Festivals
Rotterdam 2024 Review: ROME: TALES FROM THE BLOCK, A Slight Alien Invasion Satire
La Guerra Del Tiburtino III has as its international title Rome: Tales From the Block, which shows you how much this film wears its influences on its sleeve. From the opening segment, in which an alien creature leaves a meteor...
Rotterdam 2024 Review: KING BABY Is A Royal Triumph
King Baby, by directors Kit Redstone and Arran Shearing, could've gone wrong in so many ways. The film is a send-up of masculine power plays, toxic machismo and the thin veneer of social niceties that hide volcanic violence waiting to...
SXSW 2024 Review: HOOD WITCH, Golshifteh Farahani Runs For Her Life In This Literal Witch Hunt
A trafficker of rare animals finds herself in the crosshairs of a literal witch hunt when a young boy plummets to his death following a visit in Saïd Belktibia’s Hood Witch, celebrating its international premiere at this year’s SXSW Film...
SXSW 2024 Review: CIVIL WAR, Is Not What You Think It Is. It's So Much More.
Civil War follows a quartet of war correspondents in the last days of the American republic as the Western Forces of the secessionist states of Texas and California advances on Washington, D.C. with harrowing results. Leading this motley crew are Lee...
Berlinale 2024 Review: DYING, Darkly Humorous Gaze Into Family Dysfunction
Michael Glasner's dramedy explores the dissonant lives of the Lunies family, intertwining themes of death, reconciliation, and the complexities of human relationships.
SXSW 2024 Review: FAMILY, Ruth Wilson Gives The Performance Of A Lifetime In This Heart-breaking Horror
A little girl with a dying father reaches out to the heavens for a spirit to protect her family, but what reaches back has other ideas in Benjamin Finkel’s SXSW Midnighters selection, Family. Having just moved across the country in...
Berlinale 2024 Review: A TRAVELER'S NEEDS, Hong Sangsoo's Minimalist Odyssey of Connection and Wonder
Hong Sangsoo and Isabelle Huppert reunite to explore themes of existential wanderlust and the complexity of human connections.
SXSW 2024 Review: THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT, Timey-Wimey Two Handed Thriller Delights And Befuddles
A pair of siblings on the run after a robbery take refuge in a house with mysterious time-warping qualities, only to find that the law isn’t the only thing they have to fear. Things Will Be Different, the latest from...
Chattanooga Film Festival 2024: First Wave, Plus Serling, Poe, Spooky Book Fair
Calling all fans who love rad, indie festivals and films! The Chattanooga Film Festival has just released their first wave of features and additional events, lovingly put together by the most fun weirdos in Tennessee. CFF is one of...
SXSW 2024 Review: ARCADIAN, Rich Relationships And Terrifying Monsters Make This A Winner
The old world is dead and the new one wants to kill us in Benjamin Brewer’s solo feature directing debut, Arcadian. A post-apocalyptic survival horror with strong character work and some incredible monsters, Arcadian packs an emotional punch rarely seen...
SXSW 2024 Review: DESERT ROAD, A Woman Navigates Her Way Through Despair In This Sci-Fi Gem
An intentionally convoluted science-fiction fantasy film about despair and recovery, first time feature filmmaker Shannon Triplett’s Desert Road is just the kind of small film with big ideas that really resonates with the festival crowd. Powered by an impressive lead...
SXSW 2024 Review: IMMACULATE, Sydney Sweeney Does Nunsploitation
These last few years have been a dream run for it-girl Sydney Sweeney. From her breakout role TV roles in Euphoria and The White Lotus, to box office success in this year’s Anyone But You, she seems to have the...
SXSW 2024 Review: BIRDEATER, This Vivisection Of A Toxic Relationship Will Make You Squirm
An Australian stag party goes off the rails when the details of the happy couple's relationship get spilled during a night of heavy drinking and drugs in Jack Clark & Jim Weir's Birdeater, making its international debut at this year's...
SXSW 2024 Review: SEW TORN, An Enchantingly Whimsical Rube Goldberg Action Thriller
A struggling seamstress plays a dangerous real life choose-your-own-adventure game in Freddy Macdonald’s debut feature, the whimsical comedic thriller Sew Torn. Barbara Duggen’s (Eve Connolly) sewing shop in an idyllic hamlet in the picturesque Swiss Alps is on the rocks....
SXSW 2024 Review: MONKEY MAN, Dev Patel Is Your New Action Obsession. Get Excited
After sitting in the can for nearly four years, Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man, was presented to a rapturous audience at SXSW last night. The film declaring loudly what the man himself was too humble to acknowledge; Dev Patel...
First Look 2024 at Museum of the Moving Image: Preview
The First Look Festival returns to the Museum of the Moving Image this month offering audiences opportunities to see exciting new films of all kinds from all over the world. There are films just out of Sundance, like Haley Elizabeth...
SXSW 2024 Review: TOLL, The Price Paid, The Damage Done
Maeve Jinkings and Kauan Alvarenga star in Carolina Markowicz's sophomore feature.
Berlinale 2024 Review: THE EMPIRE Merges Cosmic Conflicts with Rural Quirks
Bruno Dumont's latest work is not just another 'Star Wars' parody.
SXSW 2024 Review: RESYNATOR, Revelatory Musical History Turns Surprisingly Personal
Alison Tavel's terrific film documents a remarkable inventor who just happens to be her father.
SXSW 2024 Review: THE MOOGAI, An Examination Of Indigenous Trauma Let Down By Flaccid Script
An Aboriginal demon steps in for the real-life enduring trauma of Australia’s “Stolen Generations” in Jon Bell’s debut feature, The Moogai. Government sponsored assimilation programs ripped tens of thousands of Aboriginal children from their families to be placed with white...