The Editor
Blu-ray
Directors: Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy
Writers: Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy, Conor Sweeney
Cast: Adam Brooks, Udo Kier, Paz de la Huerta, Laurence R. Harvey, Tristan Risk, Samantha Hill, Sheila Campbell
Scream Factory
Not Rated | 95 Minutes
Release Date: September 08, 2015

From Astron-6, the demented minds who brought you Father’s Day and Manborg, comes The Editor, a love letter to the Italian giallo films of the 1970s and ’80s.

The term giallo – or “yellow” in Italian – is used to refer to a distinct style of Italian-produced thrillers, typically murder mysteries, that include elements of horror and eroticism. Made popular by filmmakers such as Mario Bava (Blood and Black Lace), Dario Argento (Suspiria), and Lucio Fulci (The Beyond), the super-saturated, supernatural giallo aesthetic was a huge influence on the slasher films of the ’80s.

Boardwalk Empire — The Complete Second Season
Blu-ray l DVD
CREATOR: Terence Winter
DIRECTORS: Timothy Van Patten, Allen Coulter, Jeremy Podeswa, More
WRITERS: Terence Winter, Howard Korder, Steve Kornacki, More
STARRING: Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Kelly Macdonald, Michael Shannon, Jack Huston, Shea Whigham, Aleksa Palladino, Michael Stuhlbarg, Stephen Graham, Vincent Piazza, Anatol Yusef, Gretchen Mol, Paz de la Huerta, Michael Kenneth Williams, Dabney Coleman, William Forsythe, Anthony Laciura
HBO Studios
RELEASE DATE: August 28, 2012

I’ve made my love for HBO no secret, with two of my all-time favorite shows going strong right now in Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire, and a slew of others I’ve adored over the years. So instead of reviewing season 2 of Boardwalk on Blu-ray, I’ll just be swooning about it for a bit before sharing what bonus features there are to enjoy.

Where season 1 established the incredible collection of characters the show has to offer, season 2 expands on them (those who have survived, anyway), creating an intricately crafted web of often interconnecting storylines. The primary focus of the second season is again Enoch “Nucky” Thompson (Steve Buscemi) and James Darmody (Michael Pitt). But instead of being the boy Nucky helped to raise, Jimmy has reunited with his estranged father, the Commodore (Dabney Coleman), and is leading the charge to take control of Atlantic City and the alcohol coming in and out of it. As you might expect, Nucky isn’t fond of anyone trying to muscle him out of his position of power, let alone the man he’s helped to make who he is, and the two go to war. The results of this power struggle trickle down, affecting anyone associated with the two parties and leading to some interesting new business partners.

Enter The Void
Directed by Gaspar Noe
Starring Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy, Emily Alyn Lind, Jesse Kuhn
Release date: September 24, 2010 (limited)

The void, according to flamboyant director Gaspar Noe, is life. What a pessimistic outlook. But Noe does present to us through his new film Enter The Void potent, disturbing, and rotten instances that back his pessimistic perspective. As soon as we are born into this world (Noe gives us an unprecedented example of this) we have entered the void, and we only enhance the blackness of that void by making ourselves susceptible by living a life that approaches the disgusting, sick, and horror-stricken. His film is a fully realized portrait of a decaying city (Tokyo), but is it really about the world? And a fully realized portrait of its sinful inhabitants (Oscar, Linda, and their friends), but is it really supposed to represent all of humanity? Both city and its inhabitants, no matter what way you look at it, have entered the void long ago. Both have fallen victim to life’s unfair ways and are guilty of self-annihilation ever since their conception.