The New Jersey Play Lab thinks it's time for you to write the movie you've been wanting to see and they believe they can help. They're presenting a hands-on weekly workshop on Zoom to help you generate a structurally sound screenplay targeted for producing and festival success. The workshops take place Sundays from 9:30am to 12:30pm from April 19 through May 17, 2026. The workshop fee is $250.
(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- Closing out Women's History Month and charging straight into April, The ShowRoom invites audiences to experience GOOD FOR HER — a bold new screening series celebrating female rage in all its vengeance-fueled, blood-soaked, and cathartic glory. Spanning three consecutive Saturdays, the series showcases women pushed beyond their limits, reclaiming power through stories of revenge, resilience, and rebellion — each film offering its own unforgettable brand of righteous payback.
(CAPE MAY, NJ) -- The award-winning documentary film, Once in a Hundred Years: The Life & Legacy of Marian Anderson, will be presented Saturday, April 4, 2026 at Cape May Stage Theater in partnership with Cape May MAC (Museums+Arts+Culture). Admission is free, but donations will be collected to benefit the Cape May Community Food Closet. The screening begins at 2:00pm and continues the celebration of Black History Month.
(LONG BEACH ISLAND, NJ) -- A new feature-length documentary, We Met at Grossinger's, brings to life the world-famous hospitality phenomenon that flourished mid-century in the Catskill Mountains of New York State, Grossinger's Resort Hotel. Lighthouse International Film Society screens the film on Thursday, March 26, 2026 at the Long Beach Island Foundation of Arts & Science. Showtime is 7:30pm.
(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- The Garden State Film Festival, New Jersey's Premier Independent Film Festival® launches its 24th year with a compelling Kickoff Matinee at Asbury Lanes on Thursday, March 26, 2026 from 1:30pm to 3:15pm. The block blends local history, global storytelling, and forward-thinking voices into one unforgettable opening experience. This curated film block sets the tone for a festival that spans 205 films from around the world—starting right here in New Jersey.
Writer/director John Patton Ford's 2022 feature debut Emily the Criminal proved one of the more interesting crime thrillers of recent years. In that movie, Aubrey Plaza gave a career best performance as a struggling young woman who desperately turns to crime only to discover she has a knack for it. Ford's second movie, How to Make a Killing, features a similar anti-hero, but here the crime is murder.
Following Hamnet and "Wuthering Heights", Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride! is the latest in a line of awful movies inspired by the work of great English writers. It's Mary Shelley here of course, but Gyllenhaal also plucks from James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein. Whale cast Elsa Lanchester in the dual roles of Shelley and the titular monster, and Gyllenhaal pulls the same trick here with Jessie Buckley. That's where the similarities end however, as The Bride! has more in common with '70s exploitation flicks and '90s horror comedies than either Shelley's novel or the Universal monster movies it inspired.
In its 1960s peak, the Hagsploitation (or psycho-biddy) sub-genre gave a second act to classic Hollywood stars like Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland, who found themselves cast as aging psychopaths. It wasn't without controversy, drawing accusations of ageism and misogyny from critics. It's a surprise that our current age of sensitivity has seen a mini-revival of the form with movies like X and The Visit using senility as a cheap, albeit effective way to explain their villains' actions.
I'm not going to suggest that Scream 7 is a return to form for the critically ailing yet commercially triumphant slasher franchise (I don't believe it had much form to begin with), but it's certainly a baby step up from the awfulness of the previous two instalments. That's a bit like saying a soccer team is showing signs of improvement because they only lost 3-0 against their local rivals as opposed to the 5-0 drubbing they suffered the previous season. But I'm a Spurs fan, so I'll take whatever crumb of comfort I can, and the crumb tossed to fans here is the return of Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, along with series creator Kevin Williamson, directing for the first time since 1999's Teaching Mrs Tingle, and co-writing with Guy Busick (with a story contribution by Zodiac scribe James Vanderbilt).
Blockbuster screenwriter David Koepp adapts his own 2019 novel Cold Storage for the screen. Koepp's involvement can surely be the only reason the movie has attracted actors of the calibre of Liam Neeson, Lesley Manville and Vanessa Redgrave, as it's a rather uninspired throwback to '80s b-movies, one sorely lacking the raucousness and innovative practical effects work that made those flicks so popular.
