Indie Reviews
Oak Cliff 2019 Review: SATANIC PANIC, A Messy Black Mass
When gullible 22-year-old virgin (trust me, all of those descriptors play an important part in the film) Sam (Hayley Griffith) takes on a gig delivering pizzas to make ends meet, she quickly discovers that it's not going to be as...
Oak Cliff 2019 Review: DANIEL ISN'T REAL, But He'll F@#! You Up Just The Same
Traumatized as a child after witnessing a horrific crime, a young Luke starts interacting with a new imaginary friend named Daniel. At first Daniel seems like a harmless coping mechanism meant to shield Luke from the memories of the bloody...
Oak Cliff 2019 Review: GREENER GRASS Satirizes Suburban Envy With Absurd Glee
Imagine what hell might be spawned if David Lynch and Martha Stewart had a baby that they then gave to John Waters to raise, and you might be somewhere in the neighborhood of the genius that is Dawn Luebbe &...
Cannes 2019 Review: In DOGS DON'T WEAR PANTS, There's No Wrong Way To Grieve
Everyone grieves loss in their own way, and sometimes finding the way that works for you can be a journey of self-discovery. Sometimes we discover things about ourselves that we never even knew, often these realizations can be terrifying and...
Cannes 2019 Review: A Thief Attempts To Recover His Booty In THE UNKNOWN SAINT
A thief speeds furtively across the Moroccan desert as the police close in on him. Spotting an isolated hill topped by a lonely tree, he stops to bury a bag full of money under its branches. An ideal spot, he...
Maryland Film Fest Review: QUEEN OF LAPA, Clear-eyed, Intimate Look at Rio's Trans Sex Worker Community
The documentary doesn't highlight the differences of its subjects from the audience, but rather acknowledges and celebrates what we have in common: our humanity.
Book Review: THE CASTLE ON SUNSET, How a Building Influenced a Culture
Author Shawn Levy peers into a mysterious, secretive place that still affects what we see today.
Calgary Underground 2019 Review: LOST HOLIDAY Beautifully Combines Boozy Comedy With Character and Crime
For many of us who grow up in comfortable lives, there comes a point when we should probably stop partying with the uncaring narcissistic abandon of those in their early twenties. (Unless, of course, you are a Matthew McConaughey character,...
Calgary Underground 2019 Review: RED LETTER DAY, Fear And Loathing In The Canadian Suburbs
"I just figured this would be happening in the US." One of the characters early on in Red Letter Day elucidates the sometimes subtle (sometimes not) passive-agressive smugness in the Canadian attitude, as defined by self-comparison to the American experiment down...
Tribeca 2019 Review: AAMIS (RAVENING), A Forbidden Romance Consumes Star-Crossed Lovers
Set in the far northeastern Indian state of Assam, Bhaskar Hazarika's sophomore feature Aamis (Ravening) is a film unlike anything you've ever seen. A forbidden love story between a man and a woman separated by perhaps a dozen years, several...
Calgary Underground 2019 Review: BODY AT BRIGHTON ROCK Keeps The Stakes Low, And That Is Mostly A Good Thing
The age-old 'alone in the forest at night' conceit is a classic for a reason. It has been one of humanity's primal fears since we ceased being cave dwellers and started developing our parietal lobe. So, it is somewhat of...
Indie Meme 2019 Review: KAAMYAAB (ROUND FIGURE), A Charming Story Of Passion Rediscovered
There is something tremendously gratifying about a nice round number. It feels like an accomplishment in a way that satisfies humanity's desire for order. So, when retired character actor Sudheer (Sanjai Mishra) discovers during a "where are they now?" type...
Blu-ray Review: STRANGER THAN PARADISE Is An Anti-Trip Worth Taking
The seemingly inevitable time has finally come for Jim Jarmusch's first directorial efforts, Permanent Vacation and Stranger Than Paradise, to join the Criterion Collection’s already brimming Jim Jarmusch subsection, thus far consisting of, in order of DVD release: Down By...
Review: LITTLE WOODS, Risky Navigation of an Uncaring System
Contemporary social realism films from the USA, like much of social realism cinema in general, focuses on the lives of the poor and marginalized, and often involve the potential loss of a home or need for extra money for medical...
Review: UNDER THE SILVER LAKE, Contemporary Straight White Male Gaze, Defined
Andrew Garfield stars in David Robert Mitchell's half-baked, superficial story.
Review: TEEN SPIRIT, A Middling Teenager Drama of Angst & Success
The proliferation of reality TV talent contests seem to have given young people (and older people) a false idea of what it means to have artistic talent: mainly, that you don't. All you need to do is win a contest...
Review: INSTANT DREAMS, Chemicals As a Starting Point
Willem Baptist's film explores the magic, science and wonder of Polaroid photos and an array of devoted followers.
Sarasota 2019 Review: FERAL, The Space Between the Tunnels and the Light
There are as many stories of how and why someone becomes homeless, as there are homeless people. Sometimes we ignore them, sometimes we give them some money; there are organizations that help, or that we tell ourselves help. Do we...
Review: In THE WIND, Demons and Loneliness Terrify
Caitlin Gerard stars in Emma Tammi's feature directorial debut.
Review: Philippine Horror EERIE is Paved with Good Intentions
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” I am reminded of these lines when thinking of a throughline for the Mikhail Red-directed horror film Eerie. Storywise, the film delivers commentary on how our institutions and internalized preconceptions can...
Trending Posts
0
0
Recent Posts
0
0
