Indie Reviews
Review: NOTTURNO Examines the Legacy of Colonialism in the Middle East
Gianfranco Rosi, the documentarian behind such astonishing work as Sacro GRA and Fire at Sea, returns with a biting and enormously affecting documentary on people living on the periphery of modern Middle-East conflicts. Culling from footage shot in Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria and Lebanon...
Review: BLOODY HELL, Gruesome, Gory, and Gut-Bustingly Funny
A viral vigilante escapes unwanted notoriety only to find that even though things were bad, they can always get worse in Alister Grierson's new gonzo shocker, Bloody Hell. Rex (Ben O'Toole, Hacksaw Ridge/Nekrotronic) was minding his own business at the...
Review: MLK/FBI Reminds That Dr. King's Legacy Resonates Now, More Than Ever
Packed to the brim with historical documents and recently declassified materials, Sam Pollard, documentarian and editor of Spike Lee's films, among many others (Mo' Better Blues, 4 Little Girls, Chisholm '72, Venus and Serena), brings us MLK/FBI, a searing indictment...
Review: REDEMPTION DAY, Husband to the Rescue
Gary Dourdan, Serina Swan, Ernie Hudson, Martin Donovan, and Andy Garcia star in the action drama, directed by Hicham Hajji.
Review: SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TWO TAKES BY WILLIAM GREAVES, Re-presented on Blu-ray
Hell hath no fury like a film crew ganked around. This was true in 1968, it was true in 2005, and it remains true today. In this context, the two named years are significant for being when the late...
Blu-ray Review: GIRLFRIENDS, The One That Got Away
Melanie Mayron stars in Claudia Weill's independent, ground-breaking, timely gem, now available on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
Morbido 2020 Review: SANCTORUM, Cosmic Forces Respond to Narco-Violence in Mexico
A little boy’s mother vanishes along with other fellow workers at a marijuana farm hidden in the mountains of rural Mexico. The farmers have grown weary of being caught in the middle of the crossfire between the drug cartels and...
Morbido 2020 Review: SIN ORIGEN (ORIGIN UNKNOWN) Mexican Action Horror Flick Fails to Make a Big Screen Impression
Pedro is a drug runner looking to buy his way out of the drug trade. On the eve of his departure tensions and nerves are tight, despite his boasting that his home security system is state of the art. Two...
Morbido 2020 Review: THE CEMETERY OF LOST SOULS (CEMENTERIO DE LAS ALMAS PERDIDAS) Takes The Long Way to Tell a Short Story
Brazilian writer-director Rodrigo Aragão revisits the Book of Cipriano from his previous film The Black Forest in his new film The Cemetery of Lost Souls (O Cemitério das Almas Perdidas) It all starts with Satan making a Jesuit priest...
Review: I'M YOUR WOMAN, Atypical Crime Drama Quietly Rips Up Expectations
Rachel Brosnahan stars in Julia Hart's fresh new crime drama, now in select theaters and also streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Review: ARCHENEMY Introduces A New Kind Of Cosmic Action Hero On The Streets Of LA
Director Adam Egypt Mortimer explores his obsession with the cosmos in his third feature, Archenemy, starring Joe Manganiello as a maybe/possibly superhero from outer space drunkenly stumbling through LA's skid row in search of his nemesis. A kind of mumblecore...
Tallinn 2020 Review: THE PENULTIMATE, The Grotesque Comedy on the Absurdity of Human Condition
The Danish newcomer Jonas Kærup Hjort delivers a whimsical traumedy submerged in a variety of existentialist shades.
Review: BLACK BEAR, A Gaslight Meta Nightmare
Black Bear could be a Hitchcock inspired-indie thriller that opens with actor--director-writer Allison (Aubrey Plaza), collecting her towel from a lake’s small dock, making her way inside a cabin where she sits, notebook and pen at the ready; a title...
Tallinn 2020 Review: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and ENFANT TERRIBLE
Oskar Roehler portrays the tortured genius in an unrestrained biopic about Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Review: JIU JITSU, or How to Ruin a Movie About Nic Cage Fighting an Alien
On the face of it, a film about Nicolas Cage fighting an alien assassin in the jungle should be hard to screw up, let Cage rage and the entertainment is almost a given. With action specialist Dimitri Logothetis at the helm,...
Blu-ray Review: RELIC Uses Horror Metaphors Masterfully
I've said it before and I'll say it again: horror works best as metaphor. When examining societal, personal, or political issues (or a heady combination of all three, mmm delicious), the horror genre is like no other. Sci-fi comes close,...
Review: THE NEST, Hell Really Is Other Married People
Almost a decade ago, writer-director Sean Durkin’s feature-length debut, Martha Marcy May Marlene — an intense, non-linear psychological thriller — immediately moved him to the front ranks of promising first-time filmmakers. It also introduced Elisabeth Olsen to moviegoers. In the...
Review: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, When There's TMI About Weird Canadian Politics, and We Love It
Matthew Rankin shows just how batsh*t crazy Canadian history can be
Blu-ray Review: Jim Jarmusch Brings GHOST DOG To The Criterion Collection
I saw Jim Jarmusch's 1999 film, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, a long time ago, and didn't remember it well beyond vague feelings and dreamy after-images. Revisiting it this week ahead of its release as part of the...
Review: FREAKY, Body-Swap Thrills, Gory Kills
Over the last decade plus, writer-director Christopher Landon has quietly crafted a consistently engaging, stealth career as a filmmaker deeply conversant in the tropes, traditions, and conventions of the horror genre and a willing subverter of those tropes, traditions, and...
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