SXSW 2023 Dispatch: “This World is Not My Own,” “Black Barbie: A Documentary”

I’m so thrilled to be covering the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Texas for the first time this weekend. I recently got to watch great two documentaries that had their world premiere at the festival, both centering around Black women and how they uplifted Black people, while examining the roles race and […]

SXSW Review: “My Drywall Cocoon”

Ritzy condominiums dot the majority of Brazil’s urban landscapes. They have everything their typically upper class residents could ever want or need, their safety ensured by the security cameras scattered around the complex. Writer/director Caroline Fioratti draws on her experience growing up in one such condominium, but watching them become more and more elite and […]

True/False 2023 Dispatch: “Milisuthando,” “Ramona,” “Anhell69”

One of the most interesting and fun things about watching so many movies in quick succession is spotting some of their similarities and shared themes. Both Milisuthando, which recently premiered at Sundance, and Anhell69, which also screens at SXSW this weekend, are powerful personal essays, and Anhell69 and Ramona (my favorite film from the fest) […]

Review: “Palm Trees and Power Lines”

It’s been a long time since I’ve been in school, but I remember that liminal space known as summer vacation. Days bleeding into each other with no job or commitments that require you to keep track of time, the overbearing heat prompting you to shuffle between the sunny poolside and dim air-conditioned interiors. When we […]

Review: “Cocaine Bear”

Piranhaconda. Arachnoquake. Sharknado. Those are just a handful of the ridiculous titles of movies that promised an equally ridiculous premise that were prevalent on the Syfy Channel throughout the early to mid-2000s. Cocaine Bear sounds like another absurd creature feature that would feel right at home among them, but with one crucial difference: whereas those […]

Review: “Alice, Darling”

It’s all in the details. Tugging out her hair. Leaping to answer her phone every time it dings. The constant calorie-counting. Always needing to have her hair and make-up done just right. When we first meet Alice (Anna Kendrick), she’s meeting her two best friends Sophie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Tess (Kaniehtiio Horn) for dinner, but […]

Review: “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody”

Whitney Houston was the greatest voice of her generation, though you might not know it from the biopic “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” the very title of which feels the need to explain a subject who needs no introduction. Her vocal prowess is never in question, but the film treads so lightly over […]

2022 OAFFC Nomination Ballot

I’ve been a member of the Online Association of Female Film Critics since its inception in 2017 and so have voted in the group’s annual awards every year since then, but for some reason I’ve never posted the ballot of nominees I come up with for each category every year. I’m not sure why; I […]

Review: “Please Baby Please”

As young men clad in leather jackets leap and twirl down a dark street, the opening scene of “Please Baby Please” immediately draws a visual parallel to the classic romantic musical “West Side Story,” which begins with rival gang members dancing around the city until they meet and conflict ensues. But Amanda Kramer’s “Please Baby […]

Review: “She Said”

It goes without saying that the New York Times’ October 2017 breaking of their investigation into sexual misconduct by influential Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein is the single most influential piece of journalism of the last decade. Investigated by Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the story’s publication resulted in 82 women coming forward […]