Michael Talbot-Haynes

Monk In Pieces is a showstopper for the woman who stopped all of our preconceptions of what a show could be. It is achingly brilliant and needs to be stampeded to immediately in the direction of your choice.

Limbo is a cinematic monument for the shadows of the doomed.

The documentary is the great American story of the outsiders coming in and rising up. You need to see it.

The Falling Sky doesn’t spoon-feed you any information; rather, it blows it up your nose. This production, without explanation, works brilliantly in immersing the audience in the electricity of the Reahu ritual. Not knowing what is going on or what is heading towards you instills a discombobulation that allows you to surrender to the void and go with it.

Swept Away is truly an amazing movie that is still as potent at 50 years old as it was back in the day.

I dare you to find Aita and press play, especially if you are resistant to giving it a try. You will be caught in an excitement flood from which there is no escape.

Every square inch of this picture is fascinating, whether for the fresh faces or those who have been fans of Cheech and Chong for years.

The uninitiated may wonder what the fuss is about, but for the true Fassbinder Heads out there, Peter von Kant is a revelation. Ozon has made one of the best homages to a master filmmaker ever made.

Every frame will blow your baby dome to smithereens, as I can guarantee you have seen nothing like this.

The way the musicians describe the happiness they get from playing, as well as hearing great playing, will make your heart feel; it is moving.

This movie cements The Lunachicks as New York’s best-kept secret, one that is too juicy to keep to yourself. It will hit you harder than ten bags of Alphabet City’s finest product, as it will knock the wind right out of you.

Mothersbaugh himself acknowledges that the band’s curse has always been being ahead of its time, but it is fitting that we have finally arrived at a time when that is obvious. If you have not seen this legendary band play live yet, do so while you still have the chance, if you can. Whether you have or have not, see Devo as soon as possible.

Even after over four decades, Diva still impresses with Beineix’s masterful mix of highbrow and lowbrow. With the stunning new 4K restoration, Diva retains its well-deserved status as a late 20th-century movie masterpiece.

Black Ice is the kind of film where you are in a different world once finishing it.

Life As A B-Movie: Piero Vivarelli is an endless feast for hardcore Italian film fans, but it’s also a fantastic introduction for newcomers to the wonderful world of Italian genre filmmaking.

She Is Conann shatters the limits of cinematic imagination.

The leads not only hold everything together, but they also hoist it all up in the air and twirl it around their heads. Gordon shows the richness of his comedic side; his bewilderment is infectious. Way anchors the audience’s perspective in his portrayal of what I took as a cowboy from Sweden. Gladstone is the standout. She holds a power as a western hero that creates a palpable humming sensation up your arms.

The proceedings have that perfect narrative balance of a simple fairytale, leading to baffling visions and fantastic ideas.

Animale is the new state-of-the-art for high-end horror. It will have genre fans and art house aficionados weeping black tears of joy worldwide.

Touch Me is worthy of the same regard as the great hard drug classics like Trainspotting and Requiem For A Dream. In fact, Touch Me is the new heroin beacon shining high on the arthouse hill.

This is high-octane fun that you would do well to check out in theaters.

The Three Musketeers – Part II: Milady is a sky-high bonfire for the planet to gather around and witness legend in motion.

Rub comes out of nowhere and reinforces your belief in the magic of independent filmmaking.

While the material is right out of one of Herzog’s indigenous rainforest epics, it is lit like an Italian horror movie, with candy colored Bava-like blues and reds sprucing up that bush.

With these performances and Thom Mills’s confident direction, Luderdale plants its flag firmly in gangster movie territory. For fans of mob films, this is an instant classic. It’s stylish, gritty, and ends with a bang that will leave you face down in your pasta bowl, begging for more.

It is informative and inspiring, with Sill’s spirit summoned for all to see. It is a great piece of lost classic rock history that so many will relish. It’s the kind of film that buries itself in your ribcage and keeps glowing for days afterward.

With Candy Land, Swab has delivered a historic flashpoint in the darker side of the film universe. It is a supernova of seediness. The flick is the true bastion of this under-utilized subgenre.

The twists and turns happen right on point to keep the lively meter cranked up to a wicked level. You don’t even get that feeling that you watched half a movie like with other two-part pictures, as all the crescendos you need are included here.

Medusa is an electrifying work of art that elevates its already elevated pop influences, a transcendental tableau of the true-life horror of female oppression.

Leemans puts in one of the best performances I have seen by an actress playing a male prostitute while actually pregnant. Likewise, Hentschel puts in one of the best performances I have seen by an actor playing a pregnant woman tripping on mushrooms while buck-a*s naked. The two completely inhabit each other’s characters, never sinking down to ridiculing them no matter how hard the onslaught of comedy gets.

Strictly for hardcore horror fans, though I can see this also becoming a huge “dare you to watch it” event for the uninitiated. We haven’t had a movie this dangerous in the theaters in a long time, and its presence is both important and historical in the history of extreme cinema. This movie will bite your face off.

There is this marvelous hard-boiled narrative style Vigas employs, with long periods without dialogue and little exposition. The way the intrigue is built as the picture progresses almost takes us into thriller territory. This is the cinematic storm the filmmaker creates here when a child’s yearning meets the brutality of an outlaw land.

Werewolves is the best werewolf movie since The Howling.

Daydreamers is the kind of high cinematic art that you fall in love with as it rips your throat out.

If you want to see the shark device used with the precision of a scalpel, watch Beast of War. It is knock-out entertainment with many rows of teeth that won’t let go.

It’s A Wonderful Knife is one of those pictures that is so surprisingly good you wish you had seen it in a theater. Plus, this is one spiffy-looking picture.

The Fabelmans will take your expectations of the Spielberg brand and tie them to a rocket. It is engaging and compelling. I am still pondering it days later. If you love movies, you owe it to yourself to catch this on that same big screen that Sammy loves so much.

Esposito’s debut is an exciting arrival from a newly minted auteur. Fresh Kills is a fresh take on a familiar subject, with enough splendid brutality to go around the whole table twice.

Chokri’s work has a pulse that beats so hard it could split veins. Yet, it remains in a reality that is vulnerable to suddenly wacky quakes.

This is everything you could ever want from a yoga horror movie. It also expands the boundaries of what the genre can achieve.

Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) is a grand rock and roll buffet with something for everybody.

Watching Flamin’ Hot mirrors the joy of scarfing down a bag of the crunchy red stuff yourself. It makes your eyebrows raise, is instantly addictive, and goes by very fast.

Even if you don’t care for saddles and sagebrush much, you are going to want to cowboy up for this one. It is an acid flashback wearing spurs. If you go out of your way for that old-school cool adult animation, slide right on over to Slide. It is another example of why Bill Plympton will always be one of the greatest animators of all time.

If you have been fiending all year for a quality drama that shares a different world, then Frybread Face and Me is what you have been waiting for. Luther’s deft screenplay ably gets across a lot of complicated family business in just a few strokes.

A New Love In Tokyo does for sex workers what The Sopranos does for the mafia: it shows what the people behind the jobs are like. I wished I hadn’t missed it the first time and relished this opportunity to finally see it.

Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan: Brothers in Blues is that rare insider music documentary that skips the skin and gets down to the bone.

Roots of Fire has the power to make you a fan of Cajun music for life, while also (maybe) making you more of a fan of life itself.

To picture the depth of visuals in The Beautiful Summer, imagine a hundred beautiful moments in time standing out in sharp contrast like a string of Christmas lights.

The acting is flat-out wonderful.

Huesera: The Bone Woman will take your conception of the limits of the horror genre and break every bone in its body.

Mother of Flies is family-made entertainment at its finest, though it is best suited for families that have Xs carved into their shaved heads.

Take Me To The River: New Orleans is edited together in a way more organic to music than traditional documentaries, which works wonders.

Two Women showcases the rampaging wit of expert writing with the jaw-dropping technique of expert directing.

It is exciting in ways you cannot imagine and must be seen to be believed.

Sebastian grabs ahold of your attention and pulls it down to the floor.

Soderbergh does the whole movie in long takes using a wide-angle steady-cam setup. It is a situation fertile for great acting, as the long shots allow these performers to really inhabit their characters.

It is a magnificent documentary on art and how artists interact with the world.

While a rock doc on the surface, Resynator showcases all the conflicting nuances of reality with higher clarity than previous documentaries. Here we see the real life we live in, where everything is both so cool and completely sucks at the same time. We also get to explore how a person’s conception of an absent parent affects the architecture of their self-identity. It is fascinating to see how, as different mysteries are solved, it affects Tavel.

The story twists and struggles keep engaging through, whether you know the outcome or not.

This is a film that gets savored through reflection as you put all the pieces together and realize the scope of its achievement.

Inthralled is a truly vicious work of art in a brown paper wrapper, just watch your fingers once it is open, as it has bite.

Night Shift is an impeccably crafted, clever ghost infestation that has a lot going on under the sheets.

With Adult Swim Yule Log, Kelly delivers a new dimension in seasonal insanity, and won’t the kids just love it? Just slide your arm into the crazy stocking until you hear a click.

The Black Guelph is as gritty as gritty can get.

Prisoner’s Daughter is a drama that stings hard but also unleashes a lot of hope. It is a splendid reason to be excited about the great American indie again.

Lee Fields: Faithful Man shows that this planet is an even groovier place than we thought. You sometimes just need to hang in long enough to find out.

Close To You is ultra-real, ultra-important, ultra-fascinating, and ultra-recommended.

The whole picture trades in the type of exotica that is fundamentally linked with the Arabian Nights stories, which melds amazingly well with the sci-fi tropes employed. The strategic use of location shots abroad, perhaps on a vacation, hides the fact that most of this was shot in Michigan, which is truly impressive.

Bonjour Tristesse is a rich experience in more ways than one, while it also burns beneath with a rising secret fire. Give it some patience, and it will give you an unforgettable experience.

EO is an incredible film, but do be aware it does skew bitter, especially at the finale.

Backspot has the same punch as Run, Lola, Run. Just like that film, the thrills are time released into your system at critical points throughout your viewing.

Zombie Strain is the THC-heavy zombie jamboree your lungs have been waiting for.

Red Sonja is classic high adventure that earns the gold in its pocket by spilling blood the way that only a woman can.

What You Wish For is everything you could wish for in a well-lit plunge into the abyss. The script’s condemnation of the class system is much more potent than the overrated, sneering misfire The Menu.

While the delivery of the thrills falls into action territory due to the power contests, there is a palatable sense of dread kept up that will satisfy the horror crowd.

This film is a pleasure indeed. The concoction of Agatha Christie elegance with Sandler’s teetering on the edge of taste humor is high-impact relaxation, like a warm bath for your frontal lobes.

The Actor shows how much fun there is in the indie sphere for regional values mayhem to be had.

Kai paints her subject lovingly, hitting the classics like the world’s greatest visual jukebox. Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres is a fun-filled look at a member of the old school who wasn’t a class clown.

There is plenty of good meat on the bone here for the hungriest horror hounds. If you have some time to burn, the new Firestarter is definitely worth it.

The degree of ruthlessness that is achieved is stunning, as the skin of the nightmare of the assassination trade is pulled back.

Rebel Moon-Part 2: The Scargiver is the cinematic sci-fi equivalent of that delicious chicken sandwich people punch each other in the face to get. Unscrunch your face and allow yourself to have an intergalactic blast like you did before you grew up to be so picky.

This is a unique holiday horror experience that can be enjoyed year after year.

Of course, we have the magical Mr. McGregor, turning in a nuanced performance that gets into some very raw territory. I knew he had a range, but the depth McGregor travels here is impressive in its specificity.

While it seems on the surface to be a paint-by-numbers thriller, the numbers add up to something higher than usual.

Unwelcome will work its way into your heart, one tiny stab wound at a time.

Sit back and get ready to melt into your chair.

Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project will school you thoroughly on why this great poet is so damn important.

Go follow this Trail of Vengeance, as it will turn your dull, dark evening blood red with delight.

All you have to do is forget about watching the movie and let the movie watch you. Just listen to the thunder in the distance, overhear part of someone else’s life, and feast your eyes on vistas unseen until now.

Instead of establishing and repeating the same flavor, we are presented with a sci-fi-tasting menu of increasing complexity.

The Trouble With Jessica is like a tray of fresh out of the oven pot brownies: demented, dark and delicious. Get yourself a mouthful of this movie.

Kalki 2898 AD is the kind of widescreen majesty that makes the butter of your popcorn shine in the dark. There isn’t anything else like it in the movies right now, so jump right in.

Gringa is an unusual hybrid of dysfunctional family drama and an escapist sports movie.

Even though this is just a blood-stained shadow of Argento’s previous masterworks, the fact that he has produced something worthwhile again is a cause for celebration.

Summoning Sylvia summons plenty of laughs and will hold your interest in its bony grip.

It is fascinating how Elordi takes something so deadly and still manages to maintain a shimmering vulnerability.

Yes, it is still the frenzy over the shoes that has stood the test of time and will be what will draw a wide audience to this movie. However, I think many will be just as impressed if not more so with the man himself.

Stripping the glory from gangsterism like chrome from a tailpipe is the pulse-pounding documentary Man On The Run, written and directed by Cassius Michael Kim.