Censor, 2021. Directed by Prano Bailey-Bond. Starring Niamh Algar, Nicholas Burns, Vincent Franklin, Sophia La Porta, Adrian Schiller, Michael Smiley, Clare Holman, Andrew Havill, Felicity Montagu, Danny Lee Wynter, Clare Perkins, Guillaume Delaunay, Richard Glover, Beau Gadsdon, Amelie Child-Villiers. You may call me a bit sick for this, but I expected more “nasty” out of […]
2021 Sundance Film Festival Review – Prime Time
Prime Time, 2021. Co-written and directed by Jakub Piątek. Starring Bartosz Bielenia, Magdalena Popławska, Andrzej Kłak, Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik, Dobromir Dymecki, and Monika Frajczyk. SYNOPSIS: In 1999, Sebastian locks himself in a TV studio. He has two hostages, a gun, and an important message for the world. Dog Day Afternoon. Network. The King of Comedy. The touchstones […]
2021 Sundance Film Festival Review – Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, 2021. Directed by Marilyn Agrelo. SYNOPSIS: A look at the history of the long-running children’s TV show “Sesame Street.” There will surely never again be a children’s TV phenom on the scale of Sesame Street – and the abundance of choice afforded by modern streaming services can only […]
2021 Sundance Film Festival Review – Sabaya
Sabaya, 2021. Written and directed by Hogir Hirori. SYNOPSIS: With just a mobile phone and a gun, Mahmud, Ziyad, and their group risk their lives trying to save Yazidi women and girls being held by ISIS as Sabaya (abducted sex slaves) in the most dangerous camp in the Middle East, Al-Hol in Syria. Hogir Hirori (The […]
2021 Sundance Film Festival Review – How It Ends
How It Ends, 2021. Written and directed by Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones. Starring Zoe Lister-Jones, Cailee Spaeny, Olivia Wilde, Fred Armisen, Helen Hunt, and Lamorne Morris. SYNOPSIS: On the last day on Earth, one woman goes on a journey through L.A. to make it to her last party before the world ends, running into an […]
2021 Sundance Film Festival Review – Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It
Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It, 2021. Directed by Mariem Pérez Riera. Featuring Rita Moreno, Norman Lear, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Justina Machado, Whoopi Goldberg, Gloria Estefan, and Morgan Freeman. SYNOPSIS: The film follows Rita Moreno, focusing on her early life and career. There are few living Hollywood legends quite like Rita […]
2021 Sundance Film Festival Review – Playing with Sharks
Playing with Sharks, 2021. Written and Directed by Sally Aitken. Featuring Valerie Taylor. SYNOPSIS: Valerie Taylor is a shark fanatic and an Australian icon – a marine maverick who forged her way as a fearless diver, cinematographer and conservationist. She filmed the real sharks for Jaws and famously wore a chainmail suit, using herself as shark […]
2021 Sundance Film Festival Review – The Most Beautiful Boy in the World
The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, 2021. Directed by Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri. Featuring Björn Andrésen. SYNOPSIS: In 1971, at the world premiere of Death in Venice, Italian director Lucino Visconti proclaims his Tadzio as “the world’s most beautiful boy.” A shadow that today, 50 years later, weighs on Björn Andresen’s life. If Alex […]
2021 Sundance Film Festival Review – Homeroom
Homeroom, 2021. Directed by Peter Nicks. SYNOPSIS: Oakland as a tantalising case study. In a city that struggles with rising crime and health care woes, its public school systems aren’t exactly equipped to prepare youth for the travails of young adulthood. Director Peter Nicks’ (Waiting Room, The Force) observational documentary Homeroom affords a group of youngsters the […]
2021 Sundance Film Festival Review – Human Factors
Human Factors, 2021. Written and directed by Ronny Trocker. Starring Sabine Timoteo, Mark Waschke, Jule Hermann, Wanja Valentin Kube, Hannes Perkmann, and Daniel Séjourné. SYNOPSIS: A mysterious home invasion triggers a shake in the core of a cosmopolitan middle-class family and unveils the fragility of truth and the power of individual perspective. Middle-class malaise is […]
