Indie Reviews
DOLLY Review: The Texas Chain Saw Clone Would Be Better Left in the Toy Box
Rod Blackhurst's film stars Fabianne Therese, Seann William Scott, Ethan Suplee, Russ Tiller, Kate Cobb, Michalina Scorzelli, and Max the Impaler.
ANDRE IS AN IDIOT Review: Richly Imagined, Deeply Affecting, Often Hilarious
Tony Benna's standout documentary follows advertising executive André Ricciardi as he confronts a fatal diagnosis.
I LIVE HERE NOW Review: A Place to Go When You Have Nowhere Else to Go
Lucy Fry, Sarah Rich, Madeline Brewer, Lara Clear, Matt Rife, and Sheryl Lee star in Julie Pacino's ambitious psychodrama.
Berlinale 2026 Review: NINA ROZA, Child Prodigy Reopens a Migrant Father's Unfinished Past
Geneviève Dulude-De Celles situates a cross-border art-world story within an intimate study of diasporic return, using the investigation of a rural child prodigy to examine authorship, cultural projection, and the unresolved fault lines of migration.
THE UGLY Review: TRAIN TO BUSAN Director Gut-Wrenchingly Critiques Vanity and Violence
Filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho ('Train to Busan') directs a thought-provoking and gut-wrenching murder mystery.
HEEL Review: Empathy Is Tested in Uncomfortable Study of Redemption
Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough star in this twisted psychological thriller.
MICRO BUDGET Review: Taking Down Filmmaking From the Inside
Most movies that go behind the scenes on a set to showcase the blood, sweat and tears that go into making movies treat filmmaking as a badge of honor. Whether it's a documentary -- see Mark Borchardt in American...
Berlinale 2026 Review: LIGHT PILLAR Casts a Melancholic Glow on Disconnection
In his animated feature debut, Zao Xu applies a production designer's precision to a near future fable that examines precarious labor, mediated intimacy and the fragile architectures, both physical and digital, that shape contemporary isolation.
REDUX REDUX Review: Vengeance Is Mine, Says Mother, Even Across the Multiverse
Written and directed by brothers Kevin McManus and Matthew McManus, the sci-fi thriller stars Michaela McManus, alongside Jim Cummings and newcomer Stella Marcus.
THE DREADFUL Review: Marcia Gay Harden Rules This Gothic GAME OF THRONES Reunion
Sophie Turner, Kit Harington, and Marcia Gay Harden star in director Natasha Kermani's action adventure.
SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE Blows Up Bad Guys on Home Video
Plus: 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2,' 'Now You See Me Now You Don't,' 'Bugonia,' 'Boogie Nights,' 'One Battle After Another.'
Available Light 2026 Review: CARIBOU COUNTRY (Wədzįh Nəne'), Exemplary Arthouse Activism
There are oh so many, singular, memorable images in Luke Gleeson’s Wədzįh Nəne’ (aka Caribou Country). The film is so beautiful, and meditative in its execution, that it is almost possible to forget that it is a call to action...
BY DESIGN Review: Beautiful and Heartbreakingly Singular
Juliette Lewis stars, supported by Mamoudou Athie, Samantha Mathis, Robin Tunney, Alisa Torres, Clifton Collins Jr., Keir Gilchrist, with Udo Kier and Betty Buckley. Narrated by Melanie Griffith. Amanda Kramer directed.
THE MORTUARY ASSISTANT Review: Video Game Adaptation Gets Lost in Translation
Willa Holland and Mark Steger star in director Jeremiah Kipp's adaptation.
GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE Review: Sam Rockwell Dominates In Gore Verbinski's Anti-AI Screed
Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chaudhry, Tom Taylor, and Juno Temple also star.
Sundance 2026 Review: UNION COUNTY, Will Poulter Leads Devastating Examination of Opioid Addiction
By one estimate, more than 550,000 people have lost their lives to the opioid epidemic over the first quarter of the 21st century. That number doubles or even triples when it includes those who’ve fallen prey to opioid addiction...
SWEETNESS Review: Ain't She Sweet? The Nightmares Come Later.
Kate Hallett and Herman Tømmeraas star in writer/director Emma Higgins' completely unhinged, uniquely stylish, and intense thriller.
Available Light 2026 Short Film, Short Review: MY KNITTING CIRCLE
Perhaps the most cozy short film on the festival circuit this year, My Knitting Circle puts on the kettle for a cup of tea and surveys the fibrous wares and spinning equipment of Itsy-Bitsy Yarn Store. A small group of...
Sundance 2026 Review: HANGING BY A WIRE, Fascinating Documentary Leaves You Wanting More
On the morning of August 22nd, 2023, eight young men, six of them still in school, climbed into a cable car to traverse a valley 900 feet above the remote foothills of Pakistan, a trip the young men took at...
Available Light 2026 Review: BEYOND THE LEFT HAND PATH, Or, A Temple of Set Guide on How to Live a Full Life
James C. Kirby was an intense man. He lived not one life, but several: A priest of the Temple of Set, a hotel chef, a social worker for traumatized men, a craft jeweller, and the former owner of Canada’s...
