Reviews »
Arthur Newman | Review
Hello, Newman: Ariola’s Meditation on Getting a Life Fails to Have One For a film whose tagline aggressively demands, “If you don’t have a life, get someone else’s,” Dante Ariola’s directorial debut, Arthur Newman,
Read More
The Reluctant Fundamentalist | Review
Turn and Face the Strain: Nair’s Latest Adaptation a Return to Form Citing the project as nearly five years in the making, Mira Nair’s adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist follows on
Read More
Sun Don’t Shine | Review (AFI Film Fest)
Madlands: Seimetz’ Relationship Drama Takes Us on a Road Trip to Love Hell Managing to balance an insanely busy schedule that boasts quality and quantity, actress/producer Amy Seimetz debuts her feature directorial debut with
Read More
Sun Don’t Shine | Review (SXSW)
Orange State: Seimetz ninety minutes. Between them, they barely own one T-shirt. Crystal and Leo, two people with next to nothing, roam the deserted highways and murky backwaters of central Florida, running away from
Read More
Kuma | Review
Two’s Company: Dag’s Extraordinary Debut Perversely Compelling Like Feo Aladag’s 2010 harrowing debut, When We Leave, Austrian-Kurdish director Umat Dag’s first film, Kuma, examines the strict traditions and cultural values of a Turkish immigrant
Read More
Feed Me With Your Words | Review
Holy Strokes!: Turk’s Debut Loses Its Appetite Born out of a collaboration with the Torino Film Lab comes Martin Turk’s feature directorial debut, Feed Me With Your Words, a three tiered narrative structure told
Read More
Mushrooming | Review
Scandal Sheet: An Odd, Disjointed Look at Estonia’s Political Climate Estonian director Toomas Hussar makes his screen debut with Mushrooming, a sort of political satire, sort of comedy, sort of faux thriller that may
Read More
The Lords of Salem | Review
Burn, Witch, Burn: Zombie Conquers His Cross to Bear Don’t be so sure of what to expect when walking into Rob Zombie’s latest feature, The Lords of Salem, at once a familiar homage to
Read More
It Happened in Saint Tropez | COLCOA Review
Those Who Love Me Can Catch the Train Wreck: Thompson’s Latest Flat, Overstuffed Familial relationships and transportation, two favorite themes of writer/director Daniele Thompson, figure heavily in her latest feature, It Happened in Saint
Read More
The Almost Man | Review
Growing Pains: Lund’s Debut a Gem of Behavioral Regression The long hard road to growing up and accepting responsibility takes the center stage in Martin Lund’s simply and astutely observed tale about one thirty
Read More
It’s a Disaster | Review
An Incredible Mess: Todd Berger’s Apocalypse a Hilarious Gas The end of days have never looked like a better time to spend with friends than they do in director Todd Berger’s latest film, a
Read More
Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal | Review
Lars and the Killer Dude: Rodriguez Explores Art and Inspiration While sporting a title that would seem to indicate a comedic mash up of bizarro horror tropes and cheeky zingers, Boris Rodriguez’ enjoyable debut,
Read More
Lotus Eaters | Review
Let What is Broken So Remain: McGuiness’ Debut Familiar, Mesmerizing “Ah, why should life all labor be?” asks Lord Alfred Tennyson in a line from his poem, The Lotus-Eaters, with which Alexandra McGuiness’ film
Read More
Trance | Review
Goya’s Ghosts: Boyle’s Twisty Tale Fails to Hypnotize Danny Boyle re-teams with scribe John Hodge (co-writing with Joe Ahearne) for Trance, their first collaboration since 2000’s The Beach. A pulpy return in novelistic filmmaking
Read More
No Place on Earth | Review
The Descent: Tobias Brings Recently Discovered Holocaust Tale to Light For her directorial debut, producer Janet Tobias documents a harrowing discovery made by a spelunker in the early 90s with No Place on Earth,
Read More
Towheads | Review
O is for the Other Things: Plumb’s Debut an Idiosyncratic Exercise in Domestic Ennui Video and performance artist Shannon Plumb makes her directorial debut with Towheads, which showcases her considerable talent for physical comedy
Read More
Welcome to the Punch | Review
Knockout Loss: Creevy’s Sophomore Effort Easy and Breezy After crafting his 2008 Riz Ahmed starring debut Shifty from personal experiences, director Eran Creevy turns to the heist genre for his sophomore effort, Welcome to
Read More
Andre Gregory: Before and After Dinner | Review
Family Portrait: Kleine’ Uses Husband as Subject for Light Documentary Fans of director and actor Andre Gregory should be excited, and, overall, pleased with director Cindy Kleine’s documentary about her husband, Andre Gregory: Before
Read More
The Company You Keep | Review
Return for Redford as Actor/Director in Heated Political Thriller Robert Redford, the actor, has been a staple of American pop culture for half a century, his golden smile and wet eyes long ago solidified
Read More
The Host | Review
Disembodied: Niccol Unable to Overcome Parasitic Source Material For the sake of comparison, it’s safe to say that the latest adaptation of a Stephanie Meyer’s novel, The Host, makes for a better piece of
Read More
Renoir | Review
The Talent Family: Bourdos Abandons Genre for Elegant Biographical Period Piece A summer signifying the encroaching end of one artist and the birth of another within one of France’s most famous families is the
Read More
Downloaded | 2013 SXSW Review
From Napster to Now, Winter Examines the Downloading Boom Napster’s rise and fall and the ensuing decade of music piracy is at this point common knowledge but it is easy to forget that at
Read More
I Give It A Year | 2013 SXSW Review
Fanning the Flames: Supporting cast shines in UK Rom-com Romantic comedies are good for you in moderation. More than most genres, rom-coms are forced to adhere to a strict regimen, hardly ever drawing outside
Read More
Mental | Review
Mixed Nuts: Hogan’s Latest a Welcome Return to Roots After almost two decades knocking around the studio system after the success of his 1994 hit Muriel’s Wedding landed him in Hollywood, Australian director P.J.
Read More
Detour | Review
Dickerson’s Trapped-without-escape Ordeal Swims More Than Sinks Utilizing a minimum amount of characters and locations within a trapped in a car, freak mudslide buried alive template, William Dickerson’s debut feature draws inevitable comparisons to
Read More
"Ron and I wanted to make a film that looked at what it means to be an outsider and we wanted to explore what it takes to reach out to someone whose life is very removed from your own."
