Author: Alex Billington

"Who gets to decide what art is?" Dekanalog has revealed a new trailer for Art College 1994, an animated drama from Chinese filmmaker Jian Liu, also known for Have a Nice Day. This initially premiered at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival more than a year ago, and it played on the festival circuit all of 2023. Beginning on April 26th, Art College 1994, Liu Jian's latest strikingly animated & affecting feature, opens for a week-long NYC exclusive theatrical run at Metrograph In Theater. Lao Wang works in a security department of a college in a big school town. Xiao Wang is a freshman. He has a conflict with his roommate and is taken to security by his counselor. In a room on this foggy winter day, Lao Wang and Xiao Li are tasting the life of their own, and something unexpected is about to happen... The town is waiting quietly for the next day as it always is. Described as a "shaggy, Slacker-ish tale from the pre-millennium Middle Kingdom," based on the director's own experiences at art college in China ...

"As a Palestinian here, I don't exist." Film Movement has revealed an official trailer for a documentary film titled H2: The Occupation Lab, from filmmakers Idit Avrahami & Noam Sheizaf. It was originally made and finished in 2022 before the current Israel-Palestine war broke out. It premiered in 2022 at the Docaviv Film Festival in Israel, and will be relased in the US sometime this year. H2 is the name given to the eastern part of Hebron - the only Palestinian city with a Jewish settlement in it. Here, along a one-Kilometer road, lies the holy Tomb of the Patriarchs, where both Jews & Muslims believe their common father, Abraham, is buried. This is also where the massacre of 1929, known as "year zero" of the conflict, took place; where the Jewish settlement movement was born, and where the policy of ethnic separation was first implemented by the military. With rare archive footage as well as interviews with Hebron's military commanders and locals, H2: The Occupation Lab tells the story of a place that is both a microcosm of the ...

"If he's trying to murder me, I'll kill him first." Another official trailer is available to watch for this kooky and crazy Japanese horror film called Lumberjack the Monster, based on the novel of the same name. A suspenseful thriller directed by Takashi Miike and starring Kazuya Kamenashi. The brutal film is about a series of bizarre murders by someone wearing a strange monster mask found in the picture book 'Monster Woodcutter' who then steals their brains. Akira heads out to get revenge on this Lumberjack killer. The plot follows this Patrick Bateman-like psychopath lawyer (who also kills) going up against this vicious masked murderer - pitting a psychopath against a serial killer in a totally bonkers new Takashi Miike creation. Only someone like Miike could make something so absurd! Lumberjack the Monster stars Kazuya Kamenashi as Akira Ninomiya, Nanao, Riho Yoshioka, Shota Sometani, and Shido Nakamura. The film already opened in Japan last December, and it will premiere at a Japan Society event in NYC this May - but is still waiting for a US release eventually. Hopefully sooner ...

"So what is real anymore? What is truth? Is this an innocent rabbit?" Or is he just... a regular rabbit? This delightfully clever short film is much more intellectual and profound than it may seem at first glance. It's about more then just a cute bunny. Regular Rabbit is an animated short film made by an Irish animation filmmaker named Eoin Duffy. After playing at festivals for the last few years, it's finally out for everyone to watch. A banished rabbit runs from his home. Failing to evade an unstoppable tide of lies, the rabbit falls into the deepest darkest recesses of society. Until one day, it appears rumors may finally turn to reality for this once regular rabbit. Featuring extraordinary narration by Rory McCann. This is the concept: "Regular Rabbit challenges our readiness to believe absurd misinformation by deliberately separating visuals from narrative. One does not match the other. It prompts us to question our own gullibility in the face of even the most outrageous claims." Yes, this is striking and emotional and will definitely make you think. View ...

"You'll never understand. If she wants to, Mona can control the whole mountain." Paper Street Pics has revealed the trailer for Trim Season, a horror thriller film set at a marijuana farm in Northern California. This trailer is dropping in time for 4/20 this wekend, but the film won't actually release until June in the summer. "The Ultimate Nightmare Blunt Rotation." A group of young people go to a remote marijuana farm where they hope to make quick cash during "trim season" - trimming marijuana at the end of the growing season. But they discover the location's dark secrets and now must try to escape the mountain on which they are trapped. It becomes a race against time for Emma and her friends to escape the dense woods with their lives. From the same director as Vide Noir, Trim Season stars Bethlehem Million as Emma, Jane Badler, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Alex Essoe, Ryan Donowho, Cory Hart, & Ally Ioannides. Aside from the freaky eco-horror concept, I really dig the poster they made for this (seen below). This looks terrifying! Watch out. Here's ...

"If you do have it, don't spread it." The first full trailer has debuted for an indie comedy called Werewolf Serenade, filmed in & around the city of Petaluma, California (same place as American Graffiti or Peggy Sue Got Married). The film is premiering in a few weeks at AVFest, and out later this year. It's a campy, low-budget indie dramedy about a middle-aged couple navigating the humorous challenges of transforming into a werewolf. When the burnt-out college professor Peter MacTire accidentally becomes a werewolf after his colleague turns up dead, he and his concert cellist wife Julia embrace the change to thwart an evil occultist plot, save the college, and their marriage. Hopefully. Starring writer / director Daedalus Howell as Peter, with Emily Keyishian, Mark P. Robinson, Alia Beeton, Christopher Sawyer, Rapheal Gavin, and Natalie Crafts. Yet another super low budget werewolf film, lots of them these days. Not exactly expecting this to win any prizes, but it does look like some small town kooky fun. Especially if you're into werewolves. Here's the festival promo trailer (+ poster) for Daedalus ...

"I want to go and follow the music, but you never know what you're going to find along the way." Another new official trailer has debuted for the documentary film titled In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, the latest from Alex Gibney following his docs on The Forever Prisoner, and Boris Becker. This first premiered at the 2023 Toronto & London Film Festivals last fall, and is already streaming on MGM+ in the US (though we missed this when it first dropped). The film follows Paul Simon inside the studio making his new album Seven Psalms while looking back on his six-decade career with countless musical peaks from Sounds of Silence to Graceland. Gibney's In Restless Dreams is supposedly the definitive musical biography of Paul Simon, one of the greatest songwriters (and performers as well) in the history of rock 'n roll. It's yet another one of these music docs that is a mix between promoting his new album he's been working on, and a quick look back at his entire career as a musician. He's got plenty ...

"This world is not kind to weak people." XYZ Films has revealed the trailer for a Canadian cheerleading film called Backspot, which plays more a serious drama or intense thriller than a sports comedy or satire. This is similar to that rowing film The Novice a few years ago. This premiered at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival last year and hits US theaters in May. Devery Jacobs (from "Reservation Dogs") stars as Riley, who is given the chance to cheer with the all-star squad, Thunderhawks. With a competition looming, Riley must navigate her crippling anxiety, her relationship with her girlfriend, and also her desperate need for approval from her new coach. One positive review states: “You may think you know your sports movie tropes, but you’ve never seen them used quite this way — that is, within a queer cheerleading drama firmly focused on complex female characters — and Waterson’s Backspot delights in skewing such expectations." Dang, okay! This also stars Evan Rachel Wood as coach, Shannyn Sossamon, Kudakwashe Rutendo, Thomas Antony Olajide, and Wendy Crewson. It's also executive produced ...

"Enjoy if you dare..." What crazy idea will they come up with next for a horror movie?! Try this on for size, why don't ya. Watch out for deadly tables! The Coffee Table is a Spanish horror film about, uh, some kind of haunted, killer furniture. Jesus and Maria are a couple going through a difficult time in their relationship. Nevertheless, they have just become parents and are also struggling with the pressures of a newborn baby. To shape their new life, they decide to buy a new coffee table. A decision that will change their existence and their lives forever. This indie horror was entirely shot over the course of 10 days. Starring David Pareja and Estefanía de los Santos, with Josep Maria Riera, Claudia Riera, and Eduardo Antuña. It's described as "an unsettling descent into absolute madness and misery," and also "uproariously funny until it is not at all." Well, this definitely sounds nuts! And looks much more weird and freaky than it does comedic. Here's the official UK trailer (+ poster) for Caye Casas' film The Coffee Table, ...

"Things that I create will hopefully live beyond my life." What kind of legacy will you leave? Will there be anyone to celebrate that legacy, to make sure it leaves a last impression? This wonderful, wholesome short film is a exercise in extending that legacy. Creating Things is a 10-minute short doc made by the brothers Bryan Simpson and Taylor Simpson, telling the story of their dad Roger Simpson - a beautiful artist with a creative mind. "Our friend Peter Lyngso revealed to us that he had filmed an interview with our Dad after his cancer diagnosis a couple years earlier. Upon watching the interview we learned new things about our Dad. It also reaffirmed things about him, most important of which was his passion for creating. This became an excuse to discover and rediscover our Dad's art, photos, and other mementos to create this film. The process has been a cathartic labor of love and the final piece is not only a visual eulogy to our Dad, but a visual ode to creating." No more intro necessary - press ...