Film Movement – Stream On Demand

‘The Killing Floor’ – integrating the union on Criterion Channel and MUBI

!Featured, African-American cinema, American Independent Cinema, based on a true story, Blu-ray, Criterion Channel, drama, DVD, Free, Have You Seen...?, historical, Hoopla, MUBI, Politics, socially aware cinema, Streaming Movies, Sundance Winner, SVOD 02/28/2023 Sean Axmaker

Bill Gunn directs this independent feature, shot on location in Chicago, dramatizing the struggle to unionize the meat packers during World War I.

‘All About Lily Chou-Chou’ – Not your usual high school drama on Kanopy

!Featured, Blu-ray, drama, DVD, Free, Have You Seen...?, high school, International Cinema, Kanopy, SVOD 06/13/2019 Sean Axmaker

Shunji Iwai’s cruel story of youth All About Lily Chou-Chou (Japan, 2001) has very little to do with pop star Lily Chou-Chou (a Bjork-like fictional creation who took on a cult life in Japan as the star of an interactive Internet novel) and everything to do with her adolescent fans in a Japanese junior high […]

Takeshi Kitano directs and stars in "Violent Cop"

‘Violent Cop’ and ‘Boiling Point’ – The volatile Takeshi Kitano on VOD and Blu-ray/DVD

!Featured, Action, Blu-ray, DVD, International Cinema, SVOD 06/28/2018 Sean Axmaker

In Violent Cop (1989) and Boiling Point (1990), actor-turned-filmmaker Takeshi Kitano has a way of transforming stillness into tension in his crime films. In the opening shot of Violent Cop, Kitano’s 1990 directorial debut, the camera holds on the smiling face of a toothless derelict. Like a pebble dropping into a pond the calm is […]

Kimba stars in the enigmatic Chinese film set in Tibet directed by Zhang Yang

‘Soul on a String’ – a Tibetan odyssey on Hulu

!Featured, drama, DVD, Hulu, International Cinema, martial arts, SVOD 01/28/2018 Sean Axmaker

An enigmatic epic set on the vast, empty plains and in the treacherous mountains of Tibet, the meandering but visually enthralling Soul on a String (China, 2016) combines spiritual odyssey, revenge film, and redemption quest. Reluctant hero Tabei (Kimba), a former convict who turned his back on society as a wandering hunter, is sent by […]

Hiroshi Abe and Yôko Maki star in the family drama by Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-Eda

‘After the Storm’ on Amazon Prime

!Featured, Amazon Prime Video, Blu-ray, Comedy, drama, DVD, Have You Seen...?, International Cinema, SVOD 09/13/2017 Sean Axmaker

Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-Eda directs the most perceptive and compassionate films about the difficult relations that put strains on families and the generosity and understanding that helps overcome those difficulties. After the Storm (Japan, 2017) is one of his most understated family dramas, a lovely, low-key film about divorce and disappointment that, like the title […]

Nicole Heesters and Rainer Werner Fassbinder in Wolfgang Kremm's "Kamikaze '89"

‘Kamikaze ’89’ – Fassbinder goes cyberpunk on Amazon Prime and Sundance Now

!Featured, Amazon Prime Video, Cult Movies, International Cinema, Science Fiction, Sundance Now 01/12/2017 Sean Axmaker

Kamikaze ’89 (Germany, 1982) – Rainer Werner Fassbinder takes a rare onscreen lead in what would be his last screen appearance in Wolfgang Kremm’s 1982 new wave science fiction cop drama. Based on a satirical science fiction novel by Swedish crime writer Per Wahlöö, it’s a cyberpunk murder mystery in a totalitarian near future, where […]