Matthew Essary

About Matthew Essary

Matthew Essary has been a professional film critic since 2017 and a film fanatic for much longer.

Currently residing in Nashville, TN, he also co-hosts the film podcast "Video Culture" (available on all podcast platforms). He can be reached at "WheelsCritic@gmail.com" and on Twitter: @WheelsCritic

Posts by Matthew Essary:

The Kirby Brothers On Directing ACCIDENT MAN: HITMAN’S HOLIDAY

Matthew Essary

Brothers George and Harry Kirby just want to entertain fans of action on screen. The pair have done this by directing more than a dozen short films where the main focus is on action and, most importantly, fun. While they honed their craft with these films (and built a sizable online fanbase to boot), George Kirby steadily established a name for himself in the Hollywood stunt industry. His most high-profile work (so far) came as the fight coordinator on the 2021 blockbuster VENOM: LET THEIR BE CARNAGE but he has also been a stunt performer on such major films as ROUGE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, JUSTICE LEAGUE, and DOCTOR STRANGE.

Scott Adkins talks ACCIDENT MAN: HITMAN’S HOLIDAY

Matthew Essary

Every new action film starring Scott Adkins is a reason to celebrate. The British actor and martial artist has long been one of the most reliable performers in the genre. Not only committed to delivering the best possible on-screen action with every new project despite any budget or schedule limitations, his “story first” mindset and dedication to the craft of acting are unparalleled among his action film contemporaries.

Christian Sesma On Directing, Working With Scott Adkins, & His New Film SECTION 8

Matthew Essary

Christian Sesma seemingly never stops working. A self-taught filmmaker, Sesma has been directing since 2006 at an incredibly productive rate. In that time, he has completed (and found distribution) for more than twenty feature-length genre films.

Frank Grillo and Dolph Lundgren set sail in OPERATION SEAWOLF

Matthew Essary

Filmmaker Steven Luke (WAR PIGS) is one of many creatives working in the realm of DTV. He has learned two valuable lessons about how to get noticed in the glut of low-budget titles that appear consistently throughout the year though. The first is to use recognizable, yet reliable, actors that can draw attention when placed on a cover. The second is to have a niche that appeals to a dedicated fanbase. What is that for Luke? Historical war dramas (with a bit of action sprinkled in) like his latest: the World War Two naval battle film OPERATION SEAWOLF, featuring Dolph Lundgren (CREED 2), Frank Grillo (COPSHOP), and Hiram A. Murray (THE TERMINAL LIST) in prominent roles.

A Look At BULL With Writer/Director Paul Andrew Williams

Matthew Essary

British crime movies focused on revenge are frankly a dime a dozen. So when one comes along that separates itself from the crowd, that’s a film worthy of excitement. BULL, the new film from writer/director Paul Andrew Williams (LONDON TO BRIGHTON) is definitely that. It tells the story of a low-level enforcer, the titular Bull (Neil Maskell, PEAKY BLINDERS), who returns to town to look for his missing son and take revenge on the people, including his wife and her mob boss father (David Haskins, SID AND NANCY), who viciously double-crossed him ten years prior.

Neal McDonough Talks Acting, Cinematic Heroes, & His New Film BOON

Matthew Essary

Neal McDonough has the sort of resume that most actors would kill for. Working nonstop since the early 90s, he has had memorable roles in more noteworthy projects than can be easily listed. McDonough has been prominently featured in BAND OF BROTHERS, JUSTIFIED, MINORITY REPORT, RAVENOUS, ARROW, and CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER for example. And that impressive list barely scratches the surface of the truly staggering amount of quality work McDonough has turned in for movies, television, and even video games over his 30+ years of acting.

Director Paul Solet On His New Movie CLEAN

Matthew Essary

Paul Solet is a filmmaker who has been making strides in the movie industry for over a decade. Coming onto the scene with the brutal and unique zombie film GRACE. He went on to solidify his name as a creator to keep eye on with work as one of the main writers on the space exploration series MARS for National Geographic as well as continuing to spearhead his own film projects like the true-crime documentary TREAD, about a fortified bulldozer that wreaks havoc on a small town, and the thriller BULLET HEAD, featuring Antonio Banderas, John Malkovich, and Adrien Brody as three criminals trapped in a warehouse with a seemingly unstoppable guard dog.

CLEAN review – Adrien Brody Takes Out The Trash

Matthew Essary

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A quiet loner with a dark and violent history finds redemption by protecting an innocent child unfairly targeted by criminals. Oh, you have? What if I told you this anti-hero leads a quiet life that they narrate while driving around at night working a blue-collar job? You get it! Yeah, wait, I see your point- it is pretty similar to other stuff. In this one though, the main character has an ominous nickname from their mysterious past and at one point they reveal a massive back tattoo that really illustrates (get it?) how tough they are right before they start taking out the bad guys in cold-blooded fashion? Oh right! I forgot about those movies where they already did that. You see this concept’s different though because it’s going to feature an actor not normally known for action. It’ll really be a trip for the audience to see this award winner kick some ass on-screen. Right! Just like… oh, wait a minute. You have a point. Let me think.

A Love Of The Fury: A Conversation With Director Jesse V. Johnson

Matthew Essary

Jesse V. Johnson loves cinema. Working in various levels of film productions since the early 1990s, the English-born filmmaker first made his name as a stunt performer working on such high profile projects as the original TOTAL RECALL, STARSHIP TROOPERS, WAR OF THE WORLDS, and dozens more. This led to Johnson being a stunt coordinator, a second unit director, and eventually an accomplished feature director. Staying true to his stunt background, the films Johnson has directed are action-packed affairs such as THE DEBT COLLECTOR, TRIPLE THREAT, and AVENGEMENT (to name just a few) that value practical effects and physical performers more than expensive CGI-laden spectacle.

HELL HATH NO FURY Review: Bloody World War Two Combat From Director Jesse V. Johnson

Matthew Essary

In the waning days of World War Two, a small group of American soldiers, led by the cunning Major Maitland, are heading to a forgotten graveyard in the French countryside. With them is Marie, recently freed from a Nazi prison but still labeled a German sympathizer by her fellow French countrymen. Maitland and his men pulled her from an angry mob due to assurances that she would lead them to a cache of stolen Nazi gold that was left hidden by her and her former lover, a member of Hitler’s elite guard named “Von Bruckner.” What none of them realize is that Von Bruckner is abandoning Germany’s losing war effort; with plans to head overseas with his loyal followers. So, he is also making his way to that same graveyard in hopes of retrieving the gold and when he arrives with his squad it will set off a bloody and explosive free-for-all that will prove to be as brutal as any conflict they experienced during the war. This is the deceptively simple setup for director Jesse V. Johnson’s new film, HELL HATH NO FURY.

Talking Through The Night: A Conversation With The Creators Behind THE SPINE OF NIGHT

Matthew Essary

THE SPINE OF NIGHT is one of the best film surprises of the year. A throwback to the days of feature-length adult animated fare by the likes of Ralph Bakshi; this hyper-violent and deeply meditative fantasy saga is a love letter to classic rotoscope animation and pulp adventure stories that will be cherished by anyone who is open to its strange and macabre sensibilities.

ONE SHOT Review: Unrelenting Military Action From Scott Adkins

Matthew Essary

Action star Scott Adkins and director James Nunn are two individuals who don’t let the labels of the film industry define them or the work they produce. Both have been frustratingly relegated to a tier in the movie-making system where the only way to get a film project approved is if it can be completed quickly and with a modest budget. Many, when faced with these circumstances, cut corners and lower their ambitions, content just to get something locked in before moving on to the next “for hire” gig. Nunn and Adkins are a different breed though. When faced with these limitations, both men have always strived, through thoughtful preparation and an intense work ethic, to make the highest quality film possible every time they have the opportunity. So, it’s not surprising that when the two have collaborated in the past that their combined efforts have delivered strong results. Admittedly, both of their previous films together, GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS: UNDERGROUND (aka GREEN STREET 3) and ELIMINATORS, are not the most well-known of either of their filmographies. They are however well-crafted films that show neither man is content with just getting everything completed on time and under budget. Nunn and Adkins want to raise the bar for what is possible with lower-budget action films. With their latest collaboration, ONE SHOT, they have done just that.

THE SPINE OF NIGHT Review: Animated Cosmic Horror In A Savage Age

Matthew Essary

After finishing THE SPINE OF NIGHT, I was struck by a feeling that I had just witnessed a lost relic of my youth. Something that should have been passed to me on a VHS with a hand-written label by a friend, after a lengthy session of “Dungeons & Dragons”, along with a dog-eared horror paperback in exchange for trading them a bootleg copy of Ralph Bakshi’s FIRE & ICE and the latest copy of “Heavy Metal” magazine. Only to take the tape home and watch it immediately on my tiny bedroom television over and over again until the next week’s tabletop game session where the cycle of trades would continue until every one of my friends had their minds melted by this beautiful piece of animated pulp weirdness.

SOUTH OF HEAVEN Review – A South Texas Tale Of Revenge.

Matthew Essary

SOUTH OF HEAVEN was not the original title for the latest film from Israeli writer/director Aharon Keshales. It’s not unusual for films to go through title changes during production but I was struck by a curiosity- wondering how a clever enough title like “Till Death” became the more somber “South of Heaven.” Why choose that phrase for a new title? When I researched the phrase the only thing that consistently popped up was a song, I was passingly familiar with by the metal band Slayer. Stranger connections in pop culture have occurred before, I suppose. So, I thought about this song I had not heard since my young and angry days and how it may add to the understanding of this southern-fried piece of neo-noir from one half of the filmmaking team behind the mean-spirited, yet darkly comic, thriller BIG BAD WOLVES.

Legendary Hong Kong Actor Anthony Wong’s Lastest Project Needs Your Help

Matthew Essary

Anthony Wong (aka Wong Chau-Sang/ Anthony Perry) is a familiar face to lovers of classic Hong Kong cinema. Whether it’s due to facing off with Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung in John Woo’s two-fisted tale of bullet-ridden mayhem “Hard Boiled”, as a noble policeman in (the film that inspired Scorsese’s “The Departed”) “Infernal Affairs”, as the murderous psychopath in “The Untold Story”, or literally hundreds of other roles- Wong is a bonafide legend of that once great film industry.

PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND Review: Trapped in The Subjectiveness Of Art

Matthew Essary

In a 2016 documentary about his life and creative process, there is a scene where filmmaker Sion Sono shows a barely completed painting, that he had been working on for months, to the crew filming him and asks dispassionately if they think it’s good art or not. The off-camera interviewer, clearly confused by the sudden and direct question sputters out that he doesn’t know. Sono sharply responds that it doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad and that it only matters if it expresses emotion. He then chucks the large canvas across the room with as much care as one throws a soiled tissue into the trash. This peculiar moment reveals a lot about how Sono views his work and it’s all I could think about after I watched his latest directorial effort, the post-apocalyptic “East meets West” mashup, PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND.

Director Of The Ghostland: A Conversation With Visionary Filmmaker Sion Sono

Matthew Essary

The trailer for his latest film, PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND, doesn’t use the tag of “A Sion Sono Film” or even a simple “directed by” note to introduce the acclaimed filmmaker to American audiences. It instead goes for the attention-grabbing phrase “[from] the warped mind of Sion Sono.” Marketing and cheeky hyperbole aside, no one working in film today has as unique of a voice as the fifty-nine-year-old Japanese auteur.

RIKI-OH: THE STORY OF RICKY Star Is Back For ONE MORE SHOT

Matthew Essary

Halle Berry & Director Roland Emmerich Bring Large Scale Destruction In The First Teaser For MOONFALL

Matthew Essary

Director Roland Emmerich seemingly just loves to make films about massive destruction that could lead to the end of the world. His latest, MOONFALL, appears to not really dispel that notion. The film, which Emmerich also co-wrote is headlined by Halle Berry (JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3: PARABELLUM) and stars Patrick Wilson (THE CONJURING), Michael Peña (ANTMAN), and Donald Sutherland (AD ASTRA). It will be released on February 4th 2022 in theaters nationwide.

A First Look At The Latest From Bruce Willis- SURVIVE THE GAME.

Matthew Essary

Okay… Okay! I get it. It’s hard to muster any enthusiasm these days when you see the words “Bruce Willis” and “Direct To Video” so close together. Willis seemingly has a new one of these out every few months and most of the time he looks like he is barely awake, let alone interested in what’s occurring on set.