Review: “Dead Lover”

Dead Lover isn’t shy about its status as a Frankenstein riff. In fact, it opens with a quote from Mary Shelley’s novel: “There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.” In the story, this line is delivered by the doctor Victor Frankenstein, as he ponders what force may be compelling […]

Review: “Sally”

Many things can be attributed to Sally Ride. She was the first American woman in space. She was also the youngest at the time of her initial flight in 1983. Before that, she served as the ground-based CapCom for the second and third space shuttle flights, and helped develop the shuttle’s robotic arm; after that, […]

Tribeca 2025: “Cuerpo Celeste”

Summer is a dream rendered in warm and hazy tones by writer and director Narya Ilic Garcia in her sophomore feature Cuerpo Celeste. It’s Chile circa 1990, and Celeste (Helen Mrugalski) is 15 years old. In a collage of scenes that deftly convey the slippery nature of that lazy, in-between time, Celeste spends the holidays […]

True/False 2025: “Writing Hawa,” “Requiem for a Tribe,” “A Want in Her”

Among the many reasons why the True/False Film Festival, Columbia, Missouri’s annual celebration of the documentary form, is my favorite festival to attend is that it highlights fresh (and frequently side-lined) perspectives. The three films I’ve written about below— Writing Hawa, Requiem for a Tribe, and A Want in Her— all swirl around topics of […]

True/False 2025: “How Deep is Your Love”

It’s funny that so many people are fascinated— perhaps even obsessed— with the notion of looking to the stars to locate life beyond Earth, when 70 percent of our planet is covered with water, the majority of which remains untouched and unseen by humans. That may not be the case for long, however: the alien-like […]

True/False 2025: “Valentina and the MUOSters”

Valentina is adrift. Nearing 27 years old, she still lives with her parents in her hometown of Niscemi, Sicily, a place whose natural landscape is slowly deteriorating thanks to wildfires that ravage the forests, and MUOS (Mobile User Objective Systems) that dot the landscape. The satellites, part of an American base and— as cuts to […]

True/False 2025: “River of Grass”

“I remember nature always creeping in.” Those words, spoken by writer and director Sasha Wortzel in her debut documentary feature River of Grass in reference to how growing up in Florida, the natural world existed in tandem with the human one— she speaks of finding tree frogs in the toilet, opossums in the yard— immediately […]

Review: “The Last Showgirl”

About midway through The Last Showgirl, we see Pamela Anderson’s Shelly Gardner curled up in the living room of her Las Vegas home, watching a movie. The two shots we briefly see flash across the screen— first of woman clad in a long gown hoisting a glittering hoop, a bevy of chorus girls lying at […]

TIFF Review: “Querido Trópico”

Fractured mother/daughter relationships make ripe stories for some of the most compelling cinema, even when they are versions of the same tale we’ve seen time and time again. That statement certainly applies to Querido Trópico (Beloved Tropic), a Panamanian drama that is the first narrative feature from director Ana Endara (who has four feature-length documentaries […]

Review: “Blink Twice”

When we first meet Frida (Naomi Ackie), she’s squatting on the toilet in the bathroom of the dingy apartment she shares with her best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat), compulsively scrolling through Instagram on her phone. She’s sent down an exposition-heavy rabbit hole after landing on a video apology from billionaire tech mogul Slater King (Channing […]