Tribeca Review: “Chasing Chasing Amy”

In 1994, Kevin Smith’s black-and-white, low-budget comedy Clerks took the indie film world by storm, first at its Sundance premiere (which it entered with virtually no buzz), then critics and audiences, cracking many end-of-the-year lists. Smith’s 1995 follow-up Mallrats was less well-received. But it’s Smith’s third film set in the same universe, the 1997 romantic […]

Tribeca Review: “Breaking the News”

In early 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as President, and the Women’s March on Washington served as a scream for many of America’s frustrated and scared inhabitants. Amidst the fear and uncertainty, journalist Emily Ramshaw saw a possibility. She left her steady job with the Texas Tribune along with colleague Amanda Zamora and started […]

SXSW Dispatch: “Late Bloomers,” “Parachute,” “The Starling Girl”

For this dispatch from this year’s SXSW Film Festival, I’m reviewing three films from first-time female filmmakers that all center around women confronting their circumstances and grappling with what they want out of their lives. Two of those films had their world premieres at the festival (Parachute and Late Bloomers) while The Starling Girl recently […]

SXSW Dispatch: “The Young Wife,” “Appendage,” “I Used to Be Funny”

For my final batch of reviews from the 2023 SXSW Film Festival, I’m covering three more (very different) films from female filmmakers: Tayarisha Poe’s The Young Wife (one of my top favorites of the fest), Ally Pankiw’s excellent I Used to Be Funny, which sees star Rachel Sennott taking a turn toward drama, and Anna […]

SXSW Review: “The Long Game”

When we talk about sports that are inherently cinematic, golf isn’t typically one that leaps to my mind. The first films I, at least, think of that revolve around golf are comedies that lampoon the sport’s frequent catering to the upper crust, like Caddyshack or Happy Gilmore. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (both […]

SXSW Review: “Problemista”

In his feature writing and directing debut, Julio Torres lends his deadpan comic stylings to Problemista, in which he also stars as Alejandro, an Ecuadorian immigrant who is living in New York City because he’s required to be situated in the United States to apply for his dream job: that of a toy designer for […]

SXSW 2023 Dispatch: “Molli and Max in the Future,” “Until Branches Bend,” “Tobacco Barns”

For the dispatch from the 2023 SXSW Film Festival, I’m tackling three films that made their world, international, and U.S. premieres in the festival’s Visions section. Read my reviews of Until Branches Bend, Tobacco Barns, and Molli and Max in the Future below. UNTIL BRANCHES BEND dir. Sophie Jarvis At the start of Until Branches […]

SXSW Review: “Bottoms”

We love a good double-entendre, and clearly, so does director Emma Seligman. Seligman’s sophomore feature following her fantastic 2020 film Shiva Baby reunites her with star and co-writer Rachel Sennott. Whereas Shiva Baby was simultaneously funny and anxiety-inducing, Bottoms—which centers around two lesbian high-schoolers who start a fight club as a means to get close […]

SXSW Review: “Flamin’ Hot”

Even the most mundane projects can have interesting stories behind them. And even the most interesting stories can make for the blandest movies. Eva Longoria’s directorial debut Flamin’ Hot draws from the memoirs of Richard Montañez, the uneducated Mexican American janitor who worked his way through the ranks of Frito Lay to become an executive, […]

SXSW Review: “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”

I’ve never played the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons once in my life. And yet when Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves—the feature film from directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley that’s inspired by the game—opened with Chris Pine laconically knitting behind bars, I knew I would enjoy it to some extent. The […]