Indie Reviews
Review: NINE DAYS, Intimate, Moving Exploration of Life, the Universe, and Everything
Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz and Benedict Wong star in a dramatic fantasy, written and directed by Edson Oda.
Review: THE GREEN KNIGHT, Unsettling And Mesmerizing
There is a scene early in The Green Knight, where our 'hero', Gawain, thinks he has beaten the odds; he stepped forward when none of the knights at the Round Table dared to accept the Green Knight's odd challenge, and...
Review: MASQUERADE, Efficient, Economical Home-Invasion Thriller
Bella Thorne, Alyvia Alyn Lind and Mircea Monroe star in a thriller, directed by Shane Dax Taylor.
Blu-ray Review: Criterion's WORKING GIRLS, A Day in the Sex Worker Life
Portrayals of sex workers in film tend to fall into extremes: either the high class escort/call girl who makes in the thousands (or more) a night, or the street prostitute or stripper working in a seedy club, usually surrounded by...
Review: SETTLERS, Wherever We Go, There We Are
Uniquely American, the Western genre has changed radically over the last century, from nationalistic, myth-building propaganda to revisionist self-critique, specifically of the colonialist narrative that centered white Europeans and left indigenous peoples, in the margins at best or primitive, violent...
Review: THE BOY BEHIND THE DOOR, A Decent Debut Chiller
Young Bobby and his best friend, Kevin, are abducted on their way to their baseball game. When Bobby breaks out of the trunk of the car he's trapped in he sees that they've been taken to a home in the...
Review: In PIG, Nicolas Cage Delivers One of the Finest Performances of His Career
As critics and audiences alike have learned over four decades and counting, Nicolas Cage contains multitudes. Not in a literal sense, of course, but in a figurative one, through committed (emphasis on “committed”) performances that began in the early 1980s,...
Review: THE NOWHERE INN, Burnt Pages of Unwritten Memoirs
At a crucial turning point in The Nowhere Inn, a woman, clad in bright-colored latex, quips to the camera. "This is how rockstars act in movies," she says, cigarette in hand. Scratch that, she tells the film crew. She can...
Review: HOW TO DETER A ROBBER, Wicked Smart
Vanessa Marano, Leah Lewis and Chris Mulkey star in a crime comedy, written and directed by Maria Bissell, releasing July 16 on VOD, digital and in select cinemas.
Review: LOVE TYPE D, Lo-Fi Sci-Fi Rom-Com for the Rest of Us
After circulating amongst and betwixt multiple international film festivals, virtual and analog, over the better part of a pandemic year, writer-director Sasha Collington’s (Lunch Date, Four Eyes) remarkably self-assured feature-length debut, Love Type D, a romantic comedy with a lo-fi,...
Review: SCALES, A Fable of Sea Monsters in a Hostile Land
The most beautiful moonlight I've ever seen was in Sinai. I was at a small camp not far from Dahab, but far enough and so far from any large human settlement that there was no light pollution. It was a...
Tribeca 2021 Review: ULTRASOUND, Indie Sci-fi Keeps You Guessing Right Until The Very End
Heading home during a heavy rainstorm, Glen’s car breaks down. He spots a house nearby and finds help from a chummy yet odd middle-aged man, Arthur, and his much younger wife, Cyndi. After a couple drinks and a warm shower,...
Tribeca 2021 Review: LARRY FLYNT FOR PRESIDENT, Eerily Prescient, Outlandish Time Capsule
Director Nadia Szold reconstructs Larry Flynt's infamous run for presidential nomination from never-before-seen archival footage. And it's stranger than fiction.
Slash 2021 Review: CYST, Sometimes You Pop Zits, Sometimes They Pop You
There just aren't enough movies these days about man-sized sentient pus monsters, and that's a shame. Set in the early '60s, Tyler Russell's Cyst is a throwback creature feature that embraces the goofiness of the era's drive-in fare with a...
Palm Springs Shorts 2021 Review: Highlights, Part Two
More highlights of (mostly genre) short films from Palm Springs 2021: The Moogai (Jon Bell, Australia): Sarah and Jacob have just had their first child, and in these first few days, Sarah is convinced an evil spirit is going to...
Palm Springs Shorts 2021 Review: Highlights, Part One
While there have been many negatives about the pandemic, one of the silver linings has been being able to virtually attend festivals in far-flung places. I've had the privilege not only to watch many of the shorts at the terrific...
Review: LANSKY, Harvey Keitel Can't Elevate By-The-Numbers Material
With a career spanning six decades and more than 150 credits, Harvey Keitel has made an indelible mark on American cinema and pop culture. Despite material of wildly varying quality, some of it forgettable, Keitel has rarely given a sub-par...
Tribeca 2021 Review: Family Dynamics Reach a Horrific Breaking Point in Horror WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING
As a powerful storm tears through town Melissa and her family seek shelter in their bathroom. When the storm passes they realize they are trapped inside Melissa thinks that it is something that she and her girlfriend Amy did the...
Tribeca 2021 Review: CREATION STORIES, Musical Biopic Becomes Hilarious Psychedelic Fable
Ewen Bremner, Leo Flanagan and Richard Jobson star in a drug-fueled biopic, directed by Nick Moran, about the founder of the label behind Oasis.
Tribeca 2021 Review: MY HEART CAN'T BEAT UNLESS YOU TELL IT TO, Vampire Horror, Family Drama
Patrick Fugit, Ingrid Sophie Schram and Owen Campbell star in a horror-thriller, directed by Jonathan Cuartas.
