Christopher Llewellyn Reed | Film Festival Today

Film Review: “Antebellum” Revisits Plantation Life, and Bad Things Happen

September 17, 2020

Series Review: “Les sauvages” Offers Strong Mix of Entertainment and Polemic

September 17, 2020

Film Review: “The Devil All the Time” Sends Us Straight to Narrative Hell

September 15, 2020

Film Review: “I Am Woman” May Not Quite Roar, but Still Mostly Gives Helen Reddy Her Due

September 11, 2020

Film Review: “Black Boys” Powerfully Examines Systemic Racism Against Black Male Bodies

September 10, 2020

Series Review: “Julie and the Phantoms” Makes Magic out of Narrative Madness

September 9, 2020

Film Review: “The Social Dilemma” Illustrates a Problem in Need of a Solution

September 9, 2020

Film Review: “Cuties” Offers a Complex Examination of Tween Agency

September 8, 2020

Film Review: “Apocalypse ’45” Beautifully Showcases the Horrors of War

September 4, 2020

Film Review: “Mulan” Triumphs Over Unnecessary Adaptation

September 3, 2020

Series Review: “Away” Remains Too Grounded in Earthly Problems

September 3, 2020

Middleburg Interview with “Left-Handed Girl” Director Shih-Ching Tsou
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
October 30, 2025
Filmmaker Shih-Ching Tsou is a longtime collaborator of Sean Baker’s. In her first helming effort, the 2004 Take Out, she shared directorial duties with Baker. Since then, Tsou has produced many of his later films, including the 2021 Red Rocket. She and Baker co-wrote the screenplay for Left-Handed Girl, though Tsou is the sole director on it. The movie follows a family of three—mom, a teenage girl, and a much-younger daughter (a southpaw, hence ... >>
Middleburg Interview with “Hedda” Star Nina Hoss
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
October 27, 2025
In the new film Hedda, from director Nia DaCosta (Candyman), German actress Nina Hoss (TÁR) plays Eileen Lovborg, former lover of the main character and now professional rival to that person’s new husband. An adaptation of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s 1891 play Hedda Gabler, the movie switches Eileen’s original gender from male to female (he is “Eilert” in the source text), and also moves the action to 1950s England. These changes ... >>
Middleburg Interview with “Come See Me in the Good Light” Director Ryan White
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
October 27, 2025
Documentarian Ryan White is nothing if not prolific, tackling a great variety of issues as he goes. In his latest movie, Come See Me in the Good Light, he profiles the late spoken-word poet Andrea Gibson (who was non-binary and used they/them pronouns), who died on July 14 of this year, fours years after receiving a diagnosis of ovarian cancer in 2021. Appointed the Poet Laureate of Colorado in 2023, Gibson was a star in their field. White ... >>
Interview with “Mistress Dispeller” Director Elizabeth Lo
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
October 24, 2025
The documentary Mistress Dispeller premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival (I reviewed it out of Toronto) and is now finally, in 2025, coming out in theaters via Oscilloscope (released October 22 in New York and today, October 24, in Los Angeles). In the movie, Lo (Stray) examines the titular Chinese profession, where someone (usually a betrayed wife) hires an outside party to break up an extramarital dalliance, With remarkable access to her ... >>
Middleburg Review: “Come See Me in the Good Light”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
October 20, 2025
Come See Me in the Good Light (Ryan White, 2025) 4 out of 5 stars Spoken-word poet Andrea Gibson died on July 14 of this year, at the age of 49, of ovarian cancer, leaving behind their partner—fellow poet Megan Falley—a number of pets, and a formidable body of work. In Ryan White’s latest documentary, Come See Me in the Good Light, we follow Gibson’s pre- and post-diagnosis journey, learning details of their life and anticipating their eventual ... >>

5 Films to See at the 2025 Maryland Film Festival
November 4, 2025
Though traditionally held in the spring, the 2025 ...>>
5 Films to See at Middleburg 2025
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The 13th iteration of the annual Middleburg Film ...>>
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10 Picks for TIFF 2025
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The 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (or TIFF) ...>>
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For fans of the weird, wild, and wonderful, the 29th ...>>