The Duplass family have a way with creating something special and emotional and heartfelt. Whether it be 11 minutes or 90 minutes long, when they want to make something spectacular, their collective foot is on the gas, and they know… Read More ›
In Theaters
“McVeigh” takes audiences inside the events that lead to the event that seared this name into U.S. history. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Slow burn movies have a time and place in the world, and when they focus on absolute tragedy and devastation, they have to be handled with class and taste. Thankfully, Mike Ott (California Dreams) and co-writer Alex Gioulakis (Unemployable) handle… Read More ›
Dramedy “Griffin in Summer” is a story of first love that stands out by being ordinary. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Coming-of-age stories come in all shapes and sizes. The term refers to a story of someone going through a particularly age-specific moment of growing up, but it doesn’t always lean toward the light-hearted. Films like The Young Arsonists (2023) or… Read More ›
The first episode of the Tim Burton-centric docuseries provides its own deep dive while priming the audience for three more installments. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Tara Wood is certainly not shy when it comes to making documentaries on some of Hollywood’s more popular or polarizing voices as her two previous directorial outings have presented themselves (co-director of 21 Years: Richard Linklater and QT8: The First… Read More ›
Romantic dramedy “The Everything Pot” is a bunch of mishegaas with a thoughtful center. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Social mores dictate that a person is born, grows up, pairs off, has children, and then dies. In between is a life-lived that can be often defined by the stage one is in rather than the person they are. If… Read More ›
Satirical slasher “#AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead” takes on the shallow nature in U.S. culture. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Every story is designed to convey something. Doesn’t matter if it’s a comedy, drama, mystery, or horror tale, from the surreal to the pointed, stories possess something that they want to pass along to the audience. Some grow richer through… Read More ›
Filmmaker Sabrina Van Tassel’s “Missing from Fire Trail Road” is an evocative condemnation of the culpability of North America against its Indigenous peoples. [Tribeca Film Festival]
The version of American History that most students learn is that the American Revolution took place largely due to the concept of “taxation without representation.” That the colonists found it frustrating and unfair to have to send taxes to a… Read More ›
“Adult Best Friends” utilizes real-life best friends for an authentic look at growing apart. [Tribeca Film Festival]
There is always something daunting about writing or directing one’s first feature, but Delaney Buffett decided to write, direct, and star in her feature debut. Adult Best Friends stems from her real life and also stars her real-life best friend,… Read More ›
The site and sounds of horror thriller “A Desert” will chill you to your bones. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Joshua Erkman (director and co-writer) and Bossi Baker (co-writer) are certainly going to be names to look out for in the future. Both of them have teamed together to direct and co-write their first feature, A Desert, which focuses on… Read More ›
“Handling the Undead” fumbles its selected genres of arthouse drama and zombie horror.
From a modern-day perspective, zombies come in one of two flavors: they’re either creatures of chaos or walkers fueled by wacky circumstances. Yet, in the new film Handling the Undead (based on the book of the same name by Let… Read More ›
Director Neil Berkeley’s comedy doc “Group Therapy” declares that we’re all in this life together. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Comedy is tragedy plus time. – Samuel Clemens Early into Gilbert/Harmantown director Neil Berkeley’s new film Group Therapy, one of the central cast members, comedian Mike Birbiglia, comments that comedy is similar to therapy in that the comedian opens themselves… Read More ›
Filmmaker Tom Nesher beckons audiences to lean in in her semi-autobiographical dramedy “Come Closer.” [Tribeca Film Festival]
**Photosensitivity Warning: A club sequence includes a prolonged sequence of flashing lights that may prove triggering for sensitive viewers.** Shared joy is double joy; Shared sorrow is half a sorrow. – Swedish proverb Just about everywhere one looks, there’s a… Read More ›
“The Damned” fully delivers on its genre promises of mystery, drama, and horror. [Tribeca Film Festival]
Genuinely speaking, I don’t want to condone a movie, but the trance, anxiety, and dread that Thordur Palsson creates with his directorial debut, The Damned, needs to be studied as A Clockwork Orange-style of torture. This movie is the one… Read More ›
Writer/director Savi Gabizon remakes his own adult drama for American audiences with the Richard Gere-led “Longing.”
There are many reasons films get adapted. Sometimes it’s because a film wasn’t received well or, confusingly, because a film was received extraordinarily well. Adaptations aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Because someone sought director Roger Corman’s 1960 Little Shop of… Read More ›
Grab your Tropical Fruit Bubblicious and Skittles buckle up for another ride with Mike and Marcus in “Bad Boys: Ride or Die.”
The Bad Boys franchise has become a staple in the “buddy cop” genre. The film delivered the expected goods, thanks to the banter of Martin Lawrence (Life) and Will Smith (Men in Black). Add in director Michael Bay (Armageddon) (the… Read More ›
Western drama “The Dead Don’t Hurt” steadily trots into theaters.
The newest theatrical tale set in The Wild West, The Dead Don’t Hurt (2024), opens on a knight in shining armor riding horseback through the woods of France. Who this knight is and what they mean changes every time they… Read More ›
“In a Violent Nature” delivers on its name.
When you see a movie is a sponsorship of IFC Midnight and Shudder, there is a certain expectation for the film, an expectation that it is going to be something uneasy, disturbing, f-ked up, and downright gross. Now, with all… Read More ›
The destined battle plays out fair and square in the theatrical adaptation of “Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle.”
Mangas, like all other kinds of storytelling, come in a variety of types. Americans are familiar with the isekai (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime), shonen (Jujutsu Kaisen), and parody (One-Punch Man), with several breaking through into mainstream… Read More ›
In the world of independent aeronautics, if you want to be at the front of the pack, you’ve got to “Go Like Hell.” [Atlanta Film Festival]
“Take my love, take my land Take me where I cannot stand I don’t care, I’m still free You can’t take the sky from me … .” – Sonny Rhodes, The Ballad of Serenity Speaking at Rice University on September… Read More ›
Past is prologue in Vera Egito’s historical drama “The Battle (A Batalha da Rua Maria Antônia).” [Atlanta Film Festival]
Photosensitivity Warning: The opening title/credit sequence before the film begins and all of the breaks between scenes are accompanied by bright flashes of white light. Viewers with photosensitivity issues should watch with caution. College campuses across the U.S. have been… Read More ›