Sundance 2024 Film Review: Sebastian ★★★★

Writer-director Mikko Mäkelä's brooding sophomore feature Sebastian, which premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 40th Sundance Film Festival, captivatingly explores the creative process and contemporary conversations around authenticity and authorship. Ruaridh Mollica in Mikko Mäkelä's Sebastian. Courtesy of Kino Lorber. As the film opens, we meet an inexperienced sex worker, Sebastian, as... Continue Reading →

Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 Review: Elephant (Słoń) ★★★★

The autumnal landscape of southern Poland shines in writer-director Kamil Krawczycki’s new feature, Elephant (SÅ‚oÅ„), adding fresh layers to the familiar tale of a rural young man discovering his sexuality in a homophobic town.  Bartek (Jan Hrynkiewicz) works multiple jobs to support himself and his mother, looking after their farm animals by day and helping... Continue Reading →

Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 Review: Where Butterflies Don’t Fly (Kam motýli nelétají) ★★★

When a bullied gay teen and his discreetly gay teacher are stranded in a complex cave system, they both need to drop their pretenses and learn to survive in order to escape in writer-director Roman NÄ›mec's claustrophobic feature debut, Where Butterflies Don’t Fly. Also there are sandwiches, but we’ll get to that later. Daniel (Daniel... Continue Reading →

Up ↑