Here’s the deal. I just realized I got all my requirements in for this year’s Hooptober by review #29. So rather than watch films I thought I needed, I picked two films I needed. As in, “my stress level is so high I just need some FUN” needed. And so I jumped in on something a lot of us who love this genre have been waiting literal years for: Macon Blair’s remake of the Troma classic The Toxic Avenger. Maybe it’s impossible for a film with such a history behind its troubled journey to the screen to live up to expectations, but you know what? I dug the hell out of it. Blair has written and directed not only a film that lives up to the original’s over-the-top squishy gooey effects and story, but it also pays beautiful homage in its style to the studio and its uniquely skewed perceptive.

Reviews

Hooptober 12.0 – Eggshells (1969)

Being Film #29 for Hooptober 2025

We’ve finally gotten to the “Hooper” of Hooptober – and Eggshells is a doozy of a debut for the director, a dark and experimental abstraction of the concept of community and utopia in a world intent on pushing back on anything that doesn’t fall in line with the regimented, totalitarian views of those in power (who are determined to stay in power). Is it the easiest film to watch? Hell, no…Hooper is like a kid in a candy shop, trying all sorts of techniques to convey his preoccupations – many of which permeate even his silliest films – and in the process creates something that lights the way to his most important works.

ChrisOctober 29, 2025Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 12.0 – The Invitation (2015)

Being Film #28 for Hooptober 2025

Is this the first time we’re covering a film that we already covered on the podcast? Yes, but in this case I wasn’t there for Episode 32 which focused on the films of Karyn Kusama, so The Invitation was a new experience for me. And now having watched it, I can see why 1) so many people hold it in such high regard, and 2) I was right in holding off seeing it for so long. This is one I’m happy to admire from afar. I get it, I see what Kusama is after, and yeah – the dread and tension is excruciating. But this is very much not my kind of movie, and makes me uncomfortable in way I suspect the filmmakers intended, but honestly at this time in my life I don’t need. That’s okay, though. Good movie.

ChrisOctober 27, 2025October 27, 2025Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 12.0 – The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Being Film #27 for Hooptober 2025

I don’t need to re-watch The Wizard Of Oz to recall with perfect clarity the impact of the flying monkeys had on my six-year-old psyche. I suspect for a large group of people my age watching the film was an annual tradition: VCRs and cable television were still uncommon where I lived in the late 70s/early 80s, and the springtime showing of the film on my local CBS station was the only time a lot of people could see the film. One day. One time. I’m nostalgic for the time though admit the convenience of what you want when you want it is hard to resist. So while I didn’t have to watch the film again, I did. Because it’s 2025 and I can literally bring up the film in 4K on my phone (I didn’t, but I could have…). So no, I didn’t need to watch The Wizard Of Oz again. But I did.

ChrisOctober 26, 2025Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 12.0 – The Man Who Laughs (1928)

Being Film #26 for Hooptober 2025

I was trying to write this introduction when I realized that the sentence I was trying to create was immortal. That’s right: it can live forever, applied to whenever and still make sense. The sentence? Oh, “With all the advancements technology has afforded cinema in the last…” I stopped there, because there you could write any number and mean it if you were writing it in any decade – at least any decade where the concept of film was a thing. Are you still with me? Because I haven’t even worked the title of the film I’m trying to write about yet. It’s The Man Who Laughs. And it was great.

ChrisOctober 25, 2025Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 12.0 – Moloch (2022)

Being Film #25 for Hooptober 2025

Sometimes tone is everything. Have I said that before? That’s the mental state I’m inhabiting this deep into Hooptober. Six days to go, six films to watch. Hopefully they all exhibit some of the grace and then of Moloch, a Dutch film that overcomes a convoluted story with a deep, deep sense of how people think and feel. I came into it not knowing what to expect, and the combination of cults, folklore (the two always found within the vicinity of the other) and dread made for a rewarding watch.

ChrisOctober 25, 2025Leave a comment

Cinema Dual (TEST SITE)

Examining a life through the media we consume. In other words, I’m reviewing all of my physical music media in alphabetical order, one day at at a time. Except when I don’t, as has been the case for the past few years. Still, we march onwards…Coffee essential, but not mandatory

Category: Reviews

Hooptober 12.0 – The Toxic Avenger (2023)

Hooptober 12.0 – Eggshells (1969)

Hooptober 12.0 – The Invitation (2015)

Hooptober 12.0 – The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Hooptober 12.0 – The Man Who Laughs (1928)

Hooptober 12.0 – Moloch (2022)