The G, from writer-director Karl R. Hearne, is an unusual crime thriller in that its central character is a woman in her sixties and the insults of aging are central to the crimes at its core. But the unusual intelligence of The G is that it knows that physical weakness means little if …
Punctuation can speak volumes. The latest feature from writer-director duo Austin Stark and Joseph Schuman – Coup! – joins the ranks of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! and Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!! in adding an exclamation point to a punch title, immediately suggesting a zany, irreverent take on social paranoia during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. As the world recovers from war …
Some of film history’s most iconic works take place across one eventful day or night. Tummy Monster easily fits this model, taking place in one location over a night that goes from ordinary to extraordinary with alarming speed. Tattoo artist Tales (Lorn Macdonald) is just about to close up shop …
Twenty-four hours in one lawyer’s chaotic personal and professional life comes to a head in Selman Nacar’s sophomore feature. Hesitation Wound (Tereddüt Çizgisi) clocks in under 90 minutes, but the fullness of its action and the richness of its moral dilemmas, characterizations, and performances gives it the weight of many longer features. Canan …
The year is 2041, and death before one’s time does not necessarily mean the end of one’s life in Robert Hloz’s sleek sci-fi thriller. Restore Point takes its title from this new technology, managed in a central database in a nondescript metropolis of tarnished chrome (perhaps Prague in the future, though signs of its …
Love stories often rely on two characters being in the right place at the right time. Falling Into Place – a melancholic slow-burn love story from writer/director Aylin Tezel – follows in the timeless vein of the recent phenomena Normal People and One Day: the meeting of its characters may feel like destiny, but trials of time, …
Road trip films have always been a staple of American cinema, and Emma Westenberg’s new feature sets out in this nostalgic vein as she tackles the highs and lows of family bonds. In Bleeding Love, which had its Scottish premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival after an earlier 2023 South by Southwest world premiere, …
Queer stories aren’t a new concept. If you look at film history, especially before the Hays Code, you’ll see a vast collection that has been influenced by queer filmmakers since the beginning of Hollywood, even if it’s through fashion, set design, etc. Queer love stories have begun to find a …
Ray Yeung’s elegant and tender film All Shall Be Well begins with protagonists Angie (Patra Au Ga Man) and Pat (Maggie Li Lin-Lin) existing happily together as an elderly lesbian couple, their bond silent, no unnecessary words spoken between them as they eat, get ready and walk along an autumnal path. They’ve been …
In 2021, Claire Keegan’s novel on the Magdalene laundries Small Things Like These was released to acclaim, going on to be shortlisted for the famous Booker Prize. The turnaround between a book’s release and a film adaptation being made can vary, with some taking years to find their adaptive footing. In the case of Small …
Sundance thrives on a level of strangeness within their films. Some premises are so absurd one wonders if they can be successful. This year’s festival alone offered plenty of surrealist entertainment. Movies like Presence, Loves Lies Bleeding, and Freaky Tales delivered a level of hyper-stylized fantasy. It helped the festival to give audiences …
Sundance can always be an interesting start to the cinematic year. The festival’s films thrive on teasing audiences about the potential of great movies. In some cases, those films can even lead to prestigious Oscar winners like Coda. That does not mean every Sundance film has to have aspirations for awards. …
Director Jesse Eisenberg returned to Sundance this year with his sophomore directorial effort, A Real Pain. The film has already made waves in the industry, with the worldwide rights acquired by Searchlight Pictures for $10 million. This news has made the film hotly anticipated in the movie world, as fans are eager to see …
Making a movie based on a life-altering event is always difficult. But things become even more chaotic when a filmmaker takes the bold step of creating a project on something that they have endured. And that’s what debutant filmmaker Flor Portieri has done in the short film You Were Never Really Here. From the …
Brando with a Glass Eye, from filmmaker Antonis Tsonis, recently premiered at the Slamdance International Film Festival in Utah. In 2023, indie movies such as Past Lives, All of Us Strangers, and Anatomy of a Fall enthralled everyone with their superb storytelling that first had the world’s eyes on them at film festivals. All these films went …
Method acting goes to the extreme in the Greek drama Brando with a Glass Eye. Starring Yiannis Niarros in a star-making performance and written and directed by Antonis Tsonis, this is compelling drama just had its worldwide premiere at the Slamdance International Film Festival. “Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you …
Wizards of Waverly Place was on the air for four seasons and helped launch the careers of Selena Gomez, David Henrie, and Jake Austin. The fantasy sitcom was watched by millions on the Disney Channel. At ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas, we chatted with two of the stars from the show, Jennifer Stone and David DeLuise, about their …