AwardsWatch - Reviews

Sundance Review: ‘Emily the Criminal’ is a lean, mean thriller with Aubrey Plaza’s most subversive performance ever [Grade: A]

Catherine Springer January 25, 2022

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

Sundance Review: Mind the age gap and narrative cohesion in ‘Palm Trees and Power Lines,’ stay for Lily McInerny’s bracing performance [Grade: C-]

Ryan McQuade January 24, 2022

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]

Catherine Springer January 24, 2022

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]

Ryan McQuade January 24, 2022

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+]

Kevin L. Lee January 24, 2022

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]

Ryan McQuade January 24, 2022

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]

Catherine Springer January 23, 2022

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]

Emily Maskell January 23, 2022

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-]

Ryan McQuade January 23, 2022

“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]

Ryan McQuade January 23, 2022

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