After a one night stand with a co-worker, Cass agrees to babysit her daughter Ari while she is out of town in Elena Oxman’s quietly moving drama OUTERLANDS screening at NewFest Pride 2025. Asia Kate Dillon and the wonderfully expressive young actress Ridley Asha Bateman bring the often funny script to life through their realistic […]
Drive Back Home
Writer-director Michael Clowalter strikes a fine balance between comedy and drama in his road movie DRIVE BACK HOME that deals with somber subject matter. Set in 1970 Canada, estranged brothers Perley and Weldon, played by Alan Cumming and Charlie Creed-Miles, drive from Toronto to New Brunswick while trying to overcome their past grievances. We intermittently […]
Sorry, Baby
It’s not often that a new writer-director-actor comes along and blows you away. Eva Victor does that with SORRY, BABY, the Closing Night film of both Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and Seattle International Film Festival. It is a sorrowful, humorous, and ultimately comforting look at trauma and its aftermath. The character of Agnes might at times […]
Caravan – Cannes 2025
In Zuzana Kirchnerová’s CARAVAN, Ester spends the summer in Italy with her teenage son David, who has Down syndrome and autism, and free spirited Zuza, who quickly clicks with David and eases Ester’s burden for a period. It is inspired by Kirchnerová’s own life. She has a son with similar conditions, but the film is […]
Dandelion’s Odyssey – Cannes 2025
Momoko Seto’s animated Cannes Critics’ Week Closing Night film DANDELION’S ODYSSEY is the wordless journey of four dandelion seeds that find themselves on an unknown planet after a nuclear explosion. The gorgeous visuals are like nothing I’ve seen before and they are set to a wonderful score and sound design from Quentin Sirjacq and Sound […]
Militantropos – Cannes 2025
TABOR Collective’s spellbinding Cannes Directors’ Fortnight entry MILITANTROPOS chronicles the Ukraine war from the viewpoints of soldiers, evacuees, and those who are left behind. The filmmakers of the observational documentary do a commendable job of capturing the lives of their subjects without any noticeable interference. It is a solemn look at the devastation and people’s yearning […]
Meteors – Cannes 2025
Hubert Charuel’s METEORS depicts a devoted friendship that plays out like a heart-rending doomed romance. Mika and Dan, played convincingly by Paul Kircher and Idir Azougli, dream of leaving their decaying small town while trying to overcome addiction and avoid jail sentences. After introducing them in a comedic opening sequence, Charuel and his co-writer Claude […]
I Only Rest in the Storm – Cannes 2025
Pedro Pinho’s I ONLY REST IN THE STORM is a 3.5 hour long journey with Portuguese environmental engineer Sérgio through Guinea-Bissau and surrounding regions and I was happy to tag along. It takes its original name O Riso e a Faca (Laughter and the Knife) from the Tom Zé song the characters sing along to […]
A Useful Ghost – Cannes 2025
Ghosts are everywhere in Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s Cannes comedy A USEFUL GHOST. They have to deal with bureaucracy, and face discrimination and the legal consequences of their actions. People make out with haunted vacuum cleaners and monks curse like sailors. Around the 75 minute mark we get what appears to be a conclusion to a lighthearted […]
Death Does Not Exist – Cannes 2025
Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s dreamlike hand-drawn animated film DEATH DOES NOT EXIST makes fascinating use of colors and is visually captivating. It starts with a brutal, bloody armed attack scene that startles without having any red in it. We later get a different version of the same scene, this time with red blood, when the main character […]