Film

HUMP Film Fest Returns to Sacramento • Sept. 15, 2018

The HUMP Film Fest has been making audiences squirm in their seats for 13 years. Renowned columnist Dan Savage (known for his “Savage Love” column) will bring this adult film showcase back to Sacramento at the Crest Theatre on Saturday, Sept. 15 (1017 K St.) with 21 new films in…

Muppets Gone Bad | The Happytime Murders | Rated R

I was really excited when I first heard about The Happytime Murders. Not only because film noir is my game, or because it was written by Todd Berger (who wrote and directed the hilariously sublime It’s a Disaster), but because it’s a Muppet noir that was directed by first-timer Brian…

You’re It | Tag | Rated R

“We don’t stop playing because we get older, we get older because we stop playing.” This quote is repeated ad nauseum throughout director Jeff Tomsic’s Tag, which hit theaters on Friday, June 15. The idea that play can improve the lives of both kids and adults alike is at the…

The Politics of Adulation | Bharat Ane Nenu | Not Rated

Thoroughly punch-drunk from being hand-led from one Marvelized CGI spectacle to the next over the past 10 summers, I thought I’d take a gamble on an Indian blockbuster film this week, a new Tollywood (Telugu-language) hit entitled Bharat Ane Nenu (I, Bharat), playing in select theaters in the Sacramento region….

A World Gone … Gone | The Cloverfield Paradox | TV-MA | Netflix

If you’re a fan of the Cloverfield franchise, then Netflix and Paramount Pictures has created a movie just for you. J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions teamed up with writers Oren Uziel and Doug Jung to introduce us to—dun dun dunnnn—The Cloverfield Paradox. The story was adapted from Uziel’s original screenplay,…

Thunder Road | Hostiles | Rated R

Hostiles is such a complicated film, though I guess I should have expected as much from anything starring Christian Bale and directed by Scott Cooper (Black Mass). You can imagine how exciting something like this would sound in a pitch meeting, too: A Western—which is the hallmark of American grit…