Festivals&Academy

SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Wild Indian” (2021)

Written, directed, produced, and co-edited by Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr., “Wild Indian” tells the unsettling story of two men inextricably linked by a violent crime from their childhood. It’s a piercing and clear-eyed examination of trauma, guilt and embracing identity rather than running from it. Told through a deeply authentic indigenous perspective, “Wild Indian” contextualizes […]

SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Wild Indian” (2021)

Drama

Movie Review: “Happy Cleaners” and the burden of Korean-American expectations

Good storytelling skates by on the tension between what we see, read or hear unfold, and what we hope or fear might happen as the tale unfolds. Dickens or “Dumb & Dumber,” it’s all about meeting or willfully defying our expectations, great or otherwise. “Happy Cleaners” is a Korean-American immigrants and their children drama, a […]

Movie Review: “Happy Cleaners” and the burden of Korean-American expectations

Drama

First look: Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley in Romeo and Juliet

The National Theatre has released the first image of the filmed version of Romeo and Juliet, starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley. The venue utilised the stage spaces of its Lyttelton theatre to house the production of the 90-minute film over the course of a three-week shoot. The film will premiere in the UK on […]

First look: Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley in Romeo and Juliet

Crime

REVIEW: “La Llorona” (2020)

Whatever you do don’t confuse Jayro Bustamante’s “La Llorona” with 2019’s promising but ultimately disappointing “The Curse of La Llorona”. The two couldn’t be more different, their only real connection being the ubiquitous Latin American folk tale of “The Weeping Woman”. Bustamante has a much more sobering ambition, using the ghostly legend as a means […]

REVIEW: “La Llorona” (2020)

Drama

First Glance: “Crisis”

While not as prominent in today’s news headlines as the current global pandemic, opioid addiction is ravaging lives at its own unspeakable rate. The new drama “Crisis” from director Nicholas Jarecki’s (“Arbitrage”) looks to tackle the issue head-on by using its star-studded cast to cover several interconnected storylines. Jarecki’s goal is to show how the […]

First Glance: “Crisis”

Drama

Movie Review: Korean Immigrants are tested by the American dream in “Minari”

“Minari” is a near classic of the timeworn “troubles on the farm” drama, a story of a family of non-farmers facing the whims of nature and the widening fracture in a marriage as they set out to work the land and grab The American Dream. It’s “Country” or “The Southerner” or “Jean de Fleurette” but […]

Movie Review: Korean Immigrants are tested by the American dream in “Minari”

Horror

Movie Review: “Wrong Turn”

As far as “fears” go, I typically prefer mysterious and unknown peril to frights shoved in my face, explained, back-storied and underlined. But that’s now how the “Wrong Turn” movies work. For twenty years these films have gotten good looking actresses and actors lost in America and the world’s fast-disappearing wild places, menaced by whatever […]

Movie Review: “Wrong Turn” leads to terror and torture porn on the Appalachian Trail

Comedy

LOCKED DOWN (2021)

Locked Down (2021), Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anne Hathaway, Warner Brothers Locked Down has some memorable moments. Yet, overall, director Doug Limans romance/comedy about a couple’s attempt at a high-risk, high-stakes jewellery heist during the Coronavirus pandemic isn’t great. Starring Anne Hathaway, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ben Kingsley; the most memorable scenes for me feature Kingsley and Ben Stiller. […]

LOCKED DOWN (2021): The Things I Liked…

Action

‘Raya and the Last Dragon’

Disney dropped a new trailer today (view below) for “Raya and the Last Dragon” (opening in theaters and streaming on Disney+ March 5), and last week screened 30 minutes of footage for select journalists. It’s very evident that the animation studio is doubling down on cultural diversity with the badass warrior princess from Southeast Asia.…

‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ Preview: Disney Unleashes Badass Warrior Princess from Southeast Asia