Review: “The Lost City”

“The Lost City” isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, but it is something we haven’t seen in quite a while: a big budget studio screwball comedy centering around big stars whose success hinges almost entirely on the talents of said stars. Sandra Bullock stars as Loretta Sage, a best-selling romance author who has become a […]

Review: “Mothering Sunday”

Mother’s Day, 1924. Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young) is a maid in the rural English home of Mr. and Mrs. Niven (Colin Firth and Olivia Colman), and she’s been given the Sunday off work. The Nivens are off to have lunch with their friends and neighbors, the Hobdays and the Sheringhams, the latter family having also […]

Review: “X”

If overt promiscuity is one of the most obvious markers of a potential victim in a horror movie, then you can probably assume the fates of the protagonists in “X,” a group of filmmakers and actors who travel to a small Texas town circa the late 1970s to make an adult film. But while “X” […]

Review: “Turning Red”

I don’t think I expected to find “Turning Red” as funny and relatable as I did, something that made all the more sense when I realized the story was set in 2002, and that I was the same age as its 12 to 13-year-old characters in 2002. But even though Pixar Animation’s latest feature film, […]

True/False Day 4: “The Delights,” “The Territory,” “After Sherman,” “Açucena,” “Gods of Mexico”

Here’s my recap of the films I watched on my fourth and final day covering the 2022 True/False Film Festival, which saw what ended up being my favorites of the fest (“The Territory” and “Gods of Mexico”), as well as “The Delights,” “Açucena,” and “After Sherman.” Read my reviews of all those movies below. “THE […]

True/False Day 3: “The Balcony Movie,” “Mr. Landsbergis,” “Dos Estaciones,” “Fire of Love”

For my third batch of reviews from the 2022 True False Film Festival, I’m recapping two Sundance premieres (“Dos Estaciones” and the much-buzzed-about “Fire of Love,”), the crowd-pleasing “The Balcony Movie,” and the epic four hour “Mr. Landsbergis.” You can read my thoughts on those films below. “THE BALCONY MOVIE“ On a sunny day, filmmaker Paweł […]

True/False Day 2: “Sirens,” “Children of the Mist,” “Days and Nights of Demetra K.,” “Let the Little Light Shine,” “We Met in Virtual Reality”

My second day of screenings at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri saw a wide range of documentary features, from crowd-pleasers like the inspiring “Let the Little Light Shine” (its world premiere) to raw portraits of minority groups, like the young Hmong women of “Children of the Mist.” You can find my reviews of […]

True/False Day 1: ”Mija,” ”Riotsville, USA,” ”2nd Chance”

Greetings from the 2022 True/False Film Festival! I’m in Columbia, Missouri this weekend as the festival, which focuses on documentary filmmaking, returns to in-person screenings for this year’s edition. For the first day of the festival, I was able to catch three feature documentaries, all of which coincidentally premiered virtually at the Sundance Film Festival […]

Review: “The Batman”

The disillusioned hero. The femme fatale. The corrupt officials and the ruthless gang leaders who circle each other in a never-ending game of give and take. The city, with its grimy alleys and dark shadows where anything or anybody could be hiding just around the corner. These are all hallmarks of the not-so-easily defined film […]

Review: “Huda’s Salon”

There’s something about going to a hair salon that many people find comforting. That feeling doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with what hairstyle you’re going to try on a given day, but moreso with the sense of community that comes with regularly going to a place, seeing the same people, and being able to […]