Life Is A Film Fest

It’s hard to make a comedy about death work, but writer-director Rob Burnett manages to pull it off with In Memoriam, his first film since 2016’s The Fundamentals of Caring. Marc Maron stars as Langston Stanfield, a seasoned actor and a self-proclaimed a-hole, who gets obsessed with being included in the Oscars “In Memoriam” montage […]

Miiku Sakanishi reflects on memory, family, and photography in his quiet and tender drama Memorizu. Yuta (Tasuku Emoto) leaves his wife Yuki (Moeka Hoshi) and their young daughter behind in Tokyo and heads to the countryside to help his father-in-law Makoto (Issey Ogata) at his photo studio, while he is recovering from a leg injury. […]

In his documentary Guggi, director Ian Thuillier shines a light on the life and career of Irish painter, sculptor, and musician Derek Rowen, better known by the nickname Guggi, which his close friend Bono gave him.  It combines archival material with present day footage of the artist and his closest friends Sean Scully, Jim Sheridan, […]

I went into Mumford & Sons: The House Band, thinking it would be a regular concert documentary. What I did not realize was that they were touring with a superband that featured Maggie Rogers, Trombone Shorty, Chris Thile, Nathaniel Rateliff, Lucius, Madison Cunningham, Ketch Secor, Celisse Henderson, and Leif Vollebekk. Noah Kahan, Lainey Wilson, and […]

Ben Sottak’s Hallowarrior is essentially Home Alone turned into a violent, drug-infused, post-apocalyptic horror movie. Hereditary’s Milly Shapiro makes a fantastic heroine to root for as the Halloween-obsessed Pumpkin, who still lives at her family’s home by herself, thinking she might be the last girl on Earth. One night, a gang of invaders, lead by […]

Michael Gallagher’s The Leader is worth watching for the strong performances of Tim Blake Nelson, Vera Farmiga, Jim Parsons, and Simon Rex. They portray members of the UFO cult Heaven’s Gate, 39 of whom committed the largest ever American mass suicide in 1997. Some of the nightmarish imagery in the film won’t leave my head […]

Like Beautiful Boy and Ben Is Back, Jake Allyn’s Clean Hands deals with the helplessness of parents whose teenager struggles with addiction. It also highlights the shortcomings and inequities within the justice and healthcare systems. It is based on the true story of the Simmers family, played by Zach Braff, Esther McGregor, and Abigail Spencer. […]

Writer/director/lead Ellie Sachs’ adult coming-of-age story Lucy Schulman is a classic NYC relationship comedy, the kind I generally find hard to resist.  After finding out that her supposed happily-ever-after, Nikhil (Hasan Minhaj), was cheating on her, Lucy goes back to her dad Peter’s (David Cross) place, as she always does after a break up. To […]

Haitian American writer-director Elisee Junior St Preux’s debut feature The Tropic Sun and His Eyes, both thematically and visually, brings Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight to mind.  It depicts the literal and spiritual journey of Ruben, an expat, as he travels to Haiti to visit his ailing father. It also serves as a coming-of-age story both for […]

Erika Burke Rossa‘s Rain Reign is the moving tale of a 12-year-old neurodivergent girl, who loves homonyms, prime numbers, and her dog Rain. When Rain goes missing after a hurricane, Rose is determined to find her with the help of her uncle.  Felice Kakaletris gives a compelling performance as Rose, illustrating the many hurdles she […]