Category: Movies at Home

‘The Devil All the Time’ is a well-crafted, exceedingly grim slow burn

Jeff Mitchell

“The Devil All the Time” – At the 46-minute mark of director Antonio Campos’ film adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock’s debut 2011 novel, Arvin Russell (Tom Holland) sheepishly smiles when his aunt brings out a cake with a lit candle on his birthday.  As an audience, let’s also celebrate the occasion, because this moment is one of the very few on-screen smiles offered in “The Devil All the Time”, a rough-and-tumble, exceedingly grim step into noir.  It’s a picture that might leave you depressed and reduced to near-zero hope for…

‘Antebellum’ is an effective and challenging thriller

Jeff Mitchell

“Antebellum” – On June 30, 2020, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a law to remove its state flag, a decision that drew vast Magnolia State and U.S. support.  Most of the state’s emblem resembled Serbia and Montenegro’s with large horizontal bars of benign blue, white, and red; however, the top left corner featured a pronounced squared version of the Confederate battle flag.  It has a red background with a blue “X” (or cross) and 13 small white stars.  Most of us have seen this Confederate States of America symbol from…

Movie of the Week: ‘Babette’s Feast’

Jeff Mitchell

This week, AHFW hopped on a plane with a propulsion of 1.21 gigawatts to 19th century Denmark for “Babette’s Feast”, which also won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar…during the 20th century.  1988 to be exact. “Babette’s Feast” (1987) – Director Gabriel Axel’s picture plays like a tranquil, but otherworldly, fable.  In a tiny, Danish seaside village during the 19th century, overcast skies always loom over this community of gray homes, and the residents match their houses (and the weather) by sporting gray, green and black textiles.  The locals hardly ever…