Danger, Danger, Miles Morales! There’s Trouble All Across the Spider-Verse!

Not everyone will have watched Marvel’s What If series which explains how many worlds exist in Across the Spider-Verse, and one nexus point concerns Miles Morales and canon events which define the foundation of how this omniverse continues.

Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse Movie PosterTo answer the joke of what happens when one Spider-Man disappears from the multiverse, another version will simply take his place! Across the Spider-Verse, just how many of this hero we meet requires putting the film on pause and counting every iteration presented to audiences! That’s what I wanted to do when this action got really baffling, and this movie is not just about Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore).

Well, technically, it is about this version and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld). Both are having daddy issues. Regarding what these two have to measure up to is what parents want for their kids. This angle is at the heart of the film, and it’s wonderfully defined when they finally have the talk.

And there’s also all that glitz which makes watching this film a pop culture explosion of Andy Warhol, Leonardo da Vinci and many other post-modern artists put into a blender. But the range of styles don’t end there. There’s flourishes of Norman W. Marsh’s Detective Dan and much more. To name all the artistic influences would be tough, and I’m certain that amongst all the names who have drawn the wall-crawler, I’m still searching for a moment Todd McFarlane’s signature style is splashed all over.

Continue reading “Danger, Danger, Miles Morales! There’s Trouble All Across the Spider-Verse!”

Coming to Home Video, the Space Vampire!

As an experimental film, I’m rather enthralled by the use of repetition, colours and shapes used in the cinematography and video editing. There’s a meaning behind them all. I feel the gold and red represent spirituality and the life itself.

Space VampireBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)


ReleaseDate:

Aug 17, 2021

Darkside Releasing
Available to pre-order here.

I can’t help but wonder if the Space Vampire is Carmilla? This film by Chris Alexander (better known for Queen of the Blood) begins the same. In Sheridan Le Fanu‘s own work, we see a mysterious woman (Ali Chappell) walking alone in a snowscape, towards an isolated house (presumably in Northern Ontario, where this filmmaker is from). That’s where the similarities end.

What’s different is in how this mysterious stranger in a tight black leather outfit is getting visions of who she was before becoming fully isolated to the entire environment she’s in. She’s no Black Widow either, but instead is just a person completely hypnotized. Another girl (Cheryl Singleton) is just as lost. However, it seems she is in control of her senses. This experimental movie seems perfect for Fantasia Fest, but for whatever reason, it didn’t make the cut. Thankfully Alexander got a distributor so fans of vampire and oblique films can take a look at the work for themselves.

Continue reading “Coming to Home Video, the Space Vampire!”

VFFOnline: Pining for Spirits in Ghost Town Anthology

Denis Côté’s Ghost Town Anthology is a cozy supernatural character driven drama which, as the title implies, collects a few anecdotes together by those people who knew the person who killed himself at the start of the movie.

Ghost Town Anthology.jpgBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Streaming Online
at the Victoria Film Festival
Get your pass here to view beginning Feb 5th, 2021

Note: Available for residents in British Columbia. Please check local listings for availability near you.

Denis Côté‘s Ghost Town Anthology is a cozy supernatural character driven drama which, as the title implies, collects a few anecdotes together by those people who knew the person who killed himself at the start of the movie.

Everyone who lives in this small Quebec town of Sainte-Irénée-les-Neiges, population 215, knew Simon Dubé (Philippe Charrette). Nobody understood why he took his life and too much time was spent over thinking who he was and what happened which led to his suicide. When considering how icy hard the ground is (the tale takes place during the hard winter), he can’t even get a proper burial.

Continue reading “VFFOnline: Pining for Spirits in Ghost Town Anthology”

Get Animated 2020 with The NFB! and Beyond…

Today is International Animation Day, and The NFB is releasing their 12 best pieces online!

Space Vampire

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

The National Film Board of Canada has been very busy lately. Not only did they have works featured at the Vancouver Film Festival but also they’re following up with Animez-vous (Get Animated 2020)!

Today is International Animation Day, and this company is releasing their 12 best pieces online! Some old favourites–The Cannonball Woman, The Physics of Sorrow and Blind Vaysha–are in this collection, and afterwards, they will have one work, Old Dog, shown during Spark Animation Festival.

Continue reading “Get Animated 2020 with The NFB! and Beyond…”

Parallax or The Duality of the Mind

Parallax Movie PosterBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Opens July 10, 2020
Limited Release

* Spoiler Alert

There’s more than a simple existential crisis going on in Parallax. This film title is very telling because by definition, the term is about how an object can appear displaced relative to the observer when he or she even moves a few feet. In computer graphic design, it can create an illusion of depth. With this movie, it’s about reality bending in strange ways where Naomi (Naomi Prentice) feels out-of-place relative to the world moving on without her.

This lightly budgeted thriller shows it’s supernatural colours later. The visual composition is also telling, since it’s playing with the viewer’s understanding of what the word, parallax, means.

As an artist, Naomi says her paintings are like portals to other worlds. One touch, and she feels whisked away to that beach. In reality, she could be simply dreaming it…

Continue reading “Parallax or The Duality of the Mind”

%d bloggers like this: