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Slamdance Film Review: Love Steaks
Love Steaks finds the timid and awkward Clemens (Franz Rogowski) starting a new job as a massage therapist and reiki trainee at a luxury hotel in a German-speaking country. While he learns the ropes amid the stringent attitude of the hotel, Lara (Lana Cooper), a blonde host mess who works in the kitchens, begins to crush on him amid her alcoholism, and when he finds her passed out on a beach and massages her gluts, the two initiate a clandestine but reckless romance. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Vanishing Pearls
Vanishing Pearls zones in on the small bayou fishing town of Point à la Hache where catching clam was the chief industry, with protagonist Byron Encalade serving as the representative of bayou fishermen affected by the BP oil spill. Vanishing Pearls analyzes key points at which BP skirted resolution of the problem and reveals BP’s nefarious actions to cheat this small community—and others—out of their due reparations. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: The Republic of Rick
Opening with one of the most elaborate—and arguably historically inaccurate—reenactments of the Battle of the Alamo ever put together, The Republic of Rick is awkwardly hilarious right from the get-go.
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Sundance Film Review: Alive Inside: A Story of Music &...
In Alive Inside, Michael Rossato-Bennett follows social worker Dan Cohen, who uses the connective power of music to reach otherwise unreachable people suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. With first-hand footage, we see the music of Louis Armstrong, The Beatles and others bring people essentially back from the dead—their loved ones and fellow patients marvel as the subjects recall memories and emotions that have been blacked out for years … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Elliot
In a stunning tribute to amateur filmmaking, this documentary follows Elliot—an overwhelmingly amateur filmmaker who is on a journey to become a cult icon as Canada’s first action hero.
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Sundance Film Review: Locke
I can’t believe I watched 85 minutes of a man driving a car, at night, by himself, without getting bored. Ivan Locke, played by Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises)—the sole visible actor in the film—begins driving home from a construction site the night before the biggest job of his career as a successful construction foreman. If I had known this film was just a guy in a car, I wouldn’t have seen it. The writing, directing and acting were all spot-on. I could have ridden around with Hardy and listened to him talk for another half-hour, at least. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Copenhagen
Shot in the beautiful city of (you guessed it) Copenhagen, Denmark, the film follows 28-year-old William (Gethin Anthony) as he searches for his grandfather with nothing to guide him besides a letter.
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Sundance Film Review: Only Lovers Left Alive
Only Lovers Left Alive is Jarmusch’s take on the vampire genre, and the Jarmuschian way of underplaying the “mainstream” draw is the film’s strength. Any violence and seduction that usually defines the myth is all implied. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Waiting for Mamu
In Kathmandu, Nepal, the children of convicted citizens are sent to prison with their parents until they are old enough to make it on their own or until their parents are released.
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Sundance Film Review: Lilting
Director Hong Khaou beautifully captures the unique story of Junn, a woman whose son—her only connection to the world around her—dies tragically, leaving her in discomfort and suspension in a rest home as her deceased son’s boyfriend, Richard, struggles to help her while coming to terms with his own loss and guilt. … read more