When we think of coming-of-age tales, there are certain staples that come to mind: youth, love, introspection, heartbreak, and maybe a little absolution. Writer/director Pierre Creton (A Beautiful Summer (Le bel été)) disregards almost all of these in his recent… Read More ›
There are movies that can really be defined as once in a lifetime kind of movies, and once they exist, anything that tries to convey a similar story usually cannot compare to what that benchmark has already done. That is… Read More ›
Carolina Cavalli’s Amanda couldn’t be titled anything else. The protagonist and titular character, 24-year-old Amanda, is the gravitational force that holds this quirky, quietly humorous, and, at times, meandering film together. Portrayed with delightful nuance by Benedetta Porcaroli (The Shadow… Read More ›
Memories are a strange thing. They are flickers of the past, like embers of a long burnt out flame riding the strands of neuropathways until they can be inflamed once more, waiting to come billowing into the present. The problem… Read More ›
**Content Warning: Beautiful Beings contains material involving sexual abuse of minors, inferences of abuse, and other subject material that may trigger SA survivors.** Writer/director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson (Heartstone) followed up his first feature film with a story that’s at once… Read More ›
When we’re children, the world appears small. It’s filled with the things that we can perceive and, often, little else. This means that what stresses us out, what keeps us up at night, seem huge because we lack the perspective… Read More ›
Parenthood changes you. It’s not for everyone and there’s good reason for people wanting to avoid it ever happening to them, but, for those who do become parents (by birth, by adoption, however), there’s a palatable shift in how one… Read More ›
If you’re an individual of a certain age and someone offers you Reese’s Pieces, you may possess a Pavlovian response to reply “el-e-ot” and stiffen your pointer finger in that person’s direction. If this describes you, then you likely grew… Read More ›
Since its first film release, The Secret of Kells, in 2009, animation studio Cartoon Saloon has made a name for itself by developing remarkable stories of adventure, catharsis, and healing through the lens of adolescence. Each of the four films… Read More ›
There’s a reason humanity refers to adolescence as “the formative years” — everything we experience, everything we engage with, shapes who we become as adults. The things we love, the things we fear, all of them are born of a… Read More ›
After spending time on the festival circuit, writer/director Nicola Rose’s feature-length directorial debut, Goodbye, Petrushka, hit VOD and digital in July of 2022. Utilizing mixed media and multiple genres, Rose’s film explores growing up via a romantic lens, both literal… Read More ›
As long as there are children who grow into adulthood via adolescence, there will always be coming-of-age stories. They may not be indicative of your experience, but they will speak to the universal ideas of growing up, shifting from an… Read More ›
Summer 1996 — I was 15 and spent several days with a childhood friend, Glen, his sister and her friend, and his father at a beach house on the Outer Banks. To this day, I remember the days we spent… Read More ›
After landing on Disney+ in March to a largely positive bang, director Domee Shi’s feature-length debut Turning Red is headed home for purchase. Much like the Oscar-winning Encanto from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Shi’s Pixar film explores generational trauma through… Read More ›
In front of Pixar’s Incredibles 2 (2018) was writer/director Domee Shi’s directorial debut Bao, a bittersweet story of parenthood and letting go. It’s not too surprising that Shi’s feature-length debut, Turning Red, follows a similar trajectory, just from a different… Read More ›
Sometimes while watching movies we get that vague feeling of deja vu, and sometimes that feeling is almost welcomed. In Tyson Wade Johnston’s first full length feature, Streamline, the audiences are going to be hit with this sense of familiarity…. Read More ›
There’s an old saying, “Time heals all wounds,” which implies that one becomes whole again after a period of restoration. This isn’t the case, though, really. As was reminded to me recently, wounds heal, you’re just not as you once… Read More ›
It’s not every day we get the chance to chat with a loved one who has passed on. Skeptics would say that we never get that opportunity. If you’ve lost someone important to you, you’ve probably at least imagined having… Read More ›
Coming of age stories come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they’re joyous, ridiculous tales like Weird Science (1985), dramatic like Baby, Don’t Cry (2021), or explorations of addiction and trauma like Trainspotting (1996). The story within writer/director Eoin Macken’s… Read More ›
The biggest reason to stop telling people what films they should love or hate is primarily due to its icky gatekeeping factor, but, secondarily, there’s no telling what people will connect to and when. There are as many people out… Read More ›