Authors: John Ford
Slamdance Film Review: The Sublime and Beautiful
I once took a writing class where the teacher told us that the best way to get readers to care about your characters is to make terrible things happen to those characters, forcing some type of reaction. The Sublime and Beautiful is the greatest example of this that I’ve ever seen.
… read more
Slamdance Film Review: La Bare
In his directorial debut, Joe Manganiello (HBO’s True Blood, Magic Mike) offers an inside look at La Bare, an all male revue club in Dallas, TX that’s been in operation since 1978.
… read more
Slamdance Film Review: Glena
In this rousing and inspirational documentary, first-time director Allan Luebke follows amateur MMA fighter Glena Avila as she works, fight by fight, towards reaching pro status.
… read more
Slamdance Film Review: Sometimes I Dream I’m Flying
Opening with an incredible visual metaphor—a slow-motion horse race with close ups on the legs and muscles of the horses, representing ballet dancers—and moving through the film with gorgeously-shot scenes, Sometimes I Dream I’m Flying visually feels much more like a feature narrative than a documentary.
… read more
Slamdance Film Review: Wizard’s Way
If I’m being completely honest, I’m a little done with the “found footage” types of faux documentaries. That being said, Wizard’s Way is able to move beyond the cliché it starts in because of the superb character portrayals provided by Kristian Scott as Julian “Windows” Andrews and Socrates Adams-Florou as Barry Tubbulb.
… read more
Slamdance Film Review: I Put A Hit On You
After Harper proposes—with a ring for herself instead of a ring for him—and Ray turns her down, Harper goes on a drinking binge in her apartment to get over it. Oh, and did I mention that Harper puts out a hit on Ray via the Internet in her drunken stupor? And that a potential killer answers the ad? Yeah, that happened, too.
… read more
Slamdance Film Review: Glass Eyes of Locust Bayou
Director Simon Mercer provides a look at the lifetime of work by amateur filmmaker Phil Chambliss. Toiling from a (very) small town in Arkansas, Chambliss has been using his friends and fellow citizens—and the striking Arkansas backdrop—to fashion films of his own, unique creation for over 30 years.
… read more
Slamdance Film Review: Love Letter
Using a combination of live action, animation and puppetry in this short film, Lindsey Martin offers the tale of a young girl who creates an imaginary earth-worm friend to help her make sense of a strange “love letter” from her father to her mother, but as the worm points out her concerns and fears around her parents’ seemingly doomed relationship, the girl must face the worm head on or risk being consumed by her own worry.
… read more
Slamdance Film Review: Forever Not Alone
Walking into this documentary about a group of immature, teenage girls, I can honestly say I had very low expectations, and, if I’m being completely honest, I only reviewed this film because I lost a coin toss. Now, that being said, I was completely blown away by Forever Not Alone.
… read more
Slamdance Film Review: We Keep On Dancing
In this touching short film about reminiscence, Jessica Barclay Lawton reminds her audience that the things we keep in our memories and our hearts are never truly gone from our lives. When Alan brings in a very old, very out of condition VW to the mechanic Danny, we soon learn that the car was much more to Alan than something to get him from A to B.
… read more