NOTE: The images used to accompany this article are taken from online sources and do not represent the quality of the Blu-ray under review.

The Movie:

While American genre filmmakers tend not to shy away from depicting violence and brutality, their gory imaginations rarely scale the heights of bodily destruction realized onscreen by their colleagues working in Asia. For instance, the new Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie Sabotage has an oddly horror movie-like fascination with blood and dismembered body parts, but it also only has about one-tenth of the visceral impact created by the often painful-to-watch hammer fight in Read the entire review

THE FILM:
Jafar Panahi has lead a very interesting life. The Iranian filmmaker, currently under a criminal cloud in his homeland and facing a six year prison sentence and 20 year ban on directing for, as the government put it, "assembly and colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the country's national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic," is probably more famous today than when he won the Palme d'Or for his 1995 effort The White Balloon.Though it was the first time anyone from his country earned the prestigious prize, things today are far more infamous. International support for his cause hasn't swayed the ruling powers to reduce or remove the imposed penalties, and as of right now, no one is really sure of his status. Luckily, we have a homemade documentary, shot on cellphones and camcorders, then smuggled out of Iran on a flash drive inserted into a c...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

I feel like I am stuck in some uncanny valley where the importance of the story behind a particular cinematic effort is mistaken for a legitimately successful movie. The self-reflexive Iranian documentary This is Not a Film was one of the most lauded releases of 2012, even receiving a highly complimentary and thoroughly convincing review from one of my colleagues on this very site. While I understand the impulse to heap accolades on Jafar Panahi for his noble efforts in the face of adversity, it seems to me that encouraging anyone to rush into watching This is Not a Film without first cautioning them to its utter dullness is kind of a jerk move. Pat yourself on the ba...Read the entire review

Please Note: The screen grabs used here are taken from the DVD-R check disc provided for review, not the official DVD edition of the film.

Jafar Panahi, the Iranian filmmaker whose best-known film outside of his homeland is probably 1995's The White Balloon, is by most definitions a successful artist, and he wears his success with an assured but humble degree of comfort and confidence. In his 2011 movie This Is Not a Film, a quasi-documentary in which Panahi is present in every shot, his demeanor and temperament are even-keeled and relaxed; he seems perfectly at ease as he discusses the ins and outs of every aspect of his work and craft from writi...Read the entire review

THE FILM:

Please Note: The images used here are taken from promotional stills, not the Blu-ray edition under review.

Portland, Oregon (full disclosure: I was born and raised there, and I have an irrational love of the place), which these days has evolved along its natural path to become an outpost of progressivism and cultural hipness, is like the West Coast's own little Austin, one of those smaller but cooler cities that can get just a liiitle too precious and a liiitle too self-impressed for its own good (earning it a place as the subject of its very own self-mocking/myth-perpetuating comedy show). It's also the home of filmmaker M...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Korean film Root of Evil a/k/a Acacia is a deliberately paced supernatural thriller, that mostly eschews blood and gore (though there is some of that) in favor of relentlessly tightening the psychological screws. If one can overcome the slow going plot, though, it has a lot to offer.

Mi-sook (Hye-jin Shim) and Do-il (Jin-geun Kim) are a childless couple in their late thirties (she a stay at home wife and artist, and he an OBGYN) who have finally made the decision to adopt. When visiting the orphanage, Mi-sook becomes fascinated by the somewhat macabre paintings of the six year old Jin-sung (Oh-bin Mun), and she is determined to bring the boy into their own family. At first, things go fairly well, though Jin-sung is quite withdrawn, and spends a large amount of his free time sitting in the dead acacia tree in the back yard.

Jin-sung has a hard time accepting ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Portuguese film Blood Curse a/k/a Coisa Ruim is deliberately paced, almost entirely free of blood and gore, and functions as much as a psychological study as a horror film, but it's this measured approach and subtlety that sets it apart from much of its genre compatriots. It's not a perfect film, but definitely an interesting one.

Biologist Xavier (Adriano Luz) has inherited a house in rural Portugal and decides to move his family there, away from the hectic day to day life of Lisbon. The isolated house inherited from a distant relative is such a trope in thriller films that the audience knows that something bad is going to happen. Xavier and his wife Lena (Manuela Couto) have three children and one grandchild, the illegitimate son of their daughter Sofia (Sara Carinhas). Everyone adapts to the slower pace and superstitious beliefs of their new environment in v...Read the entire review

The Tagline:

The Movie:

Before I begin this review, Palisades Tartan's DVD release of The Slit-Mouthed Woman should not be confused with an earlier (and apparently more graphic) title of the same name reviewed by Daniel Siwek for this site here - though both films are based upon the same Japanese urban legend. It has, however, been apparently released before under the monicker Carved - reviewed by Nick Lyons here. ...Read the entire review