Events
Slamdance Film Review: Who Took Johnny?
Who Took Johnny? is a spooky time. This documentary reaches back to 1982, when Johnny Gosch, a West Des Moines, Iowa paper boy, was abducted. Noreen, his mother, has powered on with the search since then up until now. The film initially follows the inaction on part of the local law enforcement to effectively identify Johnny as a missing person (the law used to require 72 hours for the kid to be gone), and initially wrote his disappearance off as him running away until further evidence compounded this assumption. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Little Hope Was Arson
Theo Love’s documentary, Little Hope Was Arson, finds communities in East Texas reacting to the burning of 10 churches. The film follows the logic of law enforcement and community members discovering their churches having been torched, one by one, and the trajectory of the investigation. A central figure of the documentary is Christy McAllister, who received a lead that her brother, Daniel McAllister, was a suspect. … read more
Sundance Film Review: No No: A Dockumentary
I didn’t know who Dock Ellis was until last year, when I read about him in Mike Brown’s SLUG Magazine article about athlete drug use—Ellis was famous for pitching a no-hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates while high on acid in 1970. Ellis, along with the rest of the Pirates, broke barriers and set precedents for black American athletes and developed a reputation for the Pirates as one of the wildest teams in the major leagues. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Mitt
“If this film had come about before the election, Mitt Romney would be in the White House.” I heard this exact same quote from three different people while waiting for other films during Sundance. Let me be frank. No, he wouldn’t. As director Greg Whiteley did, in this film that follows Mitt Romney from December 2006 to the day after the 2012 presidential elections, let’s not focus on politics. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead
At the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, director Tommy Wirkola unleashed an over-the-top take on the horror genre with Nazi zombies attacking a group of medical students on a skiing trip in his Norwegian cult flick, “Dead Snow.” Five years later, Wirkola picks up the story at the exact moment where he left us. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Land Ho!
Mitch (Earl Lynn Nelson), a crass, lovable retired surgeon from New Orleans surprises his former brother-in-law Colin (Paul Eenhoorn) with an all-expenses-paid trip to Iceland to help him get over his recent divorce. Mitch’s frequent “doobification” and non-stop sexual references in his booming Southern drawl contrasts with Colin’s serious, uptight Aussie voice of reason—the two varied personalities make a wildly entertaining, comedic dynamic on screen. … read more
Sundance Film Review: This May Be The Last Time
Sharing the story of his grandfather’s disappearance in Sasakwa, Oklahoma in 1962, and other personal stories of his family, this film gives insight into a small community that supported each other through a difficult time, both physically and spiritually. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Under The Electric Sky (EDC 2013)
This film follows six groups of festivalgoers from different walks of life and social backgrounds on their journey to, and overall experience of 2013’s Electric Daisy Carnival held in Las Vegas. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Hits
The notion of instantly becoming a celebrity in America runs rampant, and reality programming and viral videos aren’t helping the situation. In the small town of Liberty, New York, Katelyn Stuben (Meredith Hagner) constantly envisions the interview she’ll have on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” after she wins the next season of “The Voice.” … read more
Sundance Film Festival: Nick Offerman: American Ham
On March 2, 2013, in the renowned Town Hall Theatre in New York, celebrated television star and coveted “man’s man,” Nick Offerman, graces the stage shirtless, hairy and prepped to offer his “10 Tips for a Prosperous Life.” Changing up the general stand-up routine with multiple musical interludes with acoustic guitar in hand, Offerman offers no mercy to the weak and slothful. … read more