Month: January 2015
Slamdance Film Review: I Am Thor
With a music career spanning five decades, Jon Mikl Thor is perhaps one of the legends of rock and metal that you definitely need to be aware of. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Things of the Aimless Wanderer
Things of the Aimless Wanderer, a film in the New Frontiers section of Sundance programming, challenges traditional approaches to narrative filmmaking. This drama offers three disjointed accounts of what became of a disappeared black girl in an East/Central African country (likely Rwanda) after she had a fling with a white, American journalist/travel writer—presented as “Working Hypotheses,” each claimed to be based on a “true story.” … read more
Sundance Film Review: Censored Voices
Censored Voices recollects recordings from Israeli soldiers of the Six Days War, originally recorded by Amos Oz. This documentary reveals their true feelings—as opposed to proclamations of national pride—about the pressures of Zionism and the horrors and hypocrisy of war. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: On Her Own
Director Morgan Schmidt-Feng begins on a happy note in 2009, showing the Prebilichs benefiting from the well-earned fruits of hard labor. With help from Cindy’s husband and three young kids, Nancy struggles to keep the farm afloat in the face of debt and loss. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Homesick
Homesick is an interesting character study of Charlotte, who must work to forgive her mother and—for lack of better words—grow up by delving into this queerness. It’s an interesting, fun drama that thrives in the discomfort it engenders with Charlotte’s and Henrik’s transgressive love. … read more
Sundance Film Review: The Hunting Ground
Though the bulk of the film focuses on articulating how colleges like Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley spend more of their resources on covering up sexual allegations than actually punishing the perpetrators, the stories of the survivors and their efforts to gain national traction and support leaves the audience with the feeling that things are slowly changing for the better. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Princess
Adar detests going to school amid this flourishing of hormones, but it also becomes increasingly clear that life at home isn’t particularly healthy: Michael plays “games” with Adar that walk the line between fun and, well, downright creepy and molesting. … read more
Sundance Film Review: The Games Maker
After an accident leaves Ivan Drago orphaned, the young inventor finds himself whisked away to a harsh boarding school only to escape and uncover the mystery behind the creator of a board game contest. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Beaver Trilogy Part IV
Director Brad Besser sets two paths into motion in this “Where Are They Now?” endeavor as he seeks to find the whereabouts of Mr. Griffiths nearly 36 years after his first Beaver film. It’s the candid interviews and uproarious tales from friends and family in central Utah that provide the most entertainment. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Across the Sea
While the All-American Kevin is eager to learn about Damla’s roots, she is just as eager to avoid them, and when local fisher Burak reappears in her life, tensions begin to arise as her old life catches up to her new one. … read more