Indie Reviews
SAINT OMER Blu-ray Review: The Divide Between Personhood and Motherhood
When it comes to dismantling discrimination, whether it be by race, gender, or other marginalized identity. does the law follow society, or society follow the law? While the public can often push for changes they want in society to be...
SXSW 2024 Review: DORY PREVIN: ON MY WAY TO WHERE, Waking Up, Slowly
Julia Greenberg and Dianna Dilworth direct a music-doc about a singular singer and songwriter who needed to wake up to her own talent.
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...
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...
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: 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....
BLACKOUT Review: More Than a Monster Movie
Larry Fessenden's indie horror picture stars Alex Hurt, Addison Timlin, and Motell Gyn Foster.
ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED Blu-ray Review: Refusing the Blood Money
Laura Poitras' biography of Nan Goldin has so much more to say about the moral obligations of art and artists in an unhealthy world.
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: HUNTING DAZE, This Party Ends In Blood
One of several films at this year’s SXSW that explore the effects of women’s presence in traditionally male spaces, Annick Blanc’s Hunting Daze is among the bloodiest of the lot. When exotic dancer Nina (Nahéma Ricci) gets in a fight...
SXSW 2024 Review: AZRAEL, Samara Weaving Leads Dialogue-Free Ripper
In a future some time beyond the Rapture, a sect of penitents renounces the gift of speech in the hopes of secondary salvation. However, their survival depends on more than piety, and when a sacrifice goes awry, one former believer...
SXSW 2024 Review: THE IN BETWEEN, Stop Your Sobbing
Director Robie Flores and producer Alejandro Flores fill their debut feature with wistful yearning and thoughtful observations on their hometown, straddling Texas and Mexico.
SXSW 2024 Review: DEAD MAIL, Lo-Fi Retro Thriller Excites In Form And Function
When a mysterious bloody plea for help ends up in the dead letter office of a rural post office, the inspector on site becomes determined to find its origin, leading him down a deadly road in writer/directors Joe DeBoer and...
SXSW 2024 Review: ODDITY, A Creepy Supernatural Thriller From Ireland
The world’s creepiest mannequin holds the secret behind a shocking death in Damian McCarthy’s Oddity. Dani (Carolyn Bracken) is struggling to restore an old estate inherited by her busy doctor husband, Ted (Gwilym Lee). When a mysterious and violent death...
SXSW 2024 Review: A HOUSE IS NOT A DISCO, Burning Down Preconceptions
Brian J. Smith directs a love letter to Fire Island Pines, the legendary queer beach town in New York.
LOVE LIES BLEEDING Review: Queer Neo-Noir Enters Uncharted Territory
Kristen Stewart, Katy O'Brian, Jena Malone, Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco, and Ed Harris star in writer/director Rose Glass' film.
PROBLEMISTA Review: Clever, Witty, Boldly Distinctive
Julio Torres writes, directs, and stars alongside Tilda Swinton in a modestly audacious comedy.
HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS Review: Pure Comedy Goes Back to Basics
Hundreds of Beavers has been tearing up the festival circuit for months now, scooping prizes and rapidly building a rabid cult following. And with damn good reason. If you have even the slightest love for slapstick comedy and goofball antics,...