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SXSW 2023 Review: Netflix and A24 Team Up for Lee Sung Jin’s Beautifully Unhinged Road-Rage Rivalry ‘Beef’

We’ve all had those days when everything goes wrong. Nothing can change your bad mood because you’re clouded by anger, only able to see things in a negative light. All it takes is one more thing to set you off, whether it’s dropping your keys (again) or getting your shirt caught on something.

Creator-showrunner-executive producer Lee Sung Jin (Tuca & Bertie, Silicon Valley) took that relatable state of mind and turned it into a dark comedy that sees two miserable people from different walks of
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Review: ‘Yellowjackets’ Returns with a Chilling, Horror-Tinged Second Season

In 2021, Showtime debuted what would become their second-most streamed series, which also nabbed multiple Emmy nominations. Now two years later, creators and executive producers Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson (Narcos) and co-showrunner Jonathan Lisco (Halt and Catch Fire) deliver another season of the hit mystery thriller, and it does not disappoint. Plus, it’s already been renewed for a third season ahead of the Season 2 premiere.

Season one of Yellowjackets introduced us to the titular high s
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SXSW 2023 Review: Zoe Lister-Jones’ ‘Slip’ Takes Us on a Fantastical Sexual Journey through Parallel Universes

In recent years, the Roku Channel has joined the long list of streaming platforms churning out quality original content, like last year’s Swimming with Sharks. This year, they’ll debut with a surreal romantic comedy from writer-director-showrunner and all-around Renaissance woman Zoe Lister-Jones (How It Ends, The Craft: Legacy), starring herself. The seven-episode series takes us on a fantastical yet grounded sexual journey of self-discovery.

The series follows Mae Cannon (Lister-Jones), a thi
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SXSW 2023 Review: ‘The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster’ is an Emotionally Charged Creature Feature

Writer-director Bomani J. Story (Rock Steady Row) makes his feature directorial debut at SXSW with The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster, a tale of life, death, family, and science inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

The film opens with a soft voice whispering, “Death is a disease.” That’s the first line we hear from Vicaria (Laya DeLeon Hayes), the intelligent, science-obsessed teenage Black Girl Nerd at the story’s center. Through a slow-motion sequence, we see how much death has impacted
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SXSW 2023 Review: David Dastmalchian Kills It as a Talk Show Host Going through Hell in ‘Late Night ith the Devil’

If you’re looking for your next indie midnight movie watch, look no further than Colin and Cameron Cairnes’ Late Night with the Devil, a horror period piece that’s just as eerie as it is fun. Imagine something like BBC’s controversial Halloween special Ghostwatch except it’s set in 1970s New York and isn’t a hoax.

The first eight minutes of Late Night with the Devil are like a documentary beginning with a montage of chaotic 1970s news footage. A gruff narrator tells us about Jack Delroy (David
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Review: Paramount+’s Teen Murder Mystery ‘School Spirits’ Brings the Angst but Not So Much the Suspense

Paramount+’s latest series, School Spirits, gives us a glimpse into the metaphysical world of teen specters stuck in literal high school purgatory. The eight-episode YA drama is based on the upcoming graphic novel of the same name written by series creators Nate and Megan Trinrud and illustrator Maria Nguyen. While the source material is set to release in fall 2023, you can watch the Trinrud duo’s story of lost souls coming to life (ha) on screen this month.

The first episode of School Spirits
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'Scream’s' Best Callbacks to the OG Films

Since its first release in 1996, the Scream franchise has cemented its legacy across five films — soon to be six. With each installment, we get intelligent and amusing meta-commentary, subverted horror tropes, and Ghostface killers who love a good monologue. Throughout the franchise, you’ll find plenty of homages to the past. So, ahead of the March 10th 2023 premiere of Scream VI, check out these killer callbacks in its 2022 predecessor Scream.

Twenty-five years later, we’re introduced to Tara
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Review: Netflix’s ‘The Strays,’ an Atmospheric Thriller Set in British Suburbia

This month on Netflix, British actor-writer-director Nathaniel Martello-White (Small Axe: Mangrove) debuts his first feature-length film The Strays. The U.K.-based psychological thriller is the latest title in the suburban nightmare subgenr: spotless exteriors (both people and their picture-perfect homes) masking dark truths.

Neve Williams (Ashley Madekwe, a.k.a. Detective Eudoria Patch from Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy) is a biracial woman living a dream life in an affluent British town. She
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Review: 'You' Returns for Its Fourth Season with an Intriguing Whodunnit

Season 4 of Netflix’s hit psychological thriller You arrives just in time to make you want to cancel your Valentine’s Day plans. Writer-showrunner Sera Gamble (Supernatural) and co-writer Greg Berlanti (The Flash) bring us a brand new season of secrets, mysteries, awful people, obsession, and Joe Goldberg awkwardly staring at people while he narrates. But this time, it’s in Europe where the snobs aren’t mommy bloggers and tech geniuses, but rather royal-adjacent socialites.

At the end of Season
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Review: 'Fear' Is a Haunted Hotel Pandemic Horror Story Riddled with Clichés

Writer-director Deon Taylor (Traffik) kicks off 2023 with his psychological horror film set during a pandemic. Co-written by John Ferry, Fear follows eight friends vacationing at a secluded (and haunted) lodge who become increasingly paranoid about getting sick while also experiencing hallucinations caused by malevolent spirits. Yes, it’s both a haunted hotel story and a global pandemic story, and the result of combining the two sub-genres is as convoluted and riddled with clichés as one would e
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Sundance 2023 Review: ‘Mami Wata’ Is a Thrilling Tale of Revenge and Spirituality

Writer-director CJ ‘Fiery’ Obasi (Ojuju) makes Sundance history this year as the first Nigerian-based filmmaker featured in the festival. He’ll showcase his third feature-length film Mami Wata, a female-driven, genre-bending fantasy film boldly told in black and white.

The oceanside village of Iyi thrives on the blessings of the ancient water spirit Mami Wata of West African mythology. As the intermediary, Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) bridges the gap between the people of Iyi and the mermaid goddess
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Sundance 2023 Review: Adura Onashile’s ‘Girl’ Explores Trauma and Mother-Daughter Relationships

Writer-director Adura Onashile makes her feature directorial debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival with Girl, the story of a mother-daughter bond put to the test as the daughter feels more and more drawn to the outside world. Named a Screen Star of Tomorrow 2021, the British-Nigerian filmmaker is best known for the BAFTA Scotland-nominated short Expensive Shit, an adaptation of her 2016 play previously featured in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Set in Onashile’s home of Glasgow, Scotland,
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Sundance 2023 Review: Danny and Michael Philippou’s ‘Talk to Me’ Explores the Consequences of a Supernatural High

Twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou make the leap from their popular YouTube channel RackaRacka to the big screen with their debut feature Talk To Me, a psychological horror-thriller set in their native Australia.

Based on a concept by Daley Pearson (The Strange Calls), and penned by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, the filmmaking duo directed the film together. But this wasn’t their first time on a film set. Aside from their surreal, cinematic videos, both have production experience fro
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Review: AMC's Immortal Universe Expands with Anne Rice’s 'Mayfair Witches’

AMC expands the cinematic universe of late author Anne Rice, officially called the Immortal Universe, with an episodic adaptation of the 1990s novel trilogy Lives of the Mayfair Witches. Written and created by Esta Spalding and Michelle Ashford, both known for Showtime’s Masters of Sex, the supernatural drama follows the titular Mayfair family’s 300-year legacy of powerful, oft-doomed women. The eight-episode first season primarily focuses on The Witching Hour, the first novel in the trilogy, wh
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Review: Nicolas Winding Refn Makes His Netflix Debut with the Visually Striking Revenge Fairytale ‘Copenhagen Cowboy’

If you’ve ever wondered what the take on the superhero genre from Nicolas Winding Refn (The Neon Demon) would look like, Netflix has you covered in the new year.

Four years after directing his first television series Too Old to Die Young, the Danish visionary returns to streaming with Copenhagen Cowboy, a neo-noir set in his native Denmark. The six-episode series was penned during the pandemic by Refn and co-writers Sara Isabella Jønsson Vedde (Miss Osaka), Johanne Algren (Kamikaze), and Mona M
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Psychological Thrillers to Chill You This Winter

‘Tis the season for wintry content, and what a great time to enjoy some spine-tingling thrillers filled with murder mysteries, ghosts, vampires, and serial killers.

Here are six winter-centric tales that bring you thrills and chills.

Kicking off the list is a film that hasn’t been talked about nearly enough, though its recent arrival on Netflix currently has it in the top ten. Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners stars Hugh Jackman as Keller Dover, a father unraveling after the abduction of his daught
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Review: Noah Centineo Wings It in a World of Espionage in Netflix’s ‘The Recruit’

Noah Centineo has proved to be a great leading man in his previous work with Netflix and an action star in Black Adam. Netflix’s The Recruit marks two firsts for the young actor. He’s the lead in a streaming series. He’s also stepped into the role of executive producer, along with showrunner Alexi Hawley (The Rookie) and journalist/lawyer Adam Ciralsky, who used to work for the CIA.

Owen Hendricks (Centineo) is a 24-year-old recent law school grad who goes to work for the CIA. He’s intelligent,
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Cult Classics: Revisiting ‘Batman Returns’, Tim Burton’s Anti-Christmas Christmas Movie

This past summer marked the 30th anniversary of 1992 follow-up Batman Returns from Tim Burton (Wednesday). The sequel, written by Daniel Waters (Heathers) with a “story by” credit for Sam Hamm (Batman), was a financial hit at the box office but still pulled in less than its predecessor.

Audience-wise it was divisive, with some thinking Burton made it too dark. But anyone familiar with Batman lore would counter that the hero’s entire backstory is incredibly dark, as are most, if not all, of his
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Cult Classics: Revisiting the Twisted, Unofficial Thanksgiving Dark Comedy ‘Addams Family Values’

In 1991, director Barry Sonnenfeld (Schmigadoon!) reintroduced us to cartoonist Charles Addams’ delightfully macabre family who first graced the pages of the New Yorker in his movie The Addams Family. But with Paul Rudnick’s (Sister Act) sharp, satirical follow-up script, Addams Family Values could be a standalone movie.

The Addams Family set the stage but the sequel outdid its predecessor. It’s not even necessary to see the first one to understand the events of the second. Despite not meeting
Black Girl Nerds •

Review: Jenna Ortega is Exceptional as the Woeful and Weird ‘Wednesday’ Addams

The extraordinary character of Wednesday Addams has been around since 1938, popularized in the 1960s sitcom, and cemented as an icon in the 1990s Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family, Addams Family Values) movies. Even though we’re often weary of reboots, remakes, and reimaginings, this year’s Addams spin-off from creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville) along with director/executive producer Tim Burton (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children) is something original and wholly its
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