for entertainment. Ryan Murphy received quite a bit of backlash for his Dahmer series: the family members of the victims weren’t consulted when the show was being made, and casting an actor like Evan Peters to play Dahmer leads to viewers conflating the two and maybe even sympathizing with a man like Dahmer. With Boston Strangler, director Matt Ruskin didn’t want to glorify violence, so […]

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The last film I saw from Sarah Adina Smith was Birds of Paradise. Smith’s film focused on the nature of femininity and womanhood in the ballet world, and was one of the better films I saw in 2021. So I was excited to discover that she had another movie releasing this year. However, the fact that The Drop dropped silently on Hulu this past weekend did not bode well for its prospects, not to mention its status as a January […]

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What do Darby and the Dead, Enola Holmes and Honor Society all have in common? They all have sprightly female protagonists who narrate their own stories and break the fourth wall. This means of storytelling isn’t exactly new, but it has grown fashionable of late since the popularity of Fleabag, since we even have it happening in the recent adaptation of Austen’s Persuasion. After a near-death experience, Darby (Riele Downs) comes back from the dead with a new gift: she […]

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If you know your Shakespeare, you’ll recall that Rosaline is the girl Romeo was hoping to see when he crashed the Capulet party. But after that party, the only person on his mind was Juliet. Rosaline became a mere footnote in the play, overshadowed by the tragic love story that was Romeo and Juliet. So the aim of Karen Maine’s Rosaline is to bring this character centre-stage, and to reimagine everything from her perspective. It’s a fun film, and I […]

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It’s always unfair to compare new movies to their predecessors, but in the case of 2022’s Hellraiser reboot, the most meaningful comparison to 1987’s film of the same name simply compounds on an issue that arises from this new version itself: lack of sex. The film, loosely based on Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart, is broadly about demons who are hedonistic sensual explorers, called forth when someone solves a magical puzzle box. Any story about hedonist sensual explorers needs to […]

The post Hellraiser (2022) REVIEW – Not Hellacious Enough from Kyle Logan appeared first on Cultured Vultures, Cultured Vultures - .

Cannibal Holocaust is generally considered to be the first found footage horror movie. It deserves a place among the best found footage movies, but for many, this subgenre didn’t really enter popular culture until 1999. That would mark the release of The Blair Witch Project, which Roger Ebert later called one of the 10 most influential films of the century. Success gave way to imitation, and it wasn’t long before a slew of found footage films left many feeling as […]

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We love to talk about why there are so many horror movies featuring demonic or otherworldly possession. Stories of demonic possession go back centuries, with everything from the Roman Ritual of 1614 to the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde touching on our fear of completely losing control to something powerful and insidious. This collection of the best possession horror movies ever made barely scratches the surface of what’s out there. Possession horror movies get a […]

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Any list of the best home invasion movies is going to reveal just how far-reaching this genre can get. There are few basic plots that can hit closer to real fears shared by many of us, as no one is too terribly concerned about actual zombies, ghosts, dream demons, or mask-wearing mass murder enthusiasts. We understand that even with locks and security measures, someone with enough ambition can probably work around our best defenses. Unless you’re exceptionally wealthy, your protections […]

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Not Okay follows protagonist Danni Sanders (Zoey Deutch), who’s trying to make it as a writer. She works at Depravity, a workplace akin to Buzzfeed or Refinery29, but has yet to write something that impresses her boss. Maybe because she’s insular and shallow, even claiming to have FOMO over 9/11. Her life is a lonely one. She doesn’t have friends at work, and outside of work all she has is her adorable guinea pig. After a run in with a […]

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In retrospect, it doesn’t seem like it took very long for Battle Royale to become one of the most influential and entertaining movies of the 2000s. Based on a 1999 novel by Koushun Takami, the movie adaptation was immediately met with rave reviews and controversy. It received an R+15 age rating, one of Japan’s sternest movie ratings up to that time. It would be a full decade before the film was even given a proper release in the west, although […]

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When you think romance, what comes to mind are movies like When Harry Met Sally, My Best Friend’s Wedding, or even Crazy, Stupid, Love. These are mainstream movies that most fans of the genre would know. This list isn’t about those films. We’re diving into lesser known films and underrated romance movies that haven’t exactly popped up in conversation, but are most definitely worth the time and investment. So, you’re a fan of the genre, and looking to watch something […]

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An older woman’s exploration of her sexuality is the focus of director Sophie Hyde’s Good Luck To You, Leo Grande. Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson) hires Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack) – a beautiful, younger man – to have sex with her. You see, she’s lived most of her life in sexual sterility. She was married and had children, but the activities in the bedroom were routine and perfunctory. Her husband never cared about making her feel good or desirable, viewing certain […]

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