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
Interview: Cinematographer Darius Khondji on Shooting on Film and Finding the Light and the Darkness of ‘Marty Supreme’ 
Writer/Director Charlie Polinger Tackles Teenage Boy Body Horror in his Debut Feature ‘The Plague’ [VIDEO INTERVIEW] 
‘The Testament of Ann Lee’ Review: Amanda Seyfried is Mother (Ann) in Mona Fastvold’s Miraculous Musical Drama [A] 
With ‘Song Sung Blue,’ Craig Brewer Pays Tribute to Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman, Joy Amongst Sadness, and the Creation of Art [VIDEO INTERVIEW]