For many years, most LGBTQ+ festivals reserved their best short films for the Boys and Girls Shorts programs. Usually deemed the sexiest, funniest, or most cinematic of the bunch, they typically play to sold out audiences. Fortunately, shorts submissions have diversified and have showcased such incredible talent that festivals like Outfest offer a whole host... Continue Reading →
Over the years, too many LGBTQ+ films have relied on tired tropes to tell our stories. Coming out angst, U-haul lesbians, and drugged out circuit queens have seemingly been done to death. Imagine my surprise while watching writer/director Caleb Johnson’s The Carnivores, which on the surface trots out the old chestnut of Lesbian Bed Death,... Continue Reading →
Full disclosure: I’ve known Kergan Edwards-Stout for the better part of thirty years. I was there for many of the events depicted in his book and am even mentioned in it. Despite this, I am going to be as objective as I can with this review. Truth be told, I would have read this book... Continue Reading →
A few months ago, I reviewed Come And See, a masterful 1985 film which followed a young Soviet boy through the horrors of life during World War II. Clearly influenced by Jerzy Kosinki’s indelible yet discredited 1965 autobiography, the plot centered around a young Eastern European Jewish boy wandering from town to town towards the... Continue Reading →
Kelly Reichardt makes slow, quiet films. With such titles as Old Joy, Wendy And Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff and Certain Women, the mood may seem slightly dull, but the conflicts rage under the surface. Her latest, and I think, best film so far, First Cow, may hold to her established aesthetic, yet it’s also a screw-tightening... Continue Reading →
The late and legendary New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael once famously stated, “Hollywood is the only place where you can die of encouragement”. I thought of this as I watched the opening scene to filmmaker Kris Rey’s charmingly sly I Used To Go Here. Gillian Jacobs stars as Kate Conklin, a first time author... Continue Reading →
Owing as much to the Italian giallo films of the 60s and 70s such as Suspiria as it does to Stanley Kubrick at his most arch with A Clockwork Orange, Peter Strickland’s In Fabric blazes out of the gates as one of the loopiest, most gorgeously shot thrillers I’ve seen in ages. Although set in... Continue Reading →
Existing in some No Man’s Land between Life Is Beautiful and Defiance, writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz's Resistance tells the true story of the most famous mime in history, Marcel Marceau. Rather than focusing on how he slid his hands along invisible walls or held non-existent umbrellas, we experience his talents at the start of Hitler’s occupation... Continue Reading →
By now, we all know Judd Apatow makes long movies. With the right script, premise and actors, however, you may find yourself having a great time basking in his universe. He takes his time, allows for breathing room, and essentially makes mumblecore movies on a large scale. Call it Jumbocore. With his latest, The King... Continue Reading →
With their feature film debut, director Andrew Patterson and his co-writer Craig W. Sanger have made an idiosyncratic splash with the micro budget yet winning sci-fi mystery, The Vast Of Night. Set in 1950s small town New Mexico, the film begins with a Twilight Zone style introduction as we push in on an old fashioned... Continue Reading →
