Indie Reviews
Book Review: ROADS TO NOWHERE, An Intimate Look at the Films of Kelly Reichardt, or, It's All About the Cow
I've said it before and I'll say it again: not only is Kelly Reichardt one of the best American indie filmmakers currently working, she's also one of the best in the world. With seven feature films under her belt, her...
Busan 2020 Review: LIMECRIME, Tone Deaf Hip-hop Biopic
As a self-confessed Korean hip-hop ‘stan’, Limecrime is a dismal disappointment. This is Directed by the actual former Limecrime duo LEE Seunghwan and YOO Jaewook, who moved on from performing together in the early aughts and are no longer part...
Montreal Nouveau 2020 Review: RED MOON TIDE, We Are Left to the Witches and Monsters
In Galicia, where forests meat a rugged and dangerous coastline, Rubio has gone missing. The local village's resident diver, he would search for the bodies of those lost to the rough seas, or possible eaten by the monster that lurks...
Busan 2020 Review: GOOD PERSON Compels With Its Dizzying Morality Play
With confident direction in the first few frames alone, this debut feature from JUNG Wook is a masterful mystery. Good Person draws comparisons to European cinema; epic yet intimate portrayal of ethics, morality and human nature in the contemporary. These...
Montreal Nouveau 2020 Review: KILL IT AND LEAVE THIS TOWN, An Animated and Discordant Purgatory
In one scene in Mariusz Wilczyński’s Kill It and Leave This Town, characters are taking a long train ride, telling stories in fits and starts, as the vehicle crosses what seems like an endless parallel universe populated by bird people...
Sitges 2020 Review: VICIOUS FUN, The Name of The Movie Says it All
Never has marketing a film been so easy! Q: So. What's your film about? A: (points to title) Joel is an obnoxious film critic and wisenheimer who writes for a national horror rag. One night Joel follows Bob,...
Montreal Nouveau 2020 Review: THERE ARE NO FALSE UNDERTAKINGS, Vignettes of the Odd and Surreal
Having moved into television, Denzel Washington is hoping to land the role of Angel in a reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; he's interested in the role because of Angel's struggle with testicular cancer. But alas, being too old, he...
Montreal Nouveau 2020 Review: THE SHEPHERDHESS AND THE SEVEN SONGS, A Luscious Fable of the Clash of Magic and Modernism
In the vast and gorgeous region of Kashmir (which most outsiders might only associate with its contestation between India and Pakistan), nomadic tribes still live difficult but not unpleasant lives, herding their animals beneath the beauty and drama of the...
Review: THE DOORMAN, Woefully Inept, Profoundly Uninspired
Ruby Rose, Jean Reno, Aksel Hennie and Rupert Evans star in an action picture directed by Kitamura Ryuhei.
70s Rewind: DEATHDREAM, Nightmares Are Made Of This
Director Bob Clark's film, aka 'Dead of Night,' stars John Marley, Lynn Carlin and Richard Backus; it's now streaming on The Criterion Channel.
Review: THE MORTUARY COLLECTION, Horror Stories, More Than Morality Fables
Clancy Brown, Caitlin Custer and Christine Kilmer star in director Ryan Spindell's horror anthology film, now streaming on Shudder.
Nightstream 2020 Review: THE QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC Reimagines An Indonesian Horror Classic With A Gruesome Modern Eye
If you like your horror movies super gross, you are in for a treat with director Kimo Stamboel's sophomore solo feature, a loose remake of 1981's Indonesian classic, The Queen of Black Magic. With the world beginning to rediscover this...
Nightstream 2020 Review: DINNER IN AMERICA, A Sweetly Chaotic Molotov Cocktail Of Dirty Punk Romance
When rough and tumble mysterious stranger Simon (Kyle Gallner) crosses paths with the socially awkward Patty (Emily Skeggs), they form an unusual bond that sends them careening toward chaos, and loving every minute of it in Adam Rehmeier's Sundance breakout...
Review: J.R. "BOB" DOBBS AND THE CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS, Illuminating Trip Down a Rabbit Hole
During the '80s, anyone who sent a dollar bill to PO Box 140306, Dallas, Texas, 75214 would eventually receive a weird black-and-white pamphlet filled with stark graphics and apocalyptic text that looked like it was cobbled together by UFO-obsessed John...
Montreal Nouveau 2020: NIGHT HAS COME, Collective Memory and the End of Days
Imagine waking up in an sanitorium, and finding your memory slowly being eaten away by a virus in your brain. Scientists are trying to harvest your memories, which are replaced, inside you, by darkness. While this film started the festival...
Nightstream 2020 Review: HONEYDEW, Impressive And Modest Rural Horror
Sam and Rylie are on a road trip into backcountry ‘Merica. Rylie is a student, Sam a ‘waiter/actor’ or ‘actor/waiter’, depending on your outlook. Rylie’s work on her graduate thesis is what brings them out to the country. A misunderstanding...
Nightstream 2020 Review: FRANK & ZED Brings a Classic Style, Classic Storytelling, Heaps of Heart And Puppet Gore
A kingdom lives under the shadow of impending doom that has been tied to the bloodline to the throne for centuries. The wheels are put in motion by conniving individuals in the village, looking to save their own necks, no...
Nightstream 2020 Review: SURVIVAL SKILLS Uses Satire To Lay Bare The Insurmountable Challenges Effective Policing
To say the police are not well liked by the more liberal populations of the world right now would be an understatement, but why? We all want and deserve security. No one wants to feel unsafe in or out of...
Nightstream 2020 Review: CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER, Witchy Magic in the Rural Gothic
Sisters Alma (Ginger Gilmartin), something of a hippie-free spirit, and Elizabeth (Mary Buss), a D.C. lawyer who's wound a little tight, are at their family's old cabin in the backwoods, perhaps trying to reconnect with each other, but their bond...
Nightstream 2020 Review: ANYTHING FOR JACKSON, Elderly Satanists Deal With Their Grief Very Poorly
The loss of a child is one the most tragic experiences a person can endure, but the loss of a grandchild can be just as painful. The idea that a loved one who was supposed to long outlive you and...
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