Sundance Review: ‘Emily the Criminal’ is a lean, mean thriller with Aubrey Plaza’s most subversive performance ever [Grade: A]
If a film’s logline refers to the protagonist as someone who “gets caught up in the criminal underworld in Los Angeles,” there’s a good chance... Read More
Film Reviews
Sundance Review: Mind the age gap and narrative cohesion in ‘Palm Trees and Power Lines,’ stay for Lily McInerny’s bracing performance [Grade: C-]
Bored out of her mind, 17-year-old Lea (Lily McInerny) is doing what a normal teenager has to do to fill in the time before her... Read More
Sundance Review: Jono McLeod’s doc ‘My Old School’ threads a fine line between humor and pain, truth and lies [Grade: B]
Exactly a year removed from the premiere of the acclaimed documentary Flee at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, comes My Old School, another nonfiction film... Read More
Sundance Review: Julian Higgins’ ‘God’s Country’ is a showcase for a powder keg performance from Thandiwe Newton [Grade: B]
Ashes in the snow. That is what we see in the beginning of Julian Higgins’ slow-burn thriller, God’s Country, as Sandra Guidry (a dynamic Thandiwe... Read More
Sundance Review: Riley Stearns’ sci-fi satire ‘Dual’ gives us a killer double dose of Karen Gillan [Grade: B+]
Riley Stearns was one of my favorite discoveries at SXSW 2019. Nearly every writing and directing decision in The Art of Self-Defense was on my... Read More
Sundance Review: The cute and quirky ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’ glides right into your heart with pitch perfect performances from Cooper Raiff and Dakota Johnson [Grade: A]
At a certain point in our lives, we’ve fallen in love. Could happen at a young age, as it does for Andrew (Javien Mercado), at... Read More
Sundance Review: In Andrew Semans’ tense and terrifying ‘Resurrection,’ Rebecca Hall gets under your skin [Grade: A]
In an opening scene of Resurrection, a film by writer/director Andrew Semans, premiering at Sundance Film Festival, Margaret, played by Rebecca Hall, counsels a young... Read More
Sundance Review: James Ponsoldt’s ‘Summering’ is an adventurously fanciful but cold tale of childhood [Grade: C]
It begins with a scene akin to a horror film when the protagonist faces the worst nemesis. Three girls are sitting in a bathtub huddled... Read More
Sundance Review: Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown preach a committed yet familiar gospel in church satire ‘Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul’ [Grade: B-]
“You’ve got to be strong to be a First Lady.” That’s a line stated by Trinitie Childs (Regina Hall) early on in Adamma Ebo’s feature... Read More
Sundance Review: Mariama Diallo’s ‘Master’ balances horrors real and imagined in the world of institutionalized academic racism [Grade: B]
Mariama Diallo’s debut feature Master begins as most coming of age college films do, with orientation and getting to know the place our characters have... Read More
Frontrunner Friday Oscar Predictions: Stunted Season and the Rise of Chalamet 
PGA Awards: Lynda Obst and Paula Weinstein Honored with Posthumous Trailblazer Award 
2024 Minnesota Film Critics Association (MNFCA) Winners: ‘The Brutalist,’ ‘Challengers,’ ‘Dune: Part Two’ Lead 
Director Watch Podcast Ep. 80 -‘The Intern’ (Nancy Meyers, 2015)