From the Collection: Altered States

From the Collection: Altered States

Ken Russell’s Altered States has entered the Criterion Collection. The ultimate cinematic head trip of the 1980s, British renegade Ken Russell’s first Hollywood production—adapted by the legendary screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky from his own novel—is part hallucinogenic freak-out, part gonzo creature feature, part transcendent love story, all played at a fever pitch. When researcher Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) begins using himself as a test subject for his mind-expanding psychological experiments, it sends him on an increasingly…

Read More

Movie Review: Rental Family

Movie Review: Rental Family

  One of the most delightful cinematic experiences I have had in 2025 came from director Hikari’s Rental Family, a sweet, warm, lovely movie that features the best performance of Brendan Fraser’s career. Fraser plays Phillip Vandarpleog, an American actor working in Japan. Phillip primarily works on commercials and small parts in movies, struggling to find his place and purpose in Japan. As he waits to hear back from his agent about a big acting…

Read More

Movie Review: Predator: Badlands

Movie Review: Predator: Badlands

  Predator: Badlands is not your daddy’s Predator movie. Since John McTiernan’s 1987 masterpiece, we’ve come to know the Predator character as an intergalactic human-hunting extraterrestrial (or a xenomorph-hunting extraterrestrial on a couple of occasions). There has never been much of a backstory to the Predator and, until now, that’s been just fine. Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands shows us the Predator in a new light. The movie is entirely focused on the Predator. It is…

Read More