Category Archives: Movies

EMExclusives, Movies

Lisa Hurwitz Takes Us Back to The Automat

On this edition of EMExclusives, we are going to take a trip back through time to a place that brought people together for food, fun and conversation. We are talking about the latest doc to hit the screens, The Automat

Documenting Horn and Hardart’s iconic Automat, one of America’s original and most popular restaurant chains in NYC and Philadelphia.

I had the honor of talking to first time director, Lisa Hurwitz about the research and the once in a lifetime interviews that went on to making this documentary.

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EMExclusives, Movies

You Won’t Be Alone Interviews: Anamaria Marinca

On this edition of the EMExclusives, come with me on a journey to the world of You Won’t Be Alone – coming to theatres this Friday! An beautiful film to watch, features magical performances by its actors, and is profoundly poetic. The film is in Macedonian but has English subtitles. Set in an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, the film follows a young girl who is kidnapped and then transformed into a witch by an ancient spirit. Curious about life as a human, the young witch accidentally kills a peasant in a nearby village and then takes her victim’s shape to live life in her skin. Her curiosity ignited; she continues to wield this horrific power to understand what it means to be human.

In the first of three interviews, I will talking with actress Anamaria Marinca, who plays Maria – a two hundred year old witch in the movie. 

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EMExclusives, Movies

The Marvelous Maggie Q on Being The Protégé

On this edition of EMExclusives, we are gearing up for some action and adventure with the upcoming thriller, The Protégé! Rescued as a child by the legendary assassin Moody and trained in the family business, Anna is the world’s most skilled contract killer.
For the first time during the pandemic,

I got to sit down and have an in-person interview with actress/activist Maggie Q in DC!

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Movie Reviews, Movies

Streaming Review: Paradise City is a Surprise Breath of Fresh Air

Take me down to the Paradise City where the grass is green and the girls are pretty…. Ok very cheesy and obvious way to open a review about a show called Paradise City. When a joke writes itself who am I to deny it? Truth be told when Amazon first pitched this project to me, I actually thought it was a show about Guns N Roses. Sadly it isn’t, but it is about a dysfunctional rock star. One notable thing about the show is this series marked one of the last performances from former Disney Star Cameron Boyce , who died tragically young, in 2019, of a rare ailment.

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EMExclusives, Movies

The Profile of Timur Bekmambetov

In our second and final Profile interviews, I sat down, via Zoom, to the writer, producer & director of the movie, Timur Bekmambetov! We talked about how he set up a meeting between the actress Valene Kane and real-life subject Anna Erelle and his film language, Screenlife, and where do we see it going for the future of filmmaking.

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EMExclusives, Movies

The War with Grandpa Interviews

For today’s EMExclusive, you are in for a real treat. I got to sit down with the cast of the upcoming comedy The War with Grandpa!

Based on the award-winning book by Robert Kimmel Smith, Sixth-grader Peter is pretty much your average kid-he likes gaming, hanging with his friends and his beloved pair of Air Jordans. But when his recently widowed grandfather Ed moves in with Peter’s family, the boy is forced to give up his most prized possession of all, his bedroom. Unwilling to let such an injustice stand, Peter devises a series of increasingly elaborate pranks to drive out the interloper, but Grandpa Ed won’t go without a fight. Soon, the friendly combatants are engaged in an all-out war with side-splitting consequences. 

To talk about this cool family film, I talk to five of the cast members: Oakes Fegley, Laura Marano, Rob Riggle, Cheech Marin and Jane Seymour!

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Blu-Ray, DVD, Movies

The King Of Staten Island is Now available on DVD and Blu-Ray

What do you do when you don’t know what you are going to do with your life and you are a high school dropout still living at home with your mother at the age of 24, trying to be a tattoo artist that nobody wants to hire, and your widowed mother wants to start dating again 17 years after losing your father?  That’s where Scott Carlin is at in “The King of Staten Island” directed by Judd Apatow and starring Pete Davidson, Marisa Tomei, Bill Burr, Bel Powley, Maude Apatow, and Steve Buscemi . . .  It’s based on events of Pete’s real life (who wrote the film along with Judd Apatow & Dave Sirus) and how he deals with the loss of his own father who was a firefighter.

Scott Carlin (Pete Davidson) & Margie Carlin (Marisa Tomei). Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

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Movies

The Daily Stream: My Spy Streaming on Amazon Prime

There is a certain career trajectory every big burly sports star goes on when transitioning to becoming a box office super star. One of the keys is they always have to make that kid friendly comedy where they protect the smart, precocious child  it allows us to see their softer more “comedic” side. Hulk Hogan, Arnold, Vin Diesel, The Rock, and John Cena have done it. Now big, strapping Dave Bautista has his kiddy movie the Amazon Studios film My Spy. This was originally slated for a theatrical opening and now it’s going to stream exclusively on Amazon Prime.

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Movies

Why Is It That Boys Are So Messy Trailer: The King’s Man! Plus First Look Photos!

20th Century has released a trailer for the third film in the Kingsman series – the independent intelligence agency’s origin story, The King’s Man.

The film – which features a genuine global conspiracy – may be a period piece (one of the villains is the legendary Russian mystic, Rasputin) but it’s as irreverent and action packed the previous films.

The King’s Man is slated to open on September 18th.

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Movies

Fantasia International Film Fest Takes Its Upredictable Programming Online!

Just because COVID-19 protocols resulting in the cancellation of the Physical incarnation of the Fantasia International Film Fest, that doesn’t mean the genre-centric fest has gone away.

The festival’s 24th edition might be online but don’t expect a truncated version of Fantasia – today’s first wave of programming includes twenty-one films ranging from the Tiny Tim biopic, Tiny Tim: King for a Day to the new Lloyd Kaufman film and intriguing titles like Undergods and The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw,

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