Specialty Releases | Film Festival Today

Film Review: “Flight/Risk” Is a Powerful Takedown of Corporate Greed

September 9, 2022

Film Review: “Medieval” Delivers More Action and Gore Than Original Story

September 7, 2022

Film Review: “Surrogate” Impresses with Tension and Suspense, Even If Payoff Isn’t Quite As Effective

September 1, 2022

Film Review: Strong Third Act Redeems Otherwise Generic Horror-Thriller “Where’s Rose”

August 29, 2022

Film Review: “The Youth Governor” Is a Feel-Good Documentary That Lacks Feeling

August 26, 2022

Film Review: “The Day After Halloween” Is a Bummer, Just Like November 1st

August 22, 2022

Film Review: “Lost Illusions” Doesn’t Quite Find Its Focus but Still Proves Engaging

July 1, 2022

Film Review: Horror-Drama “Abandoned” Showcases the Terrors of Being a Newborn Mother

June 16, 2022

Film Review: “A Town Full of Ghosts” Quickly Becomes a Failure

June 16, 2022

Film Review: “Scare Zone” Takes Us Behind the Scenes of a Halloween Haunted House

May 26, 2022

Film Review: The Visual Splendor of “Montana Story” Fails to Compensate for Empty Interior

May 24, 2022

Film Review: “The Worst Ones” Offers Raw, Emotional Complexity
By Hannah Tran
March 24, 2023
The Worst Ones (Lise Akoka/Romane Gueret, 2023) 3 out of 4 stars. Laid out in a gripping opening sequence of “auditions,” The Worst Ones follows four teens from a poor neighborhood in France after they are cast in a film by Belgian director Gabriel, who gives them roles that amplify their reputation as troubled kids. The title is a phrase we hear early on when one of the child performers asks why the crew wanted to cast “the worst ones.” It’s a ... >>
SXSW Interview with “Fancy Dance” Director Erica Tremblay
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
March 17, 2023
Director Erica Tremblay’s Fancy Dance premiered at Sundance 2023 (where I reviewed it), and tells the story of Jax (Lily Gladstone) and her niece, Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson) as they simultaneously look for Roki’s missing mother, Tawi, while evading officials from Child Protective Services on their way to an annual powwow. Tremblay hails from the Seneca-Cayuga nation in which the story takes place, and the film is filled with authentic details ... >>
SXSW Interview with “Queendom” Director Agniia Galdanova and Producer Igor Myakotin
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
March 16, 2023
Director Agniia Galdanova’s new documentary, Queendom, just premiered at SXSW 2023 (where I reviewed it). It follows transgender Russian performance artist and activist Gena (known as Gena Marvin on social media) from Magadan in Russia’s Far East, where she grew up, to Moscow and beyond as she struggles against her country’s prejudices and growing crackdown on dissent. I sat down with Galdanova and her producer, Igor Myakotin, at the festival. ... >>
XR Beats from SXSW 2023
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
March 15, 2023
VR, AR, MR … XR … so many acronyms to describe a form of enhanced reality that is very much still in flux in this now-third decade of the 21st century. Many film and technology festivals have, for at least about 10 years now, been showcasing the state of the art as its stands in the very moment. SXSW has now rebranded the section devoted to such work the “XR Experience” exhibition. Here at the 2023 festival, I had an opportunity to walk ... >>
SXSW Review: “If You Were the Last” Goes from Lost to Saved in a Lovely Final Act
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
March 13, 2023
If You Were the Last (Kristian Mercado, 2023) 3 out of 4 stars. If You Were the Last, from director Kristian Mercado and writer Angela Bourassa—both making their feature-film debuts—is the rare kind of film that turns tired clichés into something surprisingly fresh, reinventing itself in the final act to become something quite lovely. Depending on one’s tolerance for rom-com tropes foregrounded in what is essentially a two-person chamber ... >>