Tag: U.S. Indie Film Review
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...
The Lodge | 2019 Sundance Film Festival Review
You Gotta Have Faith: Severin & Fiala Mine Familial Madness in Warped Psychodrama
Reexamining similar themes of the inherent madness of isolation and the potential...
Hala | 2019 Sundance Film Festival Review
A Way with Words: Baig Tests the Limits in Sophomore Feature
Minhal Baig’s sophomore feature is an important film: a winsome coming-of-age story that will...
Destroyer | Review
Sabotage Triage: Kusama and Kidman Break the Bank in Riveting Revenge Thriller
Robert Burns’ eternal line “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men/Gang aft...
If Beale Street Could Talk | Review
I Can Feel the Beale: Jenkins Does Justice to Classic Baldwin Novel
Following his history making Best Picture winner Moonlight, stakes are set high for...
Vox Lux | Review
A Star is Worn: Corbet Confirms his Talent with Daring Sophomore Effort
2015’s The Childhood of a Leader (review) was a surprising debut in many ways,...
Interview: John Maringouin & David Zellner – Ghostbox Cowboy
Ghostbox Cowboy might be John Maringouin's first foray into the narrative form, but there is a lineage to his previous docu features; best known for...
Ghostbox Cowboy | Review
Damn Sell: Maringouin’s No-Frills Pynchonian Mind-blowing Masterpiece
Unfolding like a Thomas Pynchon novel, John Maringouin’s latest oeuvre follows an American inventor-of-sorts who gets taken for...
At Eternity’s Gate | Review
Pigments of Your Imagination: Inside Van Gogh’s Mind
Julian Schnabel’s aesthetically-spellbinding Vincent Van Gogh biopic, At Eternity’s Gate, places viewers inside the Dutch artist’s eye....
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs | Review
Six of the West: Coen Bros. Release Minor, Uneven Collection of Frontier Short Stories
In thinking about the anthology form in cinema, Joel and Ethan...
Bodied | Review
Shock the Body Electric: Kahn Addresses Pertinent Isms in Provoking Comedy
Lauded music video director Joseph Kahn delivers a successful contemporary conversation piece with sophomore...
A Private War | Review
War is War is War: Heineman Tackles the Controversial Marie Colvin in Narrative Debut
Oscar nominated documentarian Matthew Heineman (2015’s Cartel Land), follows up recent...
Nancy | 2018 Warsaw International Film Festival Review
Out of the Void: Chloe Embarks on Nuanced, Complex Search for Human Warmth
In Christina Choe’s first feature, Andrea Riseborough gives a subtle performance as...
What They Had | Review
Tragedy + Comedy = Family: Chomko’s Unforgettable Alzheimer's Story
In a year where so many films feel politically charged, What They Had is a refreshingly...
Bel Canto | Review
Music Makes the People Come Together: Weitz Hits False Notes in Hostage Drama
If ever an aria could conjure the essence of camp, it would...
Lizzie | Review
Walk Away Genet: Macneill Revisits the Lurid Case of Lizzie Borden in Fascinating, Empowering Psychological Portrait
For true crime aficionados, there is perhaps no figure...
One Last Deal | 2018 Toronto Intl. Film Festival Review
Art to Art: Haro Conjures Another Character Study in Crowd-pleasing Drama
Much like his contemporary Dome Karukoski, Finnish director Klaus Härö is one of his...
Searching | Review
The Search is Over: Chaganty Transcends ‘found-footage’ and then some with Debut
Aneesh Chaganty’s absorbing feature debut Searching follows a desperate father’s hunt for his missing daughter—set...
Support the Girls | 2018 SXSW Film Festival Review
Give a Hoot: Regina Hall shines in Bujalski’s latest Slice of Life
Andrew Bujalski is one of those quintessential American independent filmmakers whose mature work...
BlacKkKlansman | Review
Klan Destiny: Lee Returns with Strongest Joint in Years
Although not as finely wrought as his subversive (and underrated) 2015 Chi-raq, Spike Lee returns with...
The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter | Review
The Journey of a Father and Son and their Cameraman
Longtime collaborators Jody Hill and Danny McBride have teamed up again to take on a...
Sorry to Bother You | Review
Unbridled Creativity: No one is Safe from Riley’s Wackadoo Satire ... Himself Included
There is nothing subtle in Boots Riley's Sorry To Bother You. A singular,...
Hereditary | Review
Inherit the Wind: Aster Conjures a Horror Classic with Masterful Debut
For those familiar with director Ari Aster’s body of short films, beginning with his...
First Reformed | Review
Through a Glass Starkly: Schrader Delivers a Master Study on Despair and Extremism
Priests, and their psychic struggle with obligation to the cloth, have always...
Maine | 2018 Tribeca Film Festival Review
Trail Mix: Brown Offers Ephemeral Romance on Appalachian Hike
The anti-thesis of a fight-against-the-elements type narrative a la Wild or Tracks, Maine unfolds quietly and emphasizes...
Backstabbing for Beginners | Review
The Oil and the Pussycat: Fly’s English Debut Sinks to the Bottom
Danish director Per Fly makes his English language debut with Backstabbing for...
Kodachrome | Review
Picture This: Raso’s Estranged Road Movie Wrecks At The Starting Gun
Coming across like a thin coat of bright paint over dated decorative wallpaper sans...
Come Sunday | Review
Preaching to the Choir: Marston Tackles Modern Heresy in Orthodox Glance at Evangelical Hypocrisy
There are numerous epithets various strands of Christianity tend to utilize...
Wildling | Review
The Kids Are Not Alright: Böhm Bares His Fangs In Tepid Feral Frightfest
Children are scary enough without them being feral, and that fear is...
Beirut | Review
Going Hamm in Beirut: Sharply Written, Compelling, Old school Hostage Drama
Set in guess-where, Beirut is a snappy foreign diplomacy thriller so smart and steeped in detail...
Salome (2013) & Wilde Salome (2011) | Review
Love’s Labours Found: Pacino’s Wilde Meditations at Long Last Find Life
Oscar Wilde’s 1891 tragedy Salome (originally written in French) has generated countless resurrections since...
First Match | Review
Newman Delivers a Nuanced Portrayal of a Troubled Wrestling Prodigy
The physicality of wrestling lends itself to cinema, each movement part of a ballet. Matches...
Friday’s Child | 2018 SXSW Film Festival Review
Edward's Coming of Age Thriller on the Fringe is a Big Mood
Some films aren’t meant to be enjoyed, some instead exist to agitate and...
Isle of Dogs | Review
A Dog’s Tale: Anderson Returns to Animation with Scruffy, Eclectic Fantasy
We’ve come to expect a certain technical formality from Wes Anderson, even across a...
Eighth Grade | Review
Grade A Time Capsule: Bo Burnham’s Offers Torturous Last Week of Middle School.
Eighth Grade is literally eighth grade in hyphenate-comedian Bo Burnham’s resonant directorial...
Private Life | 2018 Sundance Film Festival Review
She’s Not Having a Baby: Jenkins Returns with Freewheeling Fertility Melodrama
American indie director Tamara Jenkins returns with her first directorial effort since 2007’s Oscar...
The Disaster Artist | Review
A Room of One’s Own: Franco’s Sincere Paean to the Art of Failed Art
The notion “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” has assumed...
Wonder Wheel | Review #2
The Wheel of Their Discontent: Allen Stages Crumbling Marital Drama in the Dog Days of Coney Island
As impeccably administered as it is at times...
Wonder Wheel | Review #1
Woody Allen’s Wheel of Misfortunes: An Opera of Human Frailty
Year after year, films by the prolific Woody Allen seem to build on each...
Lady Bird | Review
Call Her by Her Name: Gerwig Shifts Shrewdly in Director’s Seat
Actress Greta Gerwig, alum of the American film movement known as Mumblecore and ingenious...
Last Flag Flying | Review
Looking Back Instead of Forward: A New Kind of Coming-of-Age Tale for Linklater
Rare is the filmmaker who can entertain with little more than old-fashioned...
Novitiate | Review
And Then There Were Nun: Betts’ Novel Approach to the Nunnery
Director Maggie Betts revisits a fascinating transitional period in the Catholic church with her...
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women | Review
Women Wanted: Robinson Explores the Fascinating Origins of Wonder Woman in Solid Biopic
Truth may often be stranger than fiction, but it’s not always as...
Message from the King | Review
To Live and Die in LA: Du Welz Explores the Los Angeles Underbelly in Revenge Noir
Belgian auteur Fabrice Du Welz makes his English language...
Good Time | Review
White is Right: Pattinson Shines in the Grime of the Safdie Bros. Urban Squalor
American indie directors Joshua and Ben Safdie craft their most polished...
The Moderns (1988) | Review
Bujold’s last appearance with Alan Rudolph is in 1988’s The Moderns, a high-minded, sometimes amusing attempt to examine the potent ex-pat community of 1920s...
Trouble in Mind (1985) | Review
One of Alan Rudolph’s most idiosyncratic films is 1985’s Trouble in Mind, which features a buzzy ensemble of characters intersecting in the fictional Rainy...
Choose Me (1984) | Review
Of their three collaborations, the most intriguing Alan Rudolph film to feature Bujold is 1984’s Choose Me, which more or less focuses on two...
Wind River | Review
A Shiver Runs Through It: Sheridan Helms Satisfying Final Segment of Crime Trilogy
Screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (Sicario, Hell or High Water) makes his directorial debut...
Columbus | Review
Floating Weeds: Kogonada Looks at the Shape of Things in Masterful Debut
Kogonada, who may be familiar to most cineastes thanks to his video essays...
