Indie Reviews
Morbido 2019 Review: DIABLO ROJO PTY, Local Folklore on Display in Panama's First Horror Film
Miguel is the owner and operator of one of the last Diablos Rojos (Red Beasts), garishly painted and lit old-fashioned school buses that were once the popular choice of transit for the people of Panama. Late at night, after a...
Review: FRANKIE, Gentle Yet Piercing Drama
Isabelle Huppert leads the ensemble cast. Ira Sachs directed.
Review: ADOPT A HIGHWAY, Ethan Hawke Shines in a Hopeful but Inconsistent Film
One of the many things that has always boggled my mind about the USA is the prison system, and its treatment of felons, from privatization of prisons, to not being able to vote upon release, to the 'three-strike-rule' that seemed...
Now Streaming: ELI, Who Is Forsaken
Charlie Shotwell, Kelly Reilly, Max Martini and Lili Taylor star in the horror drama; Ciarán Foy directed.
Now Streaming: WOUNDS May Never Heal
Armie Hammer, Zazie Beetz and Dakota Johnson star in an absorbing horror drama, directed by Babak Anvari.
Review: In REDOUBT, Artist Matthew Barney Continues His Modern Day Myth-Making
Undoubtedly a continuation of Matthew Barney's unique, modern-day myth-making process, the hypnotic images in 'Redoubt' have to be experienced on the big screen.
Blu-ray Review: MATEWAN Sticks Up For The Little Guy
The Criterion Collection rounds the corner on its final three-digit spine number (#999) this week with John Sayles' 1987 union drama, Matewan, before busting our collective eyeballs (and wallets) with spine #1000 -- the Godzilla boxed set -- which hits...
Austin 2019 Review: THE VICE GUIDE TO BIGFOOT, In Search of Post-Modern Laughs
Ben Emond co-wrote and stars in the paranormal comedy, directed by Zach Lamplugh.
Montreal Nouveau 2019 Review: L.A. TEA TIME, The Journey is the Destination
All artists have their heroes: the ones whose work we admire, whose work likely inspired their own, and whom they would give a lot just to spend an hour with to better understand their hero and inspiration. Much of this...
Oscars 2020 Review: LET THERE BE LIGHT, In the Name of Father, Son and Far-Right Extremism
Slovakia´s official entry for the Oscars race is a film Let There Be Light about family disrupted by son´s involvement in a far-right paramilitary troop
Montreal Nouveau 2019 Review: ADORATION, Cupid is Dangerously Blind
British author Evelyn Waugh once wrote that there is a kind of love that children have before they know its meaning, something sweet and innocent, full of kindness and joy without facade or self-awareness. As children grow into teenagers, what...
Montreal Nouveau 2019: MONOS, Teenaged Soldiers Descent into Madness
For a long time, likely one of the few things most people knew about Colombia is that is was a country with a huge number of kidnappings. So many, in fact, that there was a radio show that ran for...
Montreal Nouveau 2019 Review: MAKE ME UP, Intense & Biting Feminist Satire
Combining archival audio footage, science fiction, cultural criticism, and reality television parody into a film, and Scottish multimedia artist Rachel Maclean's feature Make Me Up weaves a complex and at times overwhelming tapestry as a biting feminist satire. Juxtaposing bright...
Montreal Nouveau 2019 Review: BAIT, Lo-Fi Vision of Class Warfare by the Sea
One of the main things I miss about print film is the texture; there is something about how an physical object, going through a projector, conveys the layers of physicalness necessary to create it. It conveys as much for the...
Review: TRICK, Splatter Slasher By Seasoned Experts
Omar Epps, Ellen Adair, Kristina Reyes, Jamie Kennedy and Tom Atkins star in the horror flick, written by Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier, and directed by Patrick Lussier.
Montreal Nouveau 2019 Review: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, Canadian History on Acid
Few Canadian historical figures are known outside of Canada (or really even within Canada). William Lyon Mackenzie King, our longest-serving Prime Minister, might be one of them (at least in English Canada), but even to us, he is something of...
Montreal Nouveau 2019 Review: THE BODY REMEMBERS WHEN THE WORLD BROKE OPEN, The Struggle to Break the Cycle
When I was a teenager, walking down a street one evening with my best friend at the time, we passed a doorway with a man and a woman. The man was blocking the woman. I heard her say, "Please just...
Montreal Nouveau 2019 Review: The Finnish Heart and Soul Reflected in ANGEL OF THE NORTH
There are some works of art (be they paintings, songs, films, or books) that are said to speak the soul of a nation or culture; and even though no culture is a monolith, works such as "American Gothic" or "Mona...
Montreal Nouveau 2019 Review: THE VAST OF NIGHT, Aliens and the Art of Listening
One of the most difficult things to render in cinema is listening, especially if the speaker isn't in the room. How do you keep the audience focused not only on the off-screen speaker and their story, but also on the...
Nashville 2019 Review: DEMENTER, The Devil Hides in Plain Sight
Religious cults seem to be plentiful in the USA, or so the movies would have us believe. In a country where it is automatically assumed that one has a relgious belief, it would seem that fear of the devil runs...
