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2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SPOTLIGHT FEATURE SELECTION! Featuring another solid, unflashy performance from Gael Garcia Bernal and recounting an undeniably fascinating chapter in South American...
View ArticleTHE GATEKEEPERS
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SPOTLIGHT FEATURE SELECTION! After obtaining the degree of honesty in his interviews that must have startled even Moreh, he took the footage and assembled it into a very...
View ArticleWHO IS DAYANI CRISTAL?
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL WORLD DOCUMENTARY FEATURE SELECTION! Bernal makes an engaging lead in anything he does and this is clearly a subject that’s close to his heart. Watching him play soccer with...
View ArticleCRYSTAL FAIRY
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL U.S. DRAMATIC FEATURE SELECTION! Cera plays against type, doing copious amounts of drugs and being more socially annoying than even his detractors could imagine he would be...
View ArticleWE ARE WHAT WE ARE
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL MIDNIGHT FEATURE SELECTION! In terms of performance, Childers & Garner are real finds, delivering the kind of engaging turns that ground a film like this one in...
View ArticleAFTER TILLER
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL U.S. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE SELECTION! The testimonials and conversations between patient and doctor are absolutely brutal. These women have no easy road to choose...Read More...
View ArticleKILL YOUR DARLINGS
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL U.S. DRAMATIC FEATURE SELECTION! While it may read as a work that could feel overly familiar, debut director John Krokidas’ approach is anything but stale...Read More at...
View ArticleTHE MOO MAN
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL WORLD DOCUMENTARY FEATURE SELECTION! Life on a farm isn’t that drastically different from day to day and one calf-birthing would have sufficed instead of the four or five...
View ArticleESCAPE FROM TOMORROW
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL NEXT SELECTION! Anyone who has spent even a small amount of time at Disney World can see the inherent potential in using the location as a setting for a descent into...
View ArticleC.O.G.
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL U.S. DRAMATIC FEATURE SELECTION! Kyle Patrick Alvarez will forever hold a unique spot among a select group of literature-loving cineastes in that he is the first...
View ArticleTHE WAY, WAY BACK
2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SELECTION! There’s nothing groundbreaking here by any stretch of the imagination but it’s not always the freshness of the joke but how well it’s told that matters...Read...
View ArticleSTOKER
Don’t compare it to the more dramatically satisfying previous works from Park Chan-wook and don’t consider what could have been instead with a bit more screenwriting complexity. As an exercise in...
View ArticleBEFORE MIDNIGHT
2013 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL SELECTION! There are many films in which a couple’s chemistry makes their on-screen relationship easy to believe but few where the characters have felt this completely...
View ArticleAND WHO TAUGHT YOU TO DRIVE?
2013 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL SXGLOBAL SELECTION! It’s great that we really get to know our three subjects but I couldn’t help thinking that if there were three more in other parts of the world that the...
View ArticleBIG JOY: THE ADVENTURES OF JAMES BROUGHTON
2013 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL VISIONS SELECTION! Animated backgrounds with Broughton’s words spread upon them, footage from Broughton’s best films, even friends reading his poetry – these are the kind of...
View ArticleTPB AFK: THE PIRATE BAY AWAY FROM KEYBOARD
2013 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL DOCUMENTARY SPECIAL EVENT SELECTION! At its best, Simon Klose’s film embraces these double-edged swords, such as when the three founders – Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij,...
View ArticleELENA
2013 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL VISIONS SELECTION! Perhaps Costa’s point as a filmmaker is that she too never got to know Elena but that’s not a point that’s effectively made through the film. It’s just a...
View ArticleI AM DIVINE
2013 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT SELECTION! Divine was going to do what Divine wanted to do and in an era of so many celebrities who market analyze their personalities to appeal to the...
View ArticleHOURS
2013 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT SELECTION! When the doctor tells Nolan that his wife is dead, it’s delivered with insincere dialogue and an awkward camera angle. And that lack of...
View ArticleGO FOR SISTERS
2013 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT SELECTION! The early scenes between Hamilton and Ross are fascinating in their depth of character but the protagonists become cogs in the machine as the trio...
View ArticleHARRY DEAN STANTON: PARTLY FICTION
2013 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL SELECTION! It’s a near-perfect portrait of an actor who never became a household name and yet has earned the admiration of generations of filmmakers...Read More at FilmThreat.com
View ArticleLOCKE
2014 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SPOTLIGHT SELECTION! Hardy takes an incredibly difficult assignment in that he’s the only face seen for 85 minutes, but he gets so deep under the skin of this complex...
View ArticleCOLD IN JULY
2014 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION SELECTION! If video stores still existed, they’d have to get multiple copies and put them in multiple categories...Read More at FilmThreat.com
View ArticleI PUT A HIT ON YOU
2014 SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL NARRATIVE COMPETITION SELECTION! The truth is that if we believe the relationship is real, we’ll go along for a ride that might not be...Read More at FilmThreat.com
View ArticlePRIVATE VIOLENCE
2014 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION SELECTION! As for the filmmaking, I love how little Hill does to interfere with the stories she’s telling and the message she’s trying to...
View ArticleTHE SKELETON TWINS
2014 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION SELECTION! It’s not breaking news to claim that Hader and Wiig have perfect comic timing and they seem to improve it just by playing off each...
View ArticleDEAD SNOW: RED VS. DEAD
2014 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL PARK CITY AT MIDNIGHT SELECTION! Bigger, brasher, bloodier, and with more bowels, "Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead" is a blast...Read More at FilmThreat.com
View ArticleAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR
2014 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL NEXT () SELECTION! If this is a film about someone finding comfort in her own skin and moving forward from there, Akhavan’s future seems the brightest of all...Read More at...
View ArticleNYMPHOMANIAC: VOLUME 1
2014 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SECRET SCREENING SELECTION! This is a very challenging, original, and often hilarious piece of work that fans of LvT’s really must see but I’m also not sure yet what to make...
View ArticleA GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT
2014 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL NEXT () SELECTION! It is a fine tonal balance to make a film like this one that has so little narrative thrust and Amirpour sometimes loses that battle...Read More at...
View ArticleCALVARY
2014 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL PREMIERES SELECTION! It’s a film that works almost like a sermon: It lost me at points along the way but hit me like a ton of bricks in its conclusion. On the way home and...
View ArticleJAMIE MARKS IS DEAD
2014 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION SELECTION! Lew’s cinematography and Smith’s direction often place Marks on the fringe of the composition, a character always out-of-reach and...
View ArticleTHE OVERNIGHTERS
2014 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION SELECTION! This is a masterfully directed piece of work, akin to Errol Morris in the way that it presents a full picture without judgment...Read...
View ArticleBOYHOOD
2014 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL FEST FAVORITES SELECTION! If it falls just short of its auteur’s best work, it is largely because of how difficult it was to produce. It’s not like Linklater took the last...
View ArticleANIMALS
2014 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL NARRATIVE COMPETITION SELECTION! Breaking free from the lack of realism or overdone moral messages that have sunk similar films, Schiffli and writer/star David Dastmalchian...
View ArticleHELLION
2014 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL FEST FAVORITES SELECTION! And so even though we have watched people heal before, we are invigorated by being so artistically given the chance to do so again...Read More at...
View ArticleTHAT GUY DICK MILLER
2014 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT SELECTION! You may not know how much you love Dick Miller but this movie will make sure you do by the time it's over...Read More at FilmThreat.com
View ArticleVERONICA MARS
2014 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL HEADLINERS SELECTION! Unlike a lot of TV shows turned into films, it serves not as an epilogue to the series but, hopefully, the beginning of a new franchise...Read More at...
View Article13 SINS
2014 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL MIDNIGHTERS SELECTION! Stamm has always had a strong directorial skill with actors and he draws a solid, engaging performance from Webber, who has to sell the audience on the...
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