Indie
SXSW Film Review – Us and Them
Us and Them (2017) starts out seemingly as a biting satire about class warfare. You know the story: a person of low economic stature feeling like they got the short shrift out of life butting heads against a rich person who savors all the privileges…
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Blu-Ray Review – Black Girl
Ousmane Sembène is considered by many to be the father of African cinema. A political activist, author, and filmmaker, the Senegalese Sembène made it his life’s mission to tell distinct African stories without white European influence (Senegal was once a French occupied territory). In collaboration…
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Film Review – Things to Come
Isabelle Huppert brilliantly holds together Things to Come a confounding yet still fascinating film. Director Mia Hansen-Løve has a style that is hard to pin down. She likes to create as much real life as she can in her films that sometimes leads to me…
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Film Review – Certain Women
Certain Women is a feature film from director Kelly Reichardt (Meek’s Cutoff, Wendy and Lucy) and her third collaboration with Michelle Williams. Based on short stories by Maile Meloy and a script by Reichardt, Certain Women follows three women, all living in Montana. Their lives…
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Film Review – Morris From America
Morris From America avoids many pitfalls in this well-constructed coming of age story. Morris (Markees Christmas), a thirteen year old African American, is living in Germany with his father Curtis (Craig Robinson), who works for a soccer team. Morris is adapting relatively well to his…
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SIFF Film Review – Middle Man
For all its quirks and bizarre story line Middle Man fails to really land on what it wants to be about. Lenny (Jim O’Heir), a middle-age average man who has lost his mother, decides to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a comedian and drives out to…
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SXSW Film Review – Hunter Gatherer
In Joshua Locy’s Hunter Gatherer (2016), a middle aged man returns home after a three year prison sentence in hopes to turn his life around. What he finds is a world that has left him behind. His mother wants him to get a place of…
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SXSW Film Review – The Other Half
The Other Half begins with a man walking beside railroad tracks, music in the background. He calls someone and says he will be home soon and he wonders where they are. He ends the call and places earbuds back in his ears, the music increasing in…
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