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Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)

While Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny perhaps garnered more press out of Cannes, another selection involving archaeologists and tomb raiders will have a longer shelf life. Alice Rohrwacher’s latest feature La Chimera ranked quite highly on our top 50 films of 2023 list for good reason. It’s a dreamy, magical odyssey in which the Italian director whisks viewers away with the kind of transportive vision she’s exuded in all her features thus far.

Where to Stream: VOD

Eileen (William Oldroyd)

Considering how many jokesters online talk about supporting women’s wrongs, Eileen should have made a billion dollars. Alas, not everyone can have impeccable taste. William Oldroyd’s character study grabs you from the first scene,...

Anyone interested in physical media should surely know the tale of Kim’s Video. The East Village establishment last closed its doors in 2014, though its rental collection recently returned to Alamo Drafthouse’s Lower Manhattan location. The story of where the 55,000 films ended up in between is far stranger than one may expect and now its gotten documentary treatment from David Redmon and Ashley Sabin. After premiering at Sundance last year, Drafthouse Films fittingly picked up the film for a release beginning April 5 and now the trailer has arrived.

John Fink said in his review, “A sweeping documentary by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, Kim’s Video follows the personal-inquiry, man-on-the-street format from their previous works Mardi Gras: Made in China and Girl Model. With Redmon largely remaining behind the scenes, asking questions while holding his camera, the film is simply left to wander where the story takes it: from...

Fantastic Fest is set to unleash its 18th edition on Austin this September and, as usual, the lineup is packed with an eclectic mix of world premieres, cult classic restorations, and special events. Kicking things off with the world premiere of The Toxic Avenger, we have all the details:

Take a trip to the dark side and indulge your taste for wild films, outrageous events, and shocking surprises all under one roof. World-famous genre festival Fantastic Fest is back for its eighteenth edition featuring 29 World Premieres, 24 North American Premieres, and 18 U.S. Premieres. The festival will once again possess Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, TX from September 21st - 28th. Badges are available now at FantasticFest.com.

“The Fantastic Fest team is ready to take you on a journey you won’t ever forget. We’ve taken the best week of the year and supercharged it: more movies, more parties,...

Fantastic Fest is back for its eighteenth edition which is jam-packed with horror insanity including World Premieres of several prominent titles including the remake of Troma’s cult classic The Toxic Avenger, the Bloody Disgusting-produced Shudder Original V/H/S/85, Blumhouse and Amazon’s Totally Killer, and Paramount’s hotly anticipated Pet Sematary: Bloodlines.

The festival will once again possess Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, TX from September 21st – 28th. Badges are available now at FantasticFest.com.

From the press release:

The opening night film for Fantastic Fest 2023 is the world premiere of Legendary Pictures’ The Toxic Avenger, a hilarious and action-packed reimagining of the classic Troma film from director Macon Blair that features an all-star cast including Peter Dinklage who will pick up the infamous mop to become the hideous vigilante that no one knew they needed (or wanted) as well as Jacob Tremblay and Taylour Paige with Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon.

Fantastic Fest is back for its eighteenth edition featuring 29 World Premieres, 24 North American Premieres, and 18 U.S. Premieres. The festival will once again possess Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, TX from September 21st – 28th. Badges are available now.

“The Fantastic Fest team is ready to take you on a journey you won’t ever forget. We’ve taken the best week of the year and supercharged it: more movies, more parties, more fun,” says Festival Director Lisa Dreyer. “If you want to see the best new movies from around the world first with the best audience, Fantastic Fest is the place to be.”

The opening night film for Fantastic Fest 2023 is the world premiere of Legendary Pictures’ The Toxic Avenger, a hilarious and action-packed reimagining of the classic Troma film from director Macon Blair that features an all-star cast including Peter Dinklage who will pick up the infamous mop...

Ari Aster, the horror maestro behind Hereditary and Midsommar, is out with Beau Is Afraid on four screens as A24 presents the film in LA (AMC Century City and Burbank) and New York, in Imax on both coasts, followed next week by a regional Imax expansion and into to a wider national rollout April 21.

The film is getting some love from Martin Scorsese, who will join Aster in conversation Monday night after an Imax showing in NYC. Opening weekend will feature Q&As with Aster and cast, which includes Nathan Lane, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan and Parker Posey.

The director has a dedicated fan base, and that’s invaluable in looking to break out with the specialty market still tentative compared with the Super Mario Bros-sized rebound of the broader box office. Presales indicate a strong debut.

Deadline’s review calls...

"We tried this experiment, it's not working." Drafthouse Films has revealed an official trailer for Chop & Steele, a comedy documentary from the filmmakers behind Winnebago Man. This premiered at last year's Tribeca Film Festival, stopping by numerous other fests including Fantastic Fest and Calgary Underground Festival. Lifelong friends Joe Pickett & Nick Prueher, two indie comedians famous for pranking local news stations on live TV as the fake strongman duo "Chop & Steele," start booking their routine on unsuspecting morning news shows. When one of their pranks ends up going viral, they find themselves in federal court facing off against a vengeful media conglomerate. Joe and Nick are also the creators of the Found Footage Festival. Many other comedians are featured in the doc, including David Cross, Bobcat Goldthwait, Reggie Watts, and Howie Mandel. This looks wild!! I didn't even know about these guys or what happened to them in court, so...

Lifelong friends Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, two comedians famous for pranking local news stations on live television as the fake strongman duo ‘Chop & Steele,’ find themselves in federal court with a vengeful media conglomerate after their latest morning show stunt goes viral. Some folks just cannot take a joke. Drafthouse Films acquired Berndt Mader and Ben Steinbauer's documentary, the Found Footage Fest Doc Chop & Steele. It will be released it as a double feature along with its sister doc, A Life on the Farm, as part of the Fantastic Fest Presents series. We're the first to share with you the trailer and poster for Chop & Steele. You will find the trailer below the acquisition announcement. We have included...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Exclusive: Drafthouse Films has acquired North American rights to the documentary Chop & Steele, about the creators of the Found Footage Festival, announcing plans to release the film in April at Alamo Drafthouse theaters as part of a double bill with another newly-acquired doc, A Life on the Farm.

Chop & Steele premiered at Tribeca in 2022 and went on to a robust North American festival run that encompassed Calgary, Philadelphia, Seattle, Denver, the Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis, the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, Ala., and the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.

In Chop & Steele, Found Footage Festival principals Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, “lifelong friends who tour the country with their popular VHS oddities festival, are slapped with a federal lawsuit after pranking a local news station as ‘strong men’ Chop and Steele. Many notables are featured in the doc, including David Cross, Bobcat Goldthwait, Reggie Watts, and Howie Mandel.

A sweeping documentary by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, Kim’s Video follows the personal-inquiry, man-on-the-street format from their previous works Mardi Gras: Made in China and Girl Model. With Redmon largely remaining behind the scenes, asking questions while holding his camera, the film is simply left to wander where the story takes it: from the cool counterculture of the East Village before eventually turning into a heist film with a mafia connection. Haunted by the ghosts of cinema, Youngman Kim’s collection calls out to David; eventually he’s able to rescue and repatriate it back to Lower Manhattan. Its happy end is known, with a collection of over 55,000 rare VHS tapes and DVDs from the chain’s flagship Mondo Kim’s now available to rent at the Alamo Drafthouse’s lower Manhattan outpost, the Found Footage Festival’s Nick Prueher responsible for the preservation and cataloging of titles.

The 2022 edition of Fantastic Fest is set to be held at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas from September 22nd through the 29th, and with the start date just over a month away the festival has revealed their lineup, which they are accurately describing as colossal. The seventeenth Fantastic Fest will feature 21 world premieres, 14 North American premieres, and 21 U.S. premieres. Festival Director Lisa Dreyer says,

It’s been far too long since we’ve all been able to gather together and celebrate film the Fantastic Fest way. We’ve really put our all into crafting an extraordinary week, from the exceptional programming that spans exciting discoveries to highly-anticipated features, to our signature events that will inject a much-needed dose of fun into 2022.”

The opening night film for Fantastic Fest 2022 will be the world premiere of the Paramount Pictures horror film Smile, which they say is an “intensely...

Stars: Derrick Beckles, Oscar Harding, Karen Kilgariff, Joe Pickett, Nick Prueher | Directed by Oscar Harding

Every now and then a movie comes along that feels like it is made for just me. A Life on the Farm ticks all of those boxes and is one of those films that I know if I talk about to any of my friends about they won’t quite understand what I’m talking about and why I am so enthusiastic about it. A Life on the Farm is definitely a movie you need to see to believe.

In simple terms, this found footage/documentary movie follows the life of farmer Charles Carson in the late 1990s, who often filmed and took photos of himself, his family and his animals. This footage was then edited by Charles and often hand-delivered to his neighbours so he could get their thoughts on the films he had made.

A random VHS tape of a Mcdonald’s janitorial training video serves as ground zero for Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher’s lifelong obsession with obscure video clips that eventually morphs into the touring event known as the Found Footage Festival. Directed by Ben Steinbauer (Winnebago Man) and Berndt Madre (Booger Red), Chop & Steele documents the duo over the course of four years. The result is downright hilarious, examining the absurd predicament Pickett and Prueher found themselves in while pulling pranks to break up their 130 days on the road.

Easily getting on smaller-market morning shows as the Found Footage Festival rolls into town, they test the limits by inventing characters that force the anchors to keep their cheery demeanor. They include a chef who specializes in making smoothies from leftover Thanksgiving meals, an incompetent performer who lectures local students on environmental issues via yo-yo skills, and strongman duo Chop & Steele.

Three morning shows in the U.S. were tricked on Tuesday by a “strongman” pair who performed ridiculous stunts on TV. Pranksters Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher weaselled their way onto TV as their characters, Chop and Steele. They managed to book segments on three different morning shows to show off their fitness routines by stomping […]...

MidWest WeirdFest has today announced its full 2017 program. The inaugural film festival – a cinematic celebration of of all things fantastic, frightening, offbeat, and just plain weird – will take place March 3-5, 2017 at the Micon Cinemas Downtown in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Says festival founder and director Dean Bertram:

MidWest WeirdFest’s programmers have put together a world class program of genre and underground cinema. From some of the freshest horror and sci-fi feature films on the fest circuit today, through underground oddities to fascinating and frightening documentaries. There’s also three short film blocks, including a hilarious program curated by Uwec graduates Andrew Swant and the Found Footage Festival’s Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher.

Some of the festival’s highlights include:

Friday FrightNight: Three terrifying horror feature films. Starting with the festival’s spectacular opening night film, the high-octane and high body count Happy Hunting. Followed by the blood drenched Tonight She Comes.

Nick Prueher with co-host Joe Pickett.

He's a writer and researcher who has worked with the likes of David Letterman, but in his spare time Nick Prueher likes nothing more than to search through old VHS tapes in the hope of discovering something amusing. So what? you might ask. A lot of people do things like that. Well, yes, but very few of those people save them and go on to share them with thousands, creating an international touring festival phenomenon in the process. As the Found Footage Festival, now in its tenth year, comes to Scotland, I asked Nick to tell me how it all began.

"Co-founder Joe Pickett and I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin and there wasn't a lot to do so we had to make our own fun," says Nick. "A lot of our days were spent browsing around in charity shops looking...

This week’s Must Read isn’t about underground film at all, but it’s absolutely fascinating reading. Potrzebie has Tom Conroy’s wonderful memoir about providing movie stills to lurid men’s magazines back in the ’60s and ’70s. If you like a good story about sleaze, drug use, questionable business practices and more, then you gotta check this one out. (P.S. Can you pick out Jack Nicholson on the above cover?)This is great news! A documentary filmmaker actually sued the IRS and won! Filmmaker Magazine recaps the “documentary filmmaking is not a hobby” case fought by Lee Storey.Movie reviewer cartoonist Rick Trembles takes on Ron Mann’s documentary Tales of the Rat Fink in a Motion Picture Purgatory strip that gives a good, concise background on artist Ed Roth in its own right.Swerve Calgary interviews Found Footage Film Festival curator Nick Prueher on the...

The 9th annual Calgary Underground Film Festival will run on April 16-22 at the Globe Cinema with a mix of outrageous comedies, documentaries about controversial personalities, cult flicks and some frank depictions of sexuality.

The fest launches on the 16th with the new comedy by Bobcat Goldthwait, God Bless America, in which Joel Murray stars as a terminally ill man who decides to kill as many stupid people he can can before he perishes himself. Also on the comedic front are Rick Alverson’s The Comedy starring TV’s Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareham as troublemaking urban hipsters; and Mikkel Nørgaard Klovn (Clown) about a Danish loser who takes a young boy on a brothel tour.

On the cult film front are Jack Perez’s Some Guy Who Kills People starring Kevin Corrigan in the eponymous role; Alex Ross Perry‘s abusive sibling flick The Color Wheel; the brutal Father...

Director: Ben Steinbauer Writers: Malcolm Pullinger, Ben Steinbauer Starring: Jack Rebney, Ben Steinbauer, Keith Gordon, Nick Prueher, Joe Pickett, Douglas Rushkoff, Charlie Sotelo, Cinco Barnes, Alan Berliner, Mike Mitchell, Alexsey Vayner The bootleg VHS footage of an angry Rv salesman’s expletive-riddled rants rescued from the cutting room floor of a Winnebago commercial garnered cult acclaim via The Found Footage Festival and Austin’s infamous access television program The Show With No Name; then YouTube came along and skyrocketed the footage and the Rv salesman man, Jack Rebney (dubbed “the angriest man in the world”), to international stardom. Some fans boast to have watched the foul footage thousands of times, others claim it is their surefire cure to a bad day at work. No one seemed to care about the man himself (nor did Rebney care about his fan base); that is until writer-director Ben Steinbauer decided to make it...