It’s appropriate that RUBBER is beginning its theatrical release from Magnet Releasing (following VOD exposure) today, April Fool’s Day. It’s an 82-minute gag played on, or with, the audience, depending on your point of view, and a true love-it-or-hate-it movie. It also has the courtesy to let you know whether you’re going to love it or hate it in the first few minutes.

James Gunn’s SUPER (opening today in limited release from IFC Films) is a very violent, often darkly funny, frequently excessive and extreme, occasionally touchingly and affecting movie that is as quirky, crazy and unstable as its main character. It’s an appropriately messy film, with its fair share of topsy-turvy tonal shifts and erratic jumps from the blackly humorous to brutal, graphic bloodshed. But people simply saying it’s another KICK-ASS are missing the point.

The second “Run With Us” (the unmistakably ’80s, completely inspiring theme song from the Canadian cartoon THE RACCOONS) blasts over the end credits of HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN, it’s an incredible and completely appropriate release of the sheer fire and energy that’s been built up from of the minds of director Jason Eisener, scripter John Davies, producer Rob Cotterill and cinematographer Karim Hussain for the preceding 84 minutes. Candy-colored and gorgeous, graphic and devoid of taste, HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN is crafted from a balance of pure, personal heart and absolute savagery. It’s awesome.

ATTACK THE BLOCK is revelatory, in terms of the talent and poise of its young, mostly unknown cast; in terms of the style and assurance of writer/director Joe Cornish; and most of all, in terms of the idea that an incredibly funny, frightening and clever tale can still be made from the molds of both alien-invasion and kids-vs.-creatures films.

Stevan Mena's BEREAVEMENT is in theaters now. It's the writer/director's third movie and a sequel to his debut feature MALEVOLENCE. In between those films, Mena made BRUTAL MASSACRE. Here's Robert Galluzzo's review...

It’s fitting that Joseph Kahn’s manic teen horror/comedy DETENTION (a world premiere at the current SXSW fest) contains a good bit of time travel, as the film itself often feels as if it’s satirizing a type of cinema that hasn’t exactly been made yet—that is, the kind of hyperstylized, tonally all-over-the-place art that will eventually come out of the current generation’s fascination with endless references and hashtag culture.

Just the realization of what exactly the “cold sweat” this film’s title refers to, and the consequences it promises, provide plenty of goodwill for Argentinean director Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s horror film. Thankfully, the rest of it is fun, clever and often kick-ass to boot.