Movie Reviews

‘Neptune Frost’: A Cyberpunk Anti-Capitalist Queer Love Story

Published

4 years ago

April 3, 2022

Neptune Frost is one of those rare movies that when you’re watching it, you can tell will be a cult classic right as it comes out. Utilizing some of the most innovative and eye-catching production design in 2022 cinema paired with a cyberpunk, queer, sci-fi African concept, this film is simply something that has not been done before and should be seen by as many as possible.

The Rwandan sci-fi musical spectacle, which we caught at Boston Underground Film Festival, is directed by musician and poet Saul Williams and playwright and actress Anisia Uzeyman, who go by the moniker SWAN. It is also notably produced by Ezra Miller (Justice League, We Need To Talk About Kevin) and Lin Manuel-Miranda (Hamilton, Encanto).

Courtesy of Kino Lorber

The film, loosely, is a love story between an intersex runaway and a coltan miner, who’s future child will lead an underground hacking group that reveals the evils of the world.

About the film, director Saul Williams said: “Maya Angelou once said that anything an artist writes should be written with the urgency of what they would write if someone were holding a gun in their mouth. The state of this country and the world has my mouth propped open enough to swallow whole timelines. We need art that is unafraid to challenge the narrative structure of our programming.”

This scream for awareness hangs large in the film. While some scenes of this film get muddled, the clearest thread is the coltan miners suffering the exploitative work that comes with mining, while lacking the resources to use the technology that could not exist without them. Tech companies are built on the backs of abused workers, and consumers aren’t even aware of their presence.

Thus, this film turns into a sort of fantasy revenge film, with the miners turning their technology against the very groups that they propped up. It’s a very necessary message for modern times, and the future.

Neptune Frost Boston Underground Film Festival

Courtesy of Kino Lorber

The entire aesthetic of this film is captivating: blending afro-futurism with cyberpunk DIY dystopia and the surreal reality of dreams and musicals.

In a year that brought a similarly-themed Dune (colonialist themes in the desert future) it cannot help but be noted that Neptune Frost created a production that was just as beautiful and memorable (if not more) than Dune with assumedly a fraction of the budget. The budget, speaking of which, started on Kickstarter and drew $196,000, including from Manuel-Miranda, so that the director could keep creative control.

It was first conceived over 10 years ago, and started as ideas for a Broadway musical and graphic novel. This texture can still be seen in Neptune Frost, with dramatized action, impressively choreographed musical numbers, and distinct, saturated sets.

Every aspect of the production design of this film deserves to be discussed. The costuming is unparalleled, with unique and striking handmade outfits, most iconically a jacket with computer keyboard keys sewn over it.

Neptune Frost Review Boston Underground. Film Festival

The makeup in this film puts Euphoria to shame. Both simply executed and memorable, the makeup was designed masterfully and is impossible to overlook.

The sets in this are also of note, switching between a more realistic setting in a mining area of Burundi and a sci-fi future world, where the characters hang by a wall filled with circuit boards and CRT televisions. It sounds like the production designer needs to design my house.

Of course, it goes without saying that the music must be discussed, as it is a musical. I am not usually a fan of musicals: I don’t like the style of music or the dramatization, but this film had an actually fantastic soundtrack, with some popping musical numbers.

Courtesy of Kino Lorber

Almost everything about this film works. If one detractor were to be put to it, it is not the most understandable film, it was written by a poet and takes place in a dream world, but the visuals speak for themselves.

Neptune Frost is easily one of the most interesting films of the year. This is a movie that I seriously hope finds a footing, because between the lush production and the intimate and important messaging, it demands to be seen.

If you’re the type of person who needs a clear narrative, this may not be for you, but if you’re in it for the vibes, it will greatly impress you.

Neptune Frost is distributed by Kino Lorber who will hopefully be releasing the film in American theaters sometime in 2022, and will have a digital release on their streaming Kino Now and other VOD platforms. Check out the trailer below.

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Movie Reviews

Self Driver Runs Out of Road

Published

9 hours ago

May 12, 2026

Luna Gray

Every few years someone makes a movie where a desperate person takes the money and watches his conscience become negotiable. I am always there for it. Cheap Thrills. Would You Rather. The whole subgenre of moral erosion for cash that does not have a name but absolutely should. Self Driver walks directly into that territory and for the first half of its runtime, it delivers.

Nathanael Chadwick plays D, a cab driver trying to keep his head above water, who gets recruited onto a mysterious new rideshare app that promises fast money and asks for increasingly terrible things in return.

Writer-director Michael Pierro shot this on cellphones with a skeleton crew. That constraint should work against the film. For the first act, it does not. Chadwick earns your sympathy without doing anything obvious to ask for it, and Pierro keeps things tense enough that the premise does exactly what it is supposed to do.

Then the psychedelic angle shows up.

I want to be fair about this. I understand the intention. But it lands the way a plot fix lands. You feel the seam. By the halfway point the script has accumulated a lot of threads, and the psychedelic detour is where those threads stop being pulled. They do not resolve. They just stop mattering.

That is the consistent frustration with Self Driver. It is not short on ideas. It is short on follow-through. Almost every interesting thing Pierro introduces gets picked up, examined, and set back down before it earns its place in the film. The bones of something genuinely great are visible throughout. The second half just never shows up to finish the job.

Chadwick won Best Actor at Grimmfest for this role, and it is not hard to understand why. He is doing real work here. He makes D worth following even when the film is not fully following through on its own premise. That is harder than it looks.

Self Driver is out now on UK digital via GrimmVision. At 2.5 out of 5, it is worth your time if you have patience for low-budget genre work and can make peace with a film that is better than it finishes. Pierro has instincts. Watch for his next one.

Indie Horror

Panic Fest 2026 Review: ‘Frogman Returns’ Is A Thrilling Sequel That Goes For The Croak!

Published

6 days ago

May 6, 2026

Jacob Davison

Horror as a genre has a greater propensity for sequels than almost anything else in the world of cinema. There have been scores of slasher sequels from the likes of Friday The 13th to A Nightmare on Elm Street to even sequels to seemingly stand-alone affairs like The Exorcist and The Blair Witch Project. While some may be seen as cash grabs or of diminishing returns, it cannot be argued that there have been some phenomenal sequels to horror films such as Aliens and Evil Dead 2 among many others. So imagine my pleasant surprise to see that 2023’s Frogman is back in the aptly named Frogman Returns!

The sequel picks up not too long after the original’s cryptid catastrophe. The Loveland, Ohio Frogman and surrounding cult that was exposed by amateur filmmaker Dallas (Nathan Tymoshuk) has since disappeared and the terror of the magic wand wielding amphibian seemingly ended. Having lost his friend Scotty (Benny Barrett) and a falling out with Amy (Chelsey Grant), Dallas has found a new life heading a cryptid reality web show. But when strange forces call him and his team back to Loveland, will he have to face the Frogman for a final battle?

I was a big fan of the original Frogman upon release, and was interested in seeing where director Anthony Cousins was going to take the story. I’m happy to report that he did the best kind of thing you can do for a sequel like this: made it weirder and wilder! Not only is there Frogman, but a number of classic cryptids have encounters as the genie is out of the bottle and Dallas irrevocably proved that there are truly monsters among us. There is a pretty memorable scene involving a run-in with the living pants-like Fresno Nightcrawler creature that establishes what a brave and bizarre new world things have become since the previous film. Monsters are basically a fact of life now. So, of course, people are finding ways to profit from it.

Dallas’ arc continues from the first film and I do like how he carries the weight and guilt of Scotty’s disappearance and his disconnection with Amy. There are real consequences to the ways things went wrong previously and Dallas is haunted by the consequences of his obsession. Now he attempts to make things right in some form as his adventures bring him back to where it all began. And for those here for Frogman… without spoiling too much, everyone’s favorite amphibious cryptid does make a triumphant return. With a neon explosive finale that left me craving even more.

Frogman Returns does a fine job of documenting the new adventure in the traditional found footage format, with the foundation of Dallas’ new reality web show keeping the cameras rolling. Combining that with ample and memorable practical fx for all manner of beasts and gore to see. Exploding heads, zapped limbs, and so much more get captured on camera in all their visceral glory.

Overall, if you were a fan of the first Frogman, then Frogman Returns is a more than worthwhile follow up to digest.

Indie Horror

Panic Fest 2026 Review: ‘Creature Of The Pines’ Is An Interesting Found Footage Horror That Walks A Beaten Path

Published

7 days ago

May 5, 2026

Jacob Davison

There are certain parts of the world that have an inherent evil or cursed nature to them. The Bermuda Triangle, where so many ships have vanished in its waters. Death Valley, where many have met their end in the unforgiving desert. And then there’s The Pine Barrens of New Jersey. A woodland infamous for the cryptid named The Jersey Devil.

While The Jersey Devil may be the mascot or face of sorts for the area, there are other dangers within those woods. Specifically, an area known as Pine Hollow. Infamous for numerous disappearances of local and hikers. While some attribute it to natural hazards, others say the source of these incidents may be tied to folklore. An ancient mimic of indigenous legend that targets those wandering its woods. After a trio of hikers disappear and leaves only one shell shocked survivor and witness wandering the wilderness, a documentary crew attempts to clarify between fact and fiction… only to find themselves subject to their own torments.

Creature Of The Pines is a decent found footage/mockumentary endeavor, and I’m always a sucker for that kind of framing. I will also give points for taking an original approach on the region rather than using a more well known cryptid or monster. Instead, crafting their own beast with the shapeshifting demon of indigenous lore. It did make it more interesting than relying on a more infamous antagonist, allowing the movie to make up its own rules and history behind the titular creature.

Unfortunately, the story does fall into a lot of the cliches of the sub-genre as well. Lots of scenes building up strange sounds coming form the woods leading to some shaky cam segments as a character is dragged off by an unseen force and such. The talking heads portions of the mockumentary featured some decent actors and subjects that kept things fairly fresh. Especially the former forest ranger who discussed the dark and terrible history of Pine Hollow.

Even still, the third act was kind of a mixed bag with the final confrontation and reveal of the horror. Ambiguity tends to work better in found footage for a reason, sometimes its better to leave the evil up to the imagination. There’s also a twist to the ending that felt a bit obvious considering the build up.

But, if you’re a big fan of found footage and mockumentary horror like I am, (especially for New England based horror) then Creature Of The Pines is worth at least a watch.