Review

Here is a film that truly justifies a walk down memory lane. No sugar-coating the ugly, no glossing over, the film, like its protagonist, faces the ugliness of the past as it is, along with what was good about it. Kourosh Ahari’s…
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If 2015’s Inside Out made literal characters to portray its protagonist’s emotions, Amos Sussigan and Dan Lund’s Coaster sees their protagonist taken for a literal ride by life. John Doe, recently graduated from college, navigates the ups…
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Self-worth. Kristian Håskjold’s Oscar-qualifying short A Worthy Man (written by Marianne Lentz) hinges itself on that one word that can damn a mind to crippling anxiety and/or depression with cruel ease. In the film, Erik, played by Troels…
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Kelly Bergsma’s Behind Closed Doors treats its protagonist, a cop suffering from PTSD like a raging wild animal who is meted out extreme treatment. In both cases, neither is given proper attention. As a result, the film feels half-assed…
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There is a stillness that pervades Yuchao Feng’s Pearl like a fog. If you look through it, there is great turmoil underneath. And yet, Lin and Wang regularly turn it over its head like child’s play, while their mother looms large over them…
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Windblown starts off with great promise. Things go badly when a grieving young woman visits her New England cottage after losing her brother. The premise is intriguing, but Katie Vincent as the lead actress is heartbreaking. Vincent has…
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Written, directed and edited by Caleb Knueven, Stadium is a 8:41-minute short film capturing the inevitable truth that so many of us must contend with through the story of a couple who are graduating and on the cusp of moving towards their…
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Anna Carvalho’s Death Is The Place On Earth (DITPOE) ponders on the nature of humanity through the metaphor of an exiled goddess, cursed to roam the earth as an immortal. It’s an ambitious project to be sure, and certainly…
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A fast, jazzy score and a delightful leading character (among other things from a list of impressive elements), Sam Fichtner’s Thick as Thieves comes with the perfect balance of ingredients that keeps this comedy about a pair of thieves…
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Thrillers are a tight business. The smallest missteps can make a piece of work fail like a collapsed souffle— not unpalatable but certainly a disappointment. If your antagonist is both oily and stiff, while the unsuspecting potential…
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