Part of Sundance 2021's Spotlight program, director Mona Fastvold's Queer Lion-winning The World to Come, adapted from a short story by Jim Shepard, immerses us in the bleak daily life of a contemplative mid-nineteenth century woman, Abigail (Katherine Waterston), living on the stark, unforgiving Northeastern frontier with her husband Dyer (Casey Affleck). The film opens... Continue Reading →
Filmmaker Pacho Velez, who made 2017's exceptional archive footage doc The Reagan Show, turns his camera on himself and a diverse cross-section of his fellow New Yorkers looking for dates online in Searchers. The film's effective visual conceit places us as viewers behind the screens that the subjects are looking at, as if we're curious... Continue Reading →
With such films as Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and One Night In Miami, 2020 has given us some expert adaptations of plays. Add The Father alongside these titles as a case study in making something so stage-bound feel so beautifully cinematic. It also rises to the top of the heap of another trend, the dementia... Continue Reading →
As twenty year-old Bella Cherry (Sofia Kappel) arrives in Los Angeles from her native Sweden she's asked by a US customs agent whether the purpose of her visit is 'business or pleasure', with her momentarily delayed reply giving director Ninja Thyberg's stunning debut feature, co-written with Peter Modestij, its title. Pleasure, which expands on Thyberg's... Continue Reading →
Based on the novella by Johan Theorin, Swedish filmmaker Frida Kempff's unsettling debut feature Knocking (or Knackningar in Swedish, such a delicious word) which premiered in the Midnight section at Sundance on Friday, is a sophisticated psychological horror and a masterclass in tension, spare dialogue, and intricate sound design. At its centre is a compelling... Continue Reading →
UPDATE: Ailey opens in New York on July 23rd, Los Angeles on July 30th and expands to theaters nationwide on August 6th via NEON. Emmy-winning director Jamila Wignot's feature documentary Ailey, which just had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, is a captivating and deeply moving portrait of the celebrated dancer and... Continue Reading →
Multimedia artist Zackary Drucker has performed and exhibited her work internationally at museums, galleries, and film festivals including the Whitney Biennial 2014, MoMA PS1, Hammer Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, MCA San Diego, and SF MoMA. She is the Emmy-nominated producer of the docu-series This Is Me, which explores personal stories of trans experience, and... Continue Reading →
Kristina Lindstom and Kristian Petri's The Most Beautiful Boy In The World, which premiered at Sundance today as part of the festival's World Cinema Documentary Competition, is a melancholy portrait of Swedish actor Björn Andrésen who was cast as a teenager by Luchino Visconti in his 1971 BAFTA-winning classic Death in Venice. Andrésen has had... Continue Reading →
As writer Russell T. Davies' (Queer As Folk) new 1980s London set drama series It's A Sin opens we're briskly introduced to five young characters, with a skilful immediacy that's instantly involving. Small town boy, 18 year-old Ritchie (Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander), is leaving the sleepy conservative seclusion of the Isle of Wight... Continue Reading →
The richly detailed, fast-paced, and riveting new four-part HBO docu-series The Lady and the Dale explores the extraordinary life of transgender businesswoman Elizabeth Carmichael, who in the thick of the 1970s energy crisis promoted a low-cost futuristic looking fuel-efficient three-wheeled automobile, The Dale. On the back of a successful PR blitz with Carmichael at its... Continue Reading →
