Couch Trip Cinema

Matthew Currie Holmes sits down with fellow filmmaker Brett Pierce to discuss his career and the overwhelming success of his film The Wretched.

Brett Pierce (along with brother Drew) grew up on the sets of The Evil Dead, where his father, Bart Pierce, helped create those crazy stop motion effects. He brings that passion for practical effects and unique storytelling to his own successful indie horror productions, including his latest runaway hit The Wretched, which puts a clever new spin on a modern, dark fairy tale. It was an absolute pleasure talking with this talented filmmaker and genuinely exceptional human being.

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Matthew Currie Holmes sits down with Latinx filmmaker Kenneth Castillo for an intimate chat about making indie movies.

Kenneth Castillo is a Latinx, indie filmmaking hustler. Most of his movies are violent, gritty, visceral and deeply rooted in Kenneth’s Latinx culture.

They say good things are worth waiting for, and hopefully this engaging pre-Covid chat with writer/director/actor/book aficionado Brea Grant perfectly fits that bill. It's fast paced and frenetic; you may need to listen a couple times. We cover a lot of ground, from her weekly co-hosted book podcast Reading Glasses, to feminism, and of course her most recent feature films as writer: the fun heist/horror flick 12 Hour Shift and the surreal slasher Lucky. Both films are enjoying their World Premiere at Fantasia's virtual 2020 film fest.

Tune in for this brief announcement where Matthew Currie Holmes explains the reason for the show's long hiatus and what to expect from the show's return, including news of our next show with special guest Brea Grant (coming August 18, 2020).

On this episode of CineBytes,  I fervently defend two contemporary films where I believe the critics were a little too unkind. For me, the Los Angeles noir cop thriller Street Kings (RT score 36%) and the idiot savant action flick The Accountant (RT Score 52%) are examples of movies that do everything right. But for some reason, they did not curry favor with the critics. I'm here to offer an alternative opinion and maybe convince you why these films are so much better than the critic consensus would have you believe. Trust me...it'll be a fun ride! - Matthew Currie Holmes

Gavin Micheal Booth is a Canadian born, LA-based independent filmmaker. His film, music video and commercial work has been featured around the globe in theaters, on television and online. His work includes collaborations with Third Eye Blind, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, and Blumhouse. His reality TV-inspired horror film Scarehouse and multi-award winning, shot-in-one-take, suicide drama Last Call are testaments to Gavin’s never-say-die approach to independent filmmaking. And his beautifully conceived and shot music videos are pure art.

Because Gavin never slows down, I thought it would be fun to check in with him every couple of weeks to see where he's at with the myriad of projects he has in development. This premiere segment serves as our introduction to Gavin: an intelligent, thoughtful model of tenacity and talent.

Join Matthew Currie Holmes as he explores David Cronenberg's unique ability to perverse what we hold sacred in pop culture with a look at the 'superhero' film turned nihilistic gore fest that is Scanners (1981), as well as the mind-melting, meta-textual film adaptation of the William S. Burroughs seminal 1959 junkie prose, Naked Lunch (1991).

Recently, I had the enormous pleasure of chatting with filmmaker Chelsea Stardust.

Chelsea's two critically acclaimed feature films (All That We Destroy and Satanic Panic) were not only shot in the same year, but released just one month apart. The splat-tastic horror comedy, Satanic Panic also earned three 2020 Fangoria Chainsaw award nominations, including best limited release