Tag: U.S. Indie Film Review
Serena | Review
Place Beyond the Pines: Bier’s Ungainly Period Piece Revels in Unintentional Gaffs
Danish director Susanna Bier’s second English language film, Serena, has gained a bit...
While We’re Young | Review
Confessions of an Aging Artist: Baumbach Humorously Reflects on Filmmaking Ethics and Middle Age
In some ways the complimentary antithesis to his last work of...
She’s Lost Control | Review
Body Talk: Marquardt’s Debut Treads Lightly Through Provocative Territory
Sexuality, prostitution, and that obscure object of desire are all tricky matters to convey cinematically. In...
Ava’s Possessions | 2015 SXSW Film Festival Review
Low Spirits: Galland’s Energetic Supernatural Comedy Doesn’t Retain Dominion
The increasingly tenuous distinction between what constitutes either horror or comedy is further exemplified in Ava’s...
Danny Collins | Review
Dan in Real Life: Fogelman’s Sugary Directorial Debut Hobbles its Own Charms
Screenwriter and producer Dan Fogelman makes a high profile directorial debut with Danny...
The Frontier | 2015 SXSW Film Festival Review
Too Late For Tears: Shai Plumbs the Depths of B-Noir Devices for Punchy Debut
A brunette with bloody fingers shakily inhales the fumes of a...
Home Sweet Hell | Review
Hell is Where the Home Is : Burns’ Dismally Heavy-handed Dark Comedy
Playing like the crass, harebrained sister of Gone Girl’s infidelity issued ‘hell hath...
The Cobbler | Review
Shoe Be Doo: McCarthy’s Magical Realism Has No Sole
Actor Thomas McCarthy has developed a solid reputation as an indie film director thanks to his...
Cymbeline | Review
Riot This Way: Almeryeda Back to Contemporizing Shakespeare
While many were quick to critique director Michael Almereyda’s Y2K update of Shakespeare’s most notable play, Hamlet,...
Faults | Review
Split Image: Stearns’ Debut a Dark Hearted Cult Comedy
The insidious recruitment techniques of religious cults used to be a veritable genre staple, beginning, perhaps,...
X/Y | Review
Axes of Fulfillment: Williams Explores the Lives of Malcontented Young Adults
There’s a certain way to make multiple, intersecting storylines breathe life into a narrative...
Young Bodies Heal Quickly | Review
Youth in Revolt: Betzer’s Inexplicable Road Movie an Assortment of Prominent Instances
Director Andrew T. Betzer manages to concoct an impressively pronounced feature debut with...
Wild Canaries | Review
Good Neighbors: Levine’s Indie Murder Mystery a Passing Homage to Classic Comedy
Actor/writer/director Lawrence Michael Levine reunites with director/actress wife Sophia Takal for his third...
Bluebird | Review
Lives of Quiet Desperation: Edmond’s Masterful, Eloquent Debut
“I stand in awe of my body. This matter to which I am bound,” is the poetic...
Everly | Review
Everly, Baby: Lynch’s Grindhouse Glory Shoots Blanks
If Pam Grier had starred in a 1970’s version of Oldboy directed by Jack Hill, it probably would’ve...
All the Wilderness | Review
Wild at Heart: Johnson’s Solipsistic, Sincere Coming-of-Age Drama
Initially titled The Wilderness of James when it premiered at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival, Michael Johnson’s...
Amira & Sam | Review
The Misfits: Mullin’s Modest, Yet Conventionally Charming Debut
Director Sean Mullin makes his directorial debut with Amira & Sam, a modest, carefully performed New York...
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus | Review
S’Blood: Lee’s Facsimile of Bill Gunn an Odd Satisfaction
Surprisingly, after the failure of his 2013 remake of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy, provocateur Spike Lee’s latest,...
The Voices | Review
Playing Off-key: Satrapi’s English Language Debut a Grating Misfire
Iranian born director Marjane Satrapi, best known for her 2007 debut, Persepolis, and a 2011 follow-up,...
I Am Michael | 2015 Sundance Film Festival Review
True Story: Kelly’s Objective Exploration of Sensational Subject
For his directorial debut I Am Michael, Justin Kelly takes a provocative, controversial subject and crafts it...
City of Gold | 2015 Sundance Film Festival Review
Eating One's Way To Enlightenment: Gabbert Follows Gold Down A Rabbit-Hole Of Crucial Cultural Cuisine
Everyone in Los Angeles knows that Jonathan Gold is the...
Song One | Review
Title Track: Barker-Froyland’s Cloying Debut Plays Familiar Tune
“Sad song at night, hipster’s delight” should be the opening line in Kate Barker-Froyland’s mournful, musically inclined...
Cake | Review
Let Them Have It: Barnz Banks on Adept Aniston
Grief is a prickly emotion to convey within the confines of the indie American melodrama, a...
The Humbling | Review
Or The Unexpected Convenience of Sexism: Levinson's Perplexing but Deviously Funny Stab at Roth
Decades passed between initial adaptations of novelist Philip Roth’s novels (1969’s...
Little Accidents | Review
Casualties of Class War: Colangelo’s Well Performed, Soporific Debut
The directorial debut of Sara Colangelo, Little Accidents, finds a filmmaker afforded the possibility to expand...
Match | Review
Stewart’s Eccentricity Barely Keeps “Match” Lit
Groomed and primmed ballet dancers create arches and points which are lauded and corrected by their instructor, kept sharp...
Still Alice | Review
Red Queen’s Lost Her Head: Westmoreland & Glatzer’s Poetic Elegy of Familial Tragedy
It’s been a busy year for Julianne Moore, in between tent pole...
The World Made Straight | Review
Civil War on Drugs: Burris Turns Southern Gothic into Southern Comfort
Though its title sounds something you’d expect to grace a Christian propaganda film starring...
Predestination | Review
Adjustment Bureau: The Spierig Bros. Resuscitate Heinlein’s Dime Store Sci-Fi
Though it gets off to an idle, clunky start, the Spierig Bros, an Australian directing...
A Most Violent Year | Review
Year of Living Stressfully: Chandor Returns with Slow-Boil Scald
Baby, it may be cold outside, but the climate’s sure changing in J.C. Chandor’s flashback to...
Ask Me Anything | Review
Ask and You Shall Receive: Burnett’s Adaptation Buoyed By Arresting Performances
Landing somewhere on a spectrum of unraveling female adolescent prototypes that plays like one...
Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks | Review
Dance, Fools, Dance: Performances Elevate Seidelman’s Stagnant Adaptation
Marking the fifth film collaboration between director Arthur Allan Seidelman and writer Richard Alfieri is Six Dance...
Life Partners | Review
She’s the One: Fogel’s Debut a Top Tier Examination of Co-Dependent Friendship
Borrowing shades of autobiographical instances from their own lives, director Susanna Fogel and...
The Foxy Merkins | Review
American Gigola: Olnek’s Hilarious Sophomore Film Reinvents the Masculine Realm of Hustler Bonding
Few filmmakers are able to successfully create a distinctly unique universe of...
Wild | Review #2
A Prayer for the Wild at Heart: Vallee Continues Reinvention of Lost Souls
Arriving at the end of star Reese Witherspoon’s auteur binge is one...
Butter on the Latch | Review
Pass the Butter: Decker Cooks Up Female & Peyote Driven Experiment
Serving as a statement more so than a film, Butter on the Latch, tosses...
Before I Disappear | Review
The Sting Called Love: Christensen’s Debut Rife with Melodramatic Cliché
Shawn Christensen, who won an Academy Award for his 2013 short film, Curfew, expands his...
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night | Review
Walking After Midnight: Amirpour’s Expressive, Moody Debut
Described as an Iranian vampire film with all its characters speaking Farsi, yet filmed in California and set...
V/H/S: Viral | Review
Headcleaner: VHS Series Gets Third Installment Blues
Perhaps after this third installment this franchise can enter the same void for the format which it’s named,...
Starry Eyes | Review
Eyes Without a Place: Kolsch & Widmyer’s Horrors in Hollywood
Madonna’s famed verse asks the hypothetical question of Hollywood, “How could it hurt you when...
Miss Meadows | Review
A Spoonful of Violence: Hopkins’ Unbalanced Sophomore Effort
Actress turned screenwriter turned director Karen Leigh Hopkins unleashes her sophomore feature Miss Meadows after its premiere...
Rosewater | Review
Solitary Confinement Is Boring: Stewart's Adaptation Of Bahari's Lengthy Detainment is a Slick, Tame Affair
Jon Stewart’s first foray into the fictional film arena is...
Beyond the Lights | Review
Why you wanna fly, Blackbird?: Mbatha-Raw Vibrantly Imbues Prince-Blythewood’s Showbiz Melodrama
A systematically underrated director, Gina Prince-Bythewood returns with her third feature film, Beyond the...
A Merry Friggin’ Christmas | Review
Blight Christmas: Shapeero’s Debut is Not the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
There’s a reason why Tristram Shapeero’s film debut A Merry Friggin’ Christmas...
Elsa and Fred | Review
Anything Elsa: Radford’s Remake Rough Around the Edges
English director Michael Radford, still best known for earlier works 1984 (1984) and the critical darling...
Winter in the Blood | Review
Blood Simple: The Smith’s Sophomore Effort a Lyrical, Uneven Production
It’s been well over a decade now since their first film, 2002’s The Slaughter Rule,...
Nightcrawler | Review
While the City Sleeps: Gyllenhaal Gets His Money Shot in Gilroy’s Debut
You’ll be hard pressed to find a more enjoyably witty criticism of modern...
The ABCs of Death 2 | Review
Same Old Song: Scant Few Highlights Justify Lengthy Omnibus
Well, alphabet soup horror is back with The ABCs of Death 2, a follow-up to the...
Laggies | Review
We All Float Down Here: Shelton’s Latest Winning Slice of Arrested Development
Remarkable in the sense that this is her third consecutive film to premiere...
Low Down | Review
Groovin’ High: Hawkes Nuanced Performance Elevates Albany Memoir
Despite taking home the best cinematography prize for Christopher Blauvet (who also provided superb camerawork on Kelly...
