Sundance 2019

In January of 2019 at the Sundance Film Festival, I saw a film that I was convinced was going to resonate wide and far in Martha Stephens melancholic coming-of-age film To The Stars. The film…

Jenny breaks free from a toxic friendship and learns to harness her magical, useless superpower.   Nick Kush: Crude Oil is such a delightfully silly and experimental short film that labeling it as “quirky” doesn’t do…

Every generation has their favorite high school movie. From Fast Times at Ridgemont High to Booksmart, seeing whipsmart or daffy teenagers played mostly by actors in their 20s traverse the difficulties of growing has made for…

Dating at a young age is like trying to maneuver through a minefield, especially in relationships that go horribly wrong. You still have no idea who you are, and you can almost forget knowing how…

Over the years, coming-of-age films have taught me one overarching idea: rebellious teens gotta rebel. It’s a timeless idea baked into coming-of-age tales from every generation in which a young adult begins to form their…

Wounds has been on my watchlist ever since I read the early reviews. It could have been the mysterious and vague premise: creepy and gross things transpire after a bartender (played by the hunky Armie…

At this point, it’s a cliché to say how we take our most basic functions for granted. Hearing a loved one, having clarity of the mind, for instance. There’s also a reason why those kinds…

As a critic, there is the rare occasion where you see a film and think “my god, this movie is going to be HUGE!” I speak in relative terms, of course, as Brittany Runs a…

Nature is continuously beguiling. From changing flora to shifting land formations, there’s always something beautiful to behold. Take water, for instance, which is always changing form and the landscape around it. In Aquarela, Viktor Kossakovsky’s…

Hollywood has made a habit of repurposing buzzy foreign films into English-language stories. (Look no further than The Upside from just a few months ago.) Some Most of these attempts are worthless, acting as soulless retreads in…

The Babadook is one of my favorite horror movies ever made. What Jennifer Kent accomplished in that movie is nothing short of miraculous, so much so that it continues to own an area of brain, seeping…

I can picture the more standard, Hollywood version of Share in my head: it’s full of long diatribes, tearful wishes, and happy resolutions. A24’s Share, however, is far more cynical and rough, challenging its audience to accept its…

There’s a tendency for most of us to bristle when films attack us with uncomfortable subject matter in a bracingly puzzling manner. I suspect that many will shun The Mountain for this very reason…if they…

Joanna Hogg has had much critical success as an arthouse director with a couple of well-received films. But she hasn’t had much luck in the states as of yet, leaving much of her success across…

Many of our best actors want to take the next leap in their artistic journeys and become directors, to tell their own stories and raise a new crop of talent along the way. As such,…

Sundance 2019 was my first ever time attending the illustrious festival, and it certainly lived up to all the hype. After a week of running from screening to screening, living off of way too much…

Do you see what happens when the imagination is super-imposed upon the historical event? It becomes a story… – N. Scott Momaday You should never judge a book by its cover. These are words we’re…