Tag: American Indie Film
Tigertail | Review
Tiger, Tiger Burning Dim: Yang Unveils a No-frills Yarn on Relationships, Regret
Producer Alan Yang (“Parks and Recreation,” “Master of None”) presents a highly personal,...
We Summon the Darkness | Review
Heaven and Earth: Meyers Tackles Organized Religion with Droll Thriller
Director Marc Meyers returns to the isolating terrors of the rural Midwest in a different...
Coffee & Kareem | Review
Fecal Weapon: Dowse Gets Derivative with (Another) Odd Couple Comedy
The odd couple dynamic in comedy is as old as the genre itself, and thus,...
Butt Boy | Review
Butt, I Won’t Do That: Cornack Redefines Anal Retentive in Crass Comedy
Although it requires a healthy suspension of disbelief in order for it...
Human Capital (2020) | Review
It’s Easier for a Camel…: Meyers and Moverman Craft Serviceable, Familiar Remake
Although it pulls no punches in its re-working of Paolo Virzi’s 2013 title...
The Postcard Killings | Review
Postcards from the Dredge: Tanovic’s English Language Debut a Major Misfire
Films presenting serial killers who desire to make like The Police and turn murder...
Interview: Jason Orley, Griffin Gluck + Cast & Crew – Big Time Adolescence
Did you ever befriend your older sister’s boyfriend—then stay friends with him long after they’d broken up? OK, Big Time Adolescence is a very...
Straight Up | Review
Is It Gonna Be You and Me Forever?: Sweeney Sparks Romance in Loquacious Debut
James Sweeney makes his directorial debut with Straight Up, an odd-couple...
First Cow | Review
Viva La Vache: Reichardt Paints A Surprising Portrait Of Friendship
Kelly Reichardt conjures up an unlikely buddy-movie out of 19th-century fledging America: a tender, no-frills ode...
Swallow | Review
On Body and Soul: Mirabella-Davis Gets Squeamish with Formidable Debut
As much as it speaks to contemporary understandings of female agency, Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ astute directorial...
Troop Zero | Review
Feeling Like a Number One: Bert & Bertie Get Glossy with Good Intentions
For those who prefer to view the world through rosy-tinted glasses, there’s...
Interview: Alistair Banks Griffin – The Wolf Hour
For his sophomore feature, Alistair Banks Griffin proposes a phobia friendly transgressive and forbidding drama that makes strange bedfellows out of the process of...
The Wolf Hour | Review
Watts the Matter with Naomi?: Griffin Mines Madness in All-Consuming Character Study
Director Alistair Banks Griffin revisits one helluva hot summer in the city with...
Interview: Riley Stearns – The Art of Self-Defense | 2019 American Film Festival in Wroclaw
A meek, introverted loner turns to karate as a way of coping with trauma after being violently attacked in Riley Stearns follow-up to 2014’s...
Honey Boy | Review
Tears of a Clown: Har’el and LaBoeuf Exorcise Demons
Honey Boy is a shockingly personal movie where Shia LaBoeuf plays his own dad. If that...
The Lighthouse | Review
I Can Hear the Mermaids Singing: Eggers Unleashes a Hyper-Stylized Portrait of Nautical Madness
Virginia Woolf (who, having known something about the subject and its...
Lucy in the Sky | Review
Loosey Goosey: Hawley Gets Histrionic with Uneven Melodrama
At the end of Now, Voyager (1942) the chain-smoking Bette Davis delivers her iconic line to Paul...
Sister Aimee | Review
If You Seek Aimee: Buck & Schlingmann Resurrect a Fallen Angel
Directors Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann succeed with one overarching point in their indie-ensconced...
After the Wedding | Review
Something Borrowed, Something Blue: Freundlich Updates Danish Drama with Gender Bending Twist
Just as Danish director Susanne Bier masters the art of cult filmmaker with...
The Peanut Butter Falcon | Review
Falcon Shows His Moves: Sincerity Sails Past Expectations
Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz’s The Peanut Butter Falcon is a refreshingly sincere, unexpectedly funny raft-trip movie...
Interview: Rick Alverson – The Mountain
The Mountain feels like a departure for Rick Alverson, whose brand of deliberately challenging and unconventional cinema is evolving beyond the scope of his...
The Mountain | Review
Who’s Wally?: Alverson Goes Retro with Punishing, Complex Period Drama
Always intent on making his audience do some of the work, American indie helmer Rick Alverson...
Midsommar | Review
Secret Ceremony: Aster Gets Cruel for the Summer with Wicked Rituals
Director Ari Aster, who revitalized the potential of psychological horror with his phenomenal 2018...
The Dead Don’t Die | Review
Fear the Mocking Dead: Jarmusch’s Zombie Sketch is DOA
“The world is perfect. Appreciate the details,” says deliveryman RZA (in one of the film’s many...
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile | Review
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kill Me: Berlinger Tackles Ted Bundy in Narrative Form
Revered documentarian Joe Berlinger, best known for his Paradise Lost trilogy, makes...
Under the Silver Lake | Review
Under the Sun of Satan: Mitchell’s Messy Neo Noir Revels in Elitist Superficiality
Look no further than David Robert Mitchell’s third feature, the labored neo...
IONCINEPHILE of the Month: Nia DaCosta – Ten Influential Films List
Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? As part of our monthly IONCINEPHILE profile, Nia...
IONCINEPHILE of the Month: Nia DaCosta – Little Woods
IONCINEMA.com’s IONCINEPHILE of the Month feature focuses on an emerging creator from the world of cinema. This month, we are pleased to re-introduce writer...
Interview: Nia Dacosta – Little Woods
A New York-native, first time writer/director Nia DaCosta premiered her poignant family drama, Little Woods, on home turf at Tribeca 2018. Set in the...
Wild Nights With Emily | Review
The Exorcism of Emily D: Olnek Goes ‘Rowing in Eden’ with Affectionate Glance at Emily Dickinson
Her carriage apparently held more than just the morbid...
Internsh*t: Kitty Green Finds Assistants in Macfadyen, Kristine Froseth & Makenzie Leigh
High up on our most anticipated American indie offerings for 2019, the probable gross "rite of passage" exposé of working under the indie...
Native Son | Review
(Not So) Good Times: Johnson Stumbles with Modern Homage to Richard Wright
Marrying historical contexts to modern aesthetics is often an arresting avenue for consideration,...
The Beach Bum | Review
Tales of Ordinary Madness: Korine Courts Cutesy in Outlandish Stoner Comedy
It’s no fun being the designated driver, which is the position the audience of...
Criterion Collection: To Sleep with Anger | Blu-Ray Review
Interlopers have long been meddlesome disruptors in cinema and literature. From those whose presence is expected to those who are unpleasant surprises, their catalyzing...
Interview: Lynne Ramsay – You Were Never Really Here | 2018 Marrakech Intl. Film Festival
Ranked at the top of my best films of 2018 list (still unpublished), with her fourth feature, Lynne Ramsay attained "film godz" status with...
Gloria Bell | Review
I Think They Know Her Alias: Lelio Revisits His Breakout Title with English Language Remake
Chilean auteur Sebastian Lelio, who recently took home an Academy...
Son of a Gun: Colin Farrell Programmed for Kogonada’s ‘After Yang’ with A24
With packaging being put together this past summer, Kogonada sees the A24 folks reteam with actor Colin Farrell on his sophomore feature, After Yang....
Eternal Sunshined: Chad Hartigan Infected by ‘Little Fish’
Sundance Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award winning filmmaker Chad Hartigan flirted with some various projects post Morris from America (2016), and now he is setting up shop...
Mapplethorpe | Review
NY & Leather pants – Timoner Delivers by-the-numbers Biopic of Iconoclastic
With her seventh feature film, Ondi Timoner offers an effervescent biopic of iconic queer photographer. From the...
Under the Shadow of Shaft: Big Pimpin’ in Moses’ Willie Dynamite (1974) | Blu-ray Review
There are a limited number of archetypes birthed out of the brief but significant Blaxploitation movement in 1970s American cinema, which spawned several icons....
Interview: Barbara Cigarroa – El Otro Lado (The Other Side) | 2019 January Screenwriters Lab
Among those selected to take part in the Sundance Institute January Screenwriters Lab we find Barbara Cigarroa who brought - El Otro Lado (The...
Interview: Adrienne Rush – This Land is Your Land | 2019 January Screenwriters Lab
Among those selected to take part in the Sundance Institute January Screenwriters Lab we find Adrienne Rush who brought This Land is Your Land...
Interview: Kobi Libii – The American Society of Magical Negroes | 2019 January Screenwriters Lab
Among those selected to take part in the Sundance Institute January Screenwriters Lab we find Kobi Libii who brought The American Society of Magical...
Alistair Banks Griffin’s The Wolf Hour | 2019 Sundance Film Festival
Once again placing his player(s) through the ringer, Alistair Banks Griffin moves from outdoorsy existentialism and moral quicksand in (2011's Two Gates of Sleep)...
Top 100 Most Anticipated American Independent Films of 2019: #1. Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow
First Cow
And the most anticipated American independent film project of 2019 belongs to Kelly Reichardt and what will be her eighth feature film. After...
Top 100 Most Anticipated American Independent Films of 2019: #2. Josephine Decker’s Shirley
Shirley
Say we omit Josephine Decker's feature docu items Bi the Way and Flames, it's remarkably only with her third "narrative" feature film that becomes a...
Top 100 Most Anticipated American Independent Films of 2019: #3. Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch
The French Dispatch
More croissant than cronut, Wes Anderson returns to the red, white and blue but of the Hotel Chevalier and Jacques Cousteau sort...
Top 100 Most Anticipated American Independent Films of 2019: #4. Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die
Shifting sideways from the extensionalism lethargy found vampires in goth tweaked Only Lovers Left Alive to possibly reanimated corpses that haven't said their last word...
Top 100 Most Anticipated American Independent Films of 2019: #5. Antonio Campos’ The Devil All The Time
The Devil All The Time
Among the top film news items spilling out of the frenzied Toronto Intl. Film Festival was the significant packaging to...
Top 100 Most Anticipated American Independent Films of 2019: #6. Ari Aster’s Midsommer
Midsommer
The current title might not stick, but media outlets are probably circling Ari Aster's Midsommer as the most anticipated sophomore film project for the...
