Tag: U.S. Indie Film Review
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On | Review
Clam Happy: Fleischer-Camp Fleshes Out His Amusing/Absurd Sketch of a Precocious Mollusk
On paper, the inevitability of something like Marcel the Shell with Shoes On...
Lost Highway (1997) | Review
Fugue De Chao: Lynch Hits the Yellow Bricks in Masterful, Neglected Daymare
“I like to remember things my own way,” remarks the onerous protagonist of...
Everything Everywhere All at Once | Review
In the Realm of the Senses: The Daniels Explore Meaning in the Eye of the Storm
“It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what...
Alice | Review
What the Dormouse Said: Linden Squanders a Significant Subject in Earnest, Flat Rendering
“If a story is no good, being based on Hamlet won’t save...
X | Review
The Pornographer Always Shoots Twice: West Taps into Grindhouse Sleaze with Backwoods Romp
It was Foucault, proponent of classifying the orgasm as a ‘little death,’...
Fresh | Review
Meats for the Meat: Cave Goes for Broke in Gross Out Horror Debut
You are what you eat is an adage taken to literal extremes...
After Yang | Review
Before and After Yang: More Human than Humans
Kogonada’s After Yang opens with the most exhilarating dance sequence since Gaspar Noé’s Climax—but don’t be misled....
Strawberry Mansion | Review
In Dreams: Audley & Birney Conjure a Candy Colored Clown They Call the Tax Man
A shimmering, nostalgic daydream which plays with parameters of the...
Italian Studies | Review
Pieces of a Woman: Leon’s Latest Gets Lost in Own Identity Crisis
Somewhere along the various perambulations of its conflicted protagonist, Adam Leon’s Italian Studies...
The Tender Bar [Video Review]
Producers: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Ted Hope.
Executive producers: Barbara A. Hall, J.R. Moehringer.
Director: George Clooney.
Screenplay: William Monahan, based on the memoir by J.R. Moehringer.
Camera:...
The Tragedy of Macbeth | Review
O Brother Wherefore Art Thou: Joel Cohen’s Stunning Solo Shakespeare
Joel Coen’s first solo effort as director sans brother Ethan is visually sumptuous, visceral Shakespeare:...
The Lost Daughter | Review
Parallel Mothers: Gyllenhaal Paints a Dark Portrait in Sinister Ferrante Adaptation
“Attention is the purest form of hospitality,” is a quote from Simone Weil utilized...
The Humans [Video Review]
Premiering at the 2021 Toronto Intl. Film Festival, Lebanese-American playwright and screenwriter (The Seagull) Stephen Karam adapted his one act stage play for a...
Red Rocket | Review
Nude Illusion: Baker Returns to Sex Work in Bristling Character Study
You can’t go home again, especially when no one missed you in the first...
C’mon C’mon [Video Review]
World premiering at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival, C'mon C'mon is Mike Mill's fourth feature film following Thumbsucker (2005), Beginners (2010) and 20th Century...
C’mon C’mon | Review
Turn the Dial: Mills Explores the Mysteries of Youth, Exalted.
Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon is a poignant, mellow ode to the next generation, explored through...
Antlers | Review
The Killing of a Sacred Deer: Cooper Wanders Unevenly into Indigenous Lore
Director Scott Cooper moves beyond the comfort of his melodramatic roots with Antlers,...
Cicada | Review
Triumph Over Trauma: Fifer & Mulcare Mine Catharsis with Poignant, Intersectional Drama
The importance of representation is a concept which, like many conceits, is more...
Passing | Review
The Skin I Live In: Hall Formulates an Elegant, Devastating Adaptation of Nella Larsen
For those who have had the pleasure of reading either of...
The French Dispatch | Review
Repetition Commission: Anderson Flatlines with Twee Aesthetic
Since cinema requires a semblance of participation by the audience, a passive relationship of sorts, the latest curio...
Son of Monarchs | Review
Butterflies Are Free: Gambis Mines Identity Through Metaphor/mosis in Sophomore Film
Director Alexis Gambis returns to his favored motif of genetics in his latest film...
South of Heaven | Review
Heaven’s Grate: Keshales Settles for Watered Down Tropes in English Debut
Nearly a decade ago, directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado promised to usher in...
Old Henry | Review
The Kid Stays in the Picture: Ponciroli Goes Old Fashioned with Fan Fiction Western
At a certain point, revisionism strays so far into its own...
The Card Counter | 2021 Venice Film Festival Review
January Man: Schrader Fans the Underbelly in Morose Facade of Lost Souls
Paul Schrader has obsessively charted the propensity of man's repressed compulsions consuming even...
Ma Belle, My Beauty | Review
Lover Come Back: Hill’s Debut a Refreshing Portrait of Intimacy and Attraction
Three may not actually be a crowd, but it certainly heightens complications in...
Flag Day | Review
Americana Trauma: Penn Returns with Hysterical Melodrama
After the formidable misfire of his last directorial effort The Last Face (2016), Sean Penn unfortunately doesn’t fare...
John and the Hole | Review
The Little Boy Who Lives Down the Lane: Sisto Finds a Psychopath in Disturbing Debut
There’s no arguing the discomforting vibe of John and the...
Dramarama [Video Review]
Great Expectations: Wysocki’s Debut a Loving Homage to the Dog Days of Highschool
For those well-versed in indie queer cinema, a major template and through...
A Tale of Ordinary Madness: Bravo Delivers a Cinematic Unicorn – Zola [Video Review]
A Tale of Ordinary Madness: Bravo Delivers a Cinematic Unicorn
Cinematic innovators are few and far between, but a blazing hot anomaly is revealed in...
My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To | 2021 Tribeca Film Festival Review
Only the Lonely: Cuartas Finds No Forgiveness of Blood in Striking Debut
With a film which could have easily borrowed the title of the similarly...
Gully [Video Review]
Goodbye South Central, Goodbye: Elderkin Grapples with Uneven Urban Soap Opera
If Donald Goines had written YA literature, it might have looked something like Gully,...
Port Authority [Video Review]
Category is The Realness: Lessovitz Isn’t Strictly Ballroom in Star Crossed Romance
To acknowledge the formidable, everlasting impact of Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary Paris is...
Seance [Video Review]
The Girlfriend Experience: Barrett Mines B-Movie Tropes in Hybrid Throwback
There’s no greater hotbed of dysfunction and perversity than the homosocial staples of either the...
The Killing of Two Lovers [Video Review]
Love Fool(s): Machoian Presents Scenes from an Imploding Marriage
Despite lip service to the contrary, it would seem love and marriage do not, indeed, go...
Monster [Video Review]
Fait Accompli: Mandler Mines the Gray Zone of Truth and Consequences
While more of an interesting conversation piece than the accomplished melodrama it deserves to...
Above Suspicion | Review
Investigation of a Citizen: Noyce Can’t Get in Formation with True Crime Chronicle
In 1943, Joan Crawford and John Wayne fought the Nazis. Christopher Reeve...
Here Today [Video Review]
Make Way for Tomorrow: Crystal Courts Catharsis in Uneven Odd Couple Comedy
It’s been over twenty years since Billy Crystal stepped behind the camera, even...
Four Good Days [Video Review]
My Opioid Teacher: Garcia Tackles Addiction in Hokey Reunion with Close
Films dealing with drug addiction may have evolved considering the changing landscape of...
Separation [Video Review]
Divorce of Force: Bell Peddles Puppets in Congested Ghost Story
“Separate’s always better when there’s feelings involved,” per Outkast’s 2003 track Hey Ya!, and one...
Things Heard & Seen [Video Review]
Resident Evil: Berman & Pulcini Conjure a Satisfying Genre Throwback
Studio output of the 1970s, during the golden age of New American Cinema, allowed for...
Together Together | Review
A Womb of One’s Own: Beckwith Basks in Basics with Sterile Dramedy
The tricky intersections of gestational surrogacy provide a scenario automatically rife with narrative...
Vanquish [Video Review]
Not Without My Daughter: Gallo Blunders with Absurd Thriller
The appeal of beholding a train wreck is assuredly a vibe based upon the morbid yet...
Jakob’s Wife [Video Review]
The Pastor and the Master: Stevens Enjoyably Re-Vamps Domestic Distress in Grisly Black Comedy
Behind every man is a diminished woman, or so goes the...
Honeydew [Video Review]
When Life Gives You Melons: Millburn Sows Agricultural Horror in Creepy Debut
We are what we eat, alas. And we’ve come to reap the tainted...
Giants Being Lonely | Review
Two Heads Are Better Than One: Patterson Paints a Teenage Wasteland in Striking Debut
In the realm of arthouse cinema, the coming-of-age melodrama is but...
Every Breath You Take [Video Review]
Don’t Hold Your Breath: Stein Strains Plausibility in B Thriller
Unfolding with all the believability of a science fiction film set in a parallel universe,...
Shoplifters of the World | Review
In the Mood for Morrissey: Kijak Languishes in Eighties Angst
Documentarian Stephen Kijak returns to narrative filmmaking for the first time since his 1996 debut...
City of Lies [Video Review]
L.A. Controversial: Furman Revisits the Wallace Murder in Mediocre Adaptation
Whatever the likely combination of reasons for the three-year delay in its US theatrical release,...
The Inheritance | Review
Activism Fission: Asili Gets Godardian in Expressive Personal/Political Homage
A unique marriage of the vintage and modern, topical and archaic, personal and political, pretentious and...
Boogie | Review
More Love & Basketball: Huang’s Debut Goes Through the Motions
Eddie Huang, producer of “Fresh Off the Boat,” makes his directorial debut with Boogie, a...
