14th Annual Axelrod Jewish International Film Festival to Take Place August 4-14

(DEAL, NJ) -- Live cinema is back! The 14th Annual Axelrod Jewish International Film Festival (AJIFF) runs from August 4-14, 2024 at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal. Two films will be screened at Bell Theater at Bell Works in Holmdel as well. The nonprofit festival features 10 award-winning Israeli and Jewish international films. Film series passes are available for $68 through July 15 ($78 after). Individual film tickets are $12.

New Release Review - "Only The River Flows"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-07-25
1990s media was obsessed with serial killers. Movies, TV shows and novels of the era were filled with dogged investigators tracking elusive murderers, an obsession likely sparked by the emergence of DNA tracing at the bginning of the decade, which revealed that many hitherto unsolved murders might actually be the work of lone killers. Filmmakers, TV showrunners and novelists used the premise of the hunt for a serial killer to tap into the angst that was in the air as an uncertain new millennium loomed on the horizon. Arriving within weeks of one another in the summer of 2024 are two '90s set thrillers that channel this angst, the American horror hit Longlegs and director Wei Shujun's thriller Only the River Flows.

First Look Review - "Oddity"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-07-19
Over the last decade a crop of talented horror filmmakers has emerged from Ireland, with the likes of Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground) and Kate Dolan (You Are Not My Mother) quickly snapped up by Hollywood to helm instalments of the Evil Dead and M3GAN franchises. On the basis of his 2021 debut, Caveat, I suspected writer/director Damian McCarthy might be the most talented of this bunch, and his second film, Oddity, confirms my suspicions. In just two films, McCarthy has displayed more creativity, ingenuity and originality than many genre filmmakers manage across an entire filmography. As with Caveat, there are moments in Oddity that will have horror fans leaning forward and thinking "Well, that's something I haven't seen before."

New Jersey Symphony Brings 'The Godfather' To Life

by Zachary Klein, JerseyArts.com - published 2024-07-18
This August, the drama of the Corleone family and the New York mafia comes to New Jersey in a brand-new way. New Jersey Symphony will present "The Godfather Live" at two venues next month as part of their "at the movies" series – first at New Jersey Performing Arts Center (1 Center St., Newark) on Friday, Aug. 16 at 7:30 p.m. and then at The Count Basie Center for the Arts (99 Monmouth St., Red Bank) on Sunday, Aug. 18 at 3 p.m. The event is sure to bring fun for fans of the film franchise both young and old.

New Release Review - "Twisters"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-07-17
Almost 30 years after Twister swept into cinemas, Hollywood's allergy to anything resembling an original idea gives us a belated sequel that, as has proven the case with so many of these endeavours, plays more like a remake than a continuation. While recent revivals like Halloween, Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop have been built around returning protagonists, Helen Hunt is curiously absent here, probably because only the horror genre allows actresses over a certain age to headline franchise instalments.

New Release Review - "Maxxxine"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-07-14
With 2022's X, Ti West delivered a successful homage to hicksploitation thrillers like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Eaten Alive and Motel Hell. Hicksploitation is one of the easier sub-genres to imitate as all you need are some good-looking young folk to be butchered by redneck grotesqueries. That said, many filmmakers have tried and failed to emulate this simple formula, with only X and Devereux Milburn's underseen Honeydew managing to pull it off in recent years.

New Release Review - "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-07-09
1980s Hollywood was fuelled by a simple formula, the "fish out of water." Whether it be an alien landing in the suburbs; a boorish, middle-aged Jewish comic attending college; or a young boy finding himself in the body of Tom Hanks; audiences lapped this stuff up. With 1983's fish out of water comedy Trading Places, director John Landis moulded Eddie Murphy into the '80s equivalent of Groucho Marx. Just as the Jewish Marx had done in the '30s, the African-American Murphy built his shtick around mocking wealthy white people. The movie that cemented this status was 1984's Beverly Hills Cop, in which Murphy played Axel Foley, an unfiltered Detroit undercover cop who found himself in the alien surrounds of that American centre of white elitism, Beverly Hills. The plot - something, something corruption, or something - was irrelevant. Audiences turned up to see Murphy crack wise, do funny voices and take the piss out of rich folk, and he did so with a unique and natural ease that no comic performer has matched in the decades since.

New Release Review - "A Quiet Place: Day One"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-07-04
For the third installment of his hit sci-fi franchise, A Quiet Place: Day One, John Krasinski hands the reins to fellow Polish-American filmmaker Michael Sarnoski. If you've seen Sarnoski's impressive debut, the Nicolas Cage vehicle Pig, you'll note similar elements here. As with Pig, Day One features a protagonist who has retreated into their shell, whose one friend is an animal, and who embarks on a quest in a major American city. Both movies trumpet the pleasure of simple food in key scenes. Sarnoski manages to weave his own interests into Krasinski's series in surprisingly smooth fashion, suggesting that the world of A Quiet Place can accommodate a variety of stories and perspectives.

43rd Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival to Take Place September 6 through October 18

(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The 43rd Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between September 6 to October 18, 2024. Twenty-one films will have their New Jersey or Area Premieres at the festival, which will be a hybrid of in-person screenings at Rutgers University and titles available via video on demand. All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. VOD start times are at 12 Midnight Eastern USA. In addition to the screenings, electronic music artist Jim Haynes will be doing an audio-visual concert on Friday, October 18 at 7:00pm.