Trailer for THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW: If You're Going to Be Trapped in Your House, Be Careful Who You Befriend
We've been waiting on this film for a couple of years now, the trailer in some version popping up now and again. And certainly there's no better time to release a film about a woman trapped in her house, then...
A Local Ritual Turns Deadly in Trailer for SILO
When I was a kid, there was a news story that held sway on television and in newspapers for what seemed like several days: young girl had fallen down an abandoned well. It wasn't a simple matter of just sending...
Review: NO ORDINARY MAN, Finding Joy & Struggle in Transgender History
Anyone who is a part of a marginalized group can tell you that representation matters; not just having someone like ourselves in movies or books, but seeing ourselves in history, as a part of the world, making a mark on...
Howie Mandel, Josep, Summer of '85, Highlights of Miami Jewish Film Festival
Hope seems on the horizon as vaccinations are being distributed and the world slowly opens up again. But meanwhile, we still have to be cautious, and with that caution we can take advantage of 'attending' festivals we otherwise could not....
Cinequest 2021 Review: THE YELLOW WALLPAPER, The Dark Bends of the Fragile Mind
We've barely begun to scratch the surface of how the human brains works; that strange grey muscle that contains all these chemicals vying for supremacy, our emotions swirling, bumping against each other, always, it seems, at the edge of madness,...
DEATH RANCH Trailer: Kickin' Ass in the 70s South
It's a wonder there weren't more films combining the aesthetics and tone of blaxploitation (or perhaps there were and this is a big blind spot in my knowledge). Given the terrific rise in black horror, it's the perfect melding of...
QUO VADIS, AIDA?, CUBAN DANCER and More Win at Miami 2021
While attending film festivals is the top five of things I've desperately missed for the past year, I'm glad that we at least can have som experience of festivals online. I've enjoyed not only covering the Miami Film Festival this...
Miami 2021 Review: CUBAN DANCER, The Journey of Passion and Growth
A hat-tip to my friend Mattie, who has taught me a lot about the art and science of ballet over the past several years. While every art form has its own rules, quirks, individuality in how the work is done,...
Miami 2021 Review: CITY OF WILD BEASTS, Last Dangerous Gasp of Youth
It's no secret that the youth of this world are angry and cynical, and it's hard to blame them. We're not leaving them with a lot of options to make their lives better, or even liveable in the most basic...
Miami 2021 Review: NUDO MIXTECO, Small Town Lives of Quiet Desperation
Too often we think of small towns are being insular, everyone in everyone's business, with little activity, and most of all, dull, populated by people whose lives are equally small. And while it may be true that in small towns,...
Miami 2021 Review: HOTEL COPPELIA, At the Edge of Revolution
The roads of revolution and the fight for democracy is drenched in blood. And often it's the blood of those who end up forgotten. While those on the front lines are necessary, often acts of heroism, whether intentional or not,...
Miami 2021 Review: SIN LA HABANA, The Journey to the Self's Realization
We have all (especially in recent years) witnessed the physical lengths that people will go to, to reach another country and hopefully a better life. But there are emotional ones as well: emotional norders and boundaries, lines we cross that...
THUNDER FORCE Trailer: McCarthy & Spencer Bring Superhero Power & Sass
I might be one of the few people that thinks Ben Falcone's last film Superintelligence got a bit of a bad rap. While the popularity of James Corden continues to be inexplicable to me, Melissa McCarthy always brings charm, hilarity,...
Miami 2021 Review: FOR ROSA and THE NAME OF THE SON: Our Bodies, Ourselves
I'll never stop encouraging audiences to seek out short films, either at a dedicated short film festival, or shorts at a general festival. Not only can you see films by the best up-and-coming filmmakers (and have the pleasure to tell...
Miami 2021 Review: LUDI, A Day in the Life of the Invisible
Likely no one believes more in the mythologized dream of better living in certain western country than immigrants. Whether those dreams be based on the truth or not. And in these pademic times, our thoughts have turned often to front-line...
A HARD PROBLEM Teaser: Backgammon and Ghosts Haunt the Living
It's never easy to pack up a house after a parent has died (to say the very least). But there's definitely more going on than meets the eye in A Hard Problem, filmmaking duo hazart's feature directorial debut. In the...
Review: DEMENTER, The Devil Hides in Plain Sight
Religious cults seem to be plentiful in the USA, or so the movies would have us believe. In a country where it is automatically assumed that one has a relgious belief, it would seem that fear of the devil runs...
Review: THE VIGIL, The Longest, Darkest Night of the Traumatized Soul
I doubt there is any religious belief system on the planet that doesn't have some kind of, if not exactly evil, menacing force as part of its folklore. And it always irked me that Christianity had such a monopoly on...
Blu-ray Review: SMOOTH TALK, Adulthood Can Come Too Fast
Joyce Chopra's Smooth Talk has always stood out among teenage-girl-coming-of-age films for several reasons. It was the filmmaker's fiction narrative debut after a successful career in documentary film; it was Laura Dern's first major leading role; and - though perhaps...
Review: NOMADLAND, Deceptively Complex, Lyrical, and Very Necessary
As likely many of you, this pandemic era has me rethinking my life, what my goals are, where I want to be a year, five, ten, twenty years from now. About what is possible for me to achieve, where I...
