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Sean Axmaker

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Sean Axmaker writes the weekly newspaper column Stream On Demand and the companion website Stream On Demand at Home, is a contributing writer for Turner Classic Movies Online and Noir City, and the editor of Parallax View. He was a film critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for nine years and a longtime home video columnist for IMDb and MSN Movies, and his work has appeared in Indiewire, Today.com, The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, Senses of Cinema, Asian Cult Cinema, Filmfax, Psychotronic Video, and "The Scarecrow Video Guide."

Favorites:

My favorite director: Howard Hawks My director obsession: Orson Welles My favorite films: choose from Touch of Evil (Orson Wells, 1958), Kings of the Road (Wim Wenders, 1976), Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958), and any number of Howard Hawks films Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), and the vastly under-appreciated Hatari! (1962) Favorite performer: Burt Lancaster and his million dollar smile.

Critics' Group:
Location:

Seattle, WA

Official Website:

http://www.streamondemandathome.com

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Ashes of Time Redux (2008) 79% EDIT “It’s a little visually precious and obscure but still a marvelously wistful film of regret and retreat, in which even the magic wine of forgetfulness erases only the memories, not the pain.” – Stream on Demand Mar 7, 2026 Full Review Ashes of Time (1994) EDIT “... features a confusion of narrators and a murky timeline and the swirl of flashbacks and remembrances left audiences confused. That elusive quality, however, is also part of its beauty, a film built on emotion more than narrative.” – Stream on Demand Mar 7, 2026 Full Review Peking Opera Blues (1986) 80% EDIT “... a crazy concoction of costume pageant, historical drama, espionage thriller, Chinese opera, action spectacle, and slapstick comedy. And refreshingly, this rapid-fire pageant is driven by three resourceful women.” – Stream on Demand Mar 7, 2026 Full Review The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) 69% EDIT “... a film for our culture: a feel-good foodie drama of racial tolerance, cross-cultural acceptance, and fusion cuisine.” – Stream on Demand Mar 7, 2026 Full Review The Killer (1989) 96% EDIT “The execution... is pure Woo bullet ballet with high melodrama, operatic buddy-movie bonding, and blood-soaked excess. ” – Stream on Demand Mar 7, 2026 Full Review A Better Tomorrow (1986) 95% EDIT “[John] Woo’s articulation of speed and movement, runaway-train pacing, and razor precise editing explode onto the screen unlike anything he’d created before.” – Stream on Demand Mar 7, 2026 Full Review Once Upon a Time in China (1991) 90% EDIT “Tsui Hark gives 'Once Upon a Time in China' a grand scope that belies its budget... but the film’s greatest special effect is its magnificent action choreography and the grace of Jet Li’s martial arts prowess.” – Stream on Demand Mar 7, 2026 Full Review Night Moves (1975) 78% EDIT “[Gene] Hackman has gift for putting a cool, affable exterior on tormented characters and Harry is one of his most emotionally bottled up.” – Stream on Demand Jan 20, 2026 Full Review Days of Being Wild (1991) 91% EDIT “Set in the 1960s and shot on practically deserted locations, there isn’t much "story" to the impressionistic film, but the languorous atmosphere of longing, disconnection, and emotional isolation is hypnotic.” – Stream on Demand Jan 20, 2026 Full Review The Dead (1987) 94% EDIT “... one of [Huston's] most exquisite works, a perfect cinematic short story attuned to the rituals and touchy relationships of family and friends gathering in early twentieth century Dublin to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany.” – Stream on Demand Jan 20, 2026 Full Review Fallen Angels (1995) 96% EDIT “... an idiosyncratic urban crime film viewed through a kaleidoscope.” – Stream on Demand Jan 20, 2026 Full Review Boxcar Bertha (1972) 54% EDIT “If the rebellious spirit and social message behind the sex and violence is more [Roger] Corman than Scorsese, the film references and often inventive direction is pure Scorsese.” – Stream on Demand Jan 20, 2026 Full Review CQ (2001) 67% EDIT “Think of it as an American 8 1/2 with echoes of Day For Night and stirred through with French New Wave, Italian cool, and British mod. If the film is slight, the details are right ...” – Stream on Demand Jan 20, 2026 Full Review Elmer Gantry (1960) 94% EDIT “[Burt] Lancaster harnesses all his physical vigor and natural charisma for this role, literally throwing himself into his preaching with the vigor of an acrobat and the sing-song delivery of a gospel singer.” – Stream on Demand Jan 20, 2026 Full Review Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 98% EDIT “In "Dr. Strangelove," it seems all too plausible that it’s not politics but arrogance, machismo and an extreme act of sexual overcompensation that brings about the end of the world as we know it.” – Stream on Demand Jan 17, 2026 Full Review The Illusionist (2006) 74% EDIT “[Paul Giamatti]'s twinkling eyes and theatrical smiles offering everything from cagey mistrust to professional appreciation (often at the same time) gives him the flamboyance the film’s magic act never quite manages.” – Stream on Demand Jan 17, 2026 Full Review Elf (2003) 85% EDIT “Director Jon Favreau may not have comic grace, but his direction is both sweet and funny. He never lets Ferrell play the victim... while Ferrell (in his first leading role) peppers every scene with manic outbursts and joyous exclamations.” – Stream on Demand Jan 17, 2026 Full Review The Lodger (1944) EDIT “This is film noir by way of Gothic thriller, a shadowy suspense thriller in the Victorian era of gaslight and horse drawn carriages on cobblestone streets, and director John Brahm gives the film a lively energy.” – Stream on Demand Jan 17, 2026 Full Review Shin Godzilla (2016) 87% EDIT “... gives the human side of the drama both an urgency and a dramatic charge.” – Stream on Demand Jan 4, 2026 Full Review Nouvelle Vague (2025) 92% EDIT “Richard Linklater‘s playful, poignant love letter to cinema, reimagines the making of Jean-Luc Godard‘s revolutionary French New Wave classic Breathless and, along the way, celebrates the creative spirit of young artists everywhere ...” – Stream on Demand Nov 16, 2025 Full Review Materialists (2025) 77% EDIT “The first half is a sharp, smart movie that deconstructs love in the modern world. The second half leans into the romantic side.” – Stream on Demand Nov 8, 2025 Full Review Frankenstein (2025) 85% EDIT “Think of del Toro’s 'Frankenstein' as a Gothic fairy tale staged like grand opera. The set pieces are big and bold, as are the performances, the décor detailed and textured, the fashion rich and ravishing.” – Stream on Demand Nov 8, 2025 Full Review The Grapes of Death (1978) EDIT “Called the first French gore film, Rollin brings a graceful dreaminess to his violence and a purely emotional illogic to the impulsive actions of prey and predator alike.” – Stream on Demand Oct 31, 2025 Full Review Fascination (1979) EDIT “The startling, unreal image of high society manners in the midst of gore and death pitches Jean Rollin‘s 'Fascination' into a turn-of-the-century culture come unhinged.” – Stream on Demand Oct 31, 2025 Full Review Lips of Blood (1975) EDIT “It’s a tale of blood and sex and haunting desire full of nudity and death and told in an austere, surreal style born of forced budgetary austerity. ” – Stream on Demand Oct 31, 2025 Full Review
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