Amoeba san francisco Staff

Jackie Chan's Breakout Hits! (1994-1998)

Jackie Chan's pre-Hollywood (Rush Hour) hits from the 90s in one big 4K/BR box set from Arrow. Fun stuff! Read more

Dead Pigs (2018) (BLU)

I saw this movie 3 years ago when a DVD was released, and I wondered why there wasn't a Blu-ray as it's a good looking film. Well there is now! This is a hard one to categorize. It's weirder and funnier than you would expect from the basic rundown of its plot. While there are some western actors involved, it's mostly a Chinese film set around Shanghai. Somehow some studio exec saw this and decided that director Cathy Yan should make the Birds of Prey DC comic film. I'd rather watch this. Read more

Good Manners (2017) (BLU)

Another film that came out quite a while ago on DVD but is now finally on Blu-ray. I highly recommend this one. First of all, we don't get to see nearly enough film from Brazil. The synopsis is as follows: "Clara, a lonely nurse from the outskirts of São Paulo, is hired by mysterious and wealthy Ana as the nanny for her unborn child. The two women develop a strong bond, but soon Clara discovers a terrifying secret about the child." However, this does not prepare you for the twists in plot and genre that follow. Highly original film. Read more

The Stunt Man (1980)

Maybe you missed out on the first pressing 4K from England that came out a few months back, but luckily Shout Factory is here to the rescue. This is a movie buffs movie for sure. So much going on to analyze but a great time can be had without all the ivory tower analysis. It's pretty hilarious at times, melodramatic, has great action set pieces, and is weird as fuck. The best part to me is Peter O'Toole descending like the movie god he is from the sky on a cinematographers crane throughout the whole movie. Barbara Hershey's character really needed to do a better job of reading some glaring red flags though. Includes a 2 hour making of documentary also directed by Richard Rush. Read more

The Stephen Chow Collection (1990-1995) (BLU)

This was originally available only as a Shout Factory website exclusive, but has now been given a wide release. Are you a fan of Shaolin Soccer or Kung Fu Hustle? Well do yourself a favor and watch more films with Stephen Chow. Here's 4 from his heyday of the early 90s. Read more

Human Lanterns (1982)

There are roughly 1,000 Shaw Brothers films, and sometimes it feels like Celestial Pictures is attempting to put every single on out on Blu-ray. These releases often look pretty great, but it is rarer that we get new 4K restorations from camera negatives. This makes a pretty big difference, to my eyes. I love all the artificial sets and gel-lighting that populates the majority of Shaw Brothers studio shot films and this is no exception. It looks so good! Chock full of skin flaying and kung fu fighting. I like this quote from a letterboxd reviewer "I don't expect a movie so concerned with skin flaying to be this availing of colour and movement and grace." Read more

Cruel Story of Youth (1960)

Early Nagisa Oshima film and late entry for what could be considered a Sun Tribe film (mid 50s films about troubled spoiled teens in post-war Japan). I'm always happy when Criterion decides to release more Japanese films. Read more

DEFA Fairy Tales (1961-1979) (BLU)

5 East German produced fairy tale films now on Blu-ray. Like their Russian counterparts these are often colorful and creepy in a way that Disney wouldn't have dared. Read more

2 from Ringo Lam - Full Contact (1992) and School on Fire (1988)

Shout Factory continues its Hong Kong Cinema Classics 4K restoration release schedule with 2 of the best films from the greatest era of Hong Kong cinema. Ringo Lam always means a good time. His films are always the grittiest and most action packed and most intense versions of what you come to expect from 80s/90s HK cinema and these 2 are the cream of the crop. It's a bit of shame that the censored footage (for School on Fire) is available only as a bonus feature, but when I saw a fan made composite years ago that extra footage was in rough shape so I understand they didn't want to merge it in with the lovely new 4K restoration. It's cool and kind of surprising that we get to see it at all! Read more
CRUZ
Amoeba San Francisco
No problemo.

Inferno (LP)

Boards of Canada
Perhaps the album of the year. So great. Read more

Eraserhead Xiu Xiu (LP)

Xiu Xiu
The title made me curious as I am a fan of “Eraserhead”(1977) and David Lynch. Appropriately, this album sounds crazy, weird and scary. It’s an ideal listen if your’e looking for inspiration for your next experimental horror film or dark and f**ked up painting. Read more

Obsession (BLU)

I was skeptical at first but this movie did pay off in the end. People want to go see a fun horror movie. It doesn't have to cost more than a million dollars. Make the movie for nothing and make a bunch of them while you're at it. Let's give the masses of artists more opportunities and stop giving billions of dollars to like 10 greedy people. Read more

Fantasia (LP)

Slift
Profound, cosmic, psych-prog, stoner music. I don't smoke the sweet leaf anymore and that’s fine because I can just listen to Slift and feel alright. They're great. “Ummon” (2020) is still the best but I like this album over their last album “Ilion” (2024). Read more

Backrooms (BLU)

Here we go. Another fun arty horror film. This is a great example of going out there and making your own internet short movie, keeping in mind that if your content is good enough, people will reach out to you and offer you a deal. It's crazy that the director, Kane Parsons, was 20 years old when he directed this feature film. This very rarely happens. But what do I know? I'm just an individual with dreams like everyone else. Read more
Del Sur
Amoeba San Francisco
Floor guy, Movie Room dood, and host of THE CHASM on KXSF 102.5FM

Inferno (LP)

Boards of Canada
My album of the year (so far)! It's been 13 years since Tomorrow's Harvest, and BoC have clearly been hard at work culling sounds and samples from the oddest corners of our media hellscape. The core of their sound remains, but they've added some pretty astounding glitches. I love how they take voice samples of newscasters, influencers, religious fanatics, and other sycophants, chop them up to fit the syncopation of their beats (a la Negativland), and even turn them into haunting melodies. I haven't heard an album this year that better expresses the overwhelming senses of dread and uncertainty so many of us feel in the modern age. Read more

When All The Laughter Has Gone (LP)

Dolorian
Speaking of overwhelming dread... Dolorian's debut just got released on vinyl for the very first time this year. Woozy, blackened Doom from Finland that sounds like the auditory equivalent of a narcotized daze. Read more

Torso (LP)

Grief
This behemoth also got reissued for the first time this millennium! Grief is probably my favorite Sludge band, and this is the album that solidified it for me. The riffs are gargantuan, the despair is ever-present, and the groove still swings through all the calamity. "Polluted souls, polluted minds, polluted beings - we're called mankind / The earth is f*cked, everyone's corrupt, the system and the government SUCK" Read more

Mother Ship (Blue Note Tone Poet Series) (LP)

Larry Young
2026 is the year I discovered Larry Young. What the hell took my dumb a*s so long?!? It's avant-garde, it's spiritual, it's got an untouchable lineup, it's back out on 180 gram vinyl. Step it til death. Read more

Desperate Living (Criterion Collection)

John Waters
I spent much of my free time during adolescence drifting through the labyrinthine forests of the Virginia hills. My friend and I would dream up scenarios in which we'd come across cursed beings or hidden settlements; pretty much anything that would rescue us from the pressures of normalcy. Desperate Living brought me right back to those Mid-Atlantic woods. It also made me kinda glad that we never uncovered anything comparable to the depravity revealed in this tome. Read more

Mystics in Bali (BLU)

Low-budget Indonesian black magic Horror with plenty of floating head scenes, and maybe the best laughing witch in cinema history. Read more