Drama

Sundance 2021 Day 6 (The World to Come, Amy Tan, Users)

Hey everyone! I am writing this having finished the 2021 virtual edition of the Sundance Film Festival. I definitely missed my normal festival experience but there were some good parts of being at home. I got to connect with all of my online friends watching movies and the experience wasn’t as grueling as the live […]

Sundance Log 2021 Day 6 (The World to Come, Amy Tan, Users)

Drama

‘Hive’ Review: Pepper Spread Becomes a Sign of Rebellion in Kosovo Drama That Swept Sundance

Known as the caviar of the Balkans, ajvar is a Serbian roasted red pepper spread that originated in southeastern Europe. In the Kosovo-set drama “Hive,” the very act of making and bottling it becomes an act of rebellion for one woman, Fahrije (Yllka Gashi), who has no choice but to acquire an entrepreneurial spirit after…

‘Hive’ Review: Pepper Spread Becomes a Sign of Rebellion in Kosovo Drama That Swept Sundance

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)

Festivals&Academy

Sundance 2021 Day 4 (Ailey, Marvelous and the Black Hole, Together Together, Taming the Garden, Jockey, Fire in the Mountains)

Hello readers! It is the end of the day at that means time for another one of my Sundance Film Festival viewing logs. Here I give my mini reviews for every film I saw at the festival. Yesterday I gave all positives but today was more mixed. Here goes! Ailey This film is a documentary […]

Sundance Log 2021 Day 4 (Ailey, Marvelous and the Black Hole, Together Together, Taming the Garden, Jockey, Fire in the Mountains)

Festivals&Academy

Sundance Vlog 2021 Day 3 (Street Gang, Prime Time, R#J, Rita Moreno, The Sparks Brothers)

Hey everyone! Today I watched 5 movies at the Sundance Film Festival and could have watched a 6th but I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open to write this vlog so another movie was out of the question. Needless to say I am going to make this short and sweet. Street […]

Sundance Vlog 2021 Day 3 (Street Gang, Prime Time, R#J, Rita Moreno, The Sparks Brothers)

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

Festivals&Academy

Sundance 2021 Day 1 (President, Cryptozoo, Bring Your Own Brigade, Playing with Sharks, Coda, One for the Road)

Hi friends! Another day of virtual Sundance Film Festival attendance has come and gone. And as much as I miss the comradery of physical attendance the virtual experience has its appeal and they have done a great job organizing everything. Not only do they have a wide selection of movies but they still have the […]

Sundance Vlog 2021 Day 1 (President, Cryptozoo, Bring Your Own Brigade, Playing with Sharks, Coda, One for the Road)

Festivals&Academy

Weekly Roundup: Cannes moves to summer, Sundance gets rolling

Your handy one-stop-shop for film news, interviews, articles, and videos from the week that was. The spring of 2020 saw Cannes employing a defiant “the show must go on” attitude, insisting that they’d stage an in-person festival and announcing a series of postponements until they ultimately cancelled. (Of course, that didn’t stop them from staging […]

Weekly Roundup: Cannes moves to summer, Sundance gets rolling, and Cicely Tyson won’t be forgotten

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)