Brendan Fitzgerald | Film Festival Today

SXSW Review: “The Oxy Kingpins” Reveals the True Villains of the Opioid Crisis

March 23, 2021

SXSW 2026 XR Experience: “Lacuna” and “Lesbian Simulator”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
March 15, 2026
XR Experience Spotlight @ Fairmont It’s impossible—unless that’s all one intends to do—to catch all the different XR (“extended reality,” the umbrella term for AR, VR, and MR) exhibits at a festival like SXSW, but during the press preview yesterday, I was able to sneak in a few hours to experience two of them. Those were Lacuna, from co-directors Maartje Wegdam and Nienke Huitenga Broeren, and Lesbian Simulator, from Iris van der Meule. Both ... >>
“The Spin” Strikes Balance Between Grounded and Heartwarming
By Robin C. Farrell
February 25, 2026
The Spin (Michael Head, 2025) 4 out of 5 stars Based upon a semi-autobiographical story of co-writer Mark McCausland, The Spin tells the tale of Dermot (Brenock O’Connor, Double Blind) and Elvis (Owen Colgan, Lulu and the Electric Dreamboat), both music enthusiasts who run a less-than-successful record shop in Omagh, Northern Ireland. From the jump, ddirector Michael Head (Bermondsey Tales: Fall of the Roman Empire) offers up a welcome dose of ... >>
“Murder in Glitterball City” Offers More Than Meets the Eye
By George W. Campbell
February 18, 2026
Murder in Glitterball City (Fenton Bailey/Randy Barbato, 2026) 3½ out of 5 stars The first thing you see in HBO’s two-part Murder in Glitterball City is the face of a man named Joey Banis. He sits down in front of a webcam, eyes darting offscreen, staying uncomfortably silent. Banis reads off a piece of paper and announces to whom it may concern that they are watching a suicide video. He claims to have killed someone and wishes to absolve his ... >>
Paris Barclay Gives Icon His Due with “Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It”
By George W. Campbell
February 18, 2026
Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It (Paris Barclay, 2024) 4½ out of 5 stars If you’re familiar with singer/songwriter Billy Preston, you probably know him for his collaborations with the Beatles, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, and many more. But how much do you really know about Billy Preston as a person? That’s the question Paris Barclay aims to answer with his new documentary, Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It. Like many ... >>
Sundance Review: “All About the Money”
By Hannah Tran
February 15, 2026
All About the Money (Sinéad O’Shea, 2026) 3½ out of 5 stars If you had more money than you could possibly know what to do with, how would you spend it? Fergie Chambers doesn’t have to imagine. As the heir to the Cox Enterprises empire (yes, that Cox) he has access to generational wealth on a scale most people can’t even comprehend. What he chooses to do with it might come as a surprise. A few years ago, he gave a large stretch of rural ... >>

SXSW 2026 XR Experience: “Lacuna” and “Lesbian Simulator”
March 15, 2026
XR Experience Spotlight @ Fairmont It’s ...>>
5 Films to Watch at SXSW 2026
March 10, 2026
I didn’t travel to Austin, Texas, last year for SXSW, ...>>
10 Films to Watch at Sundance 2026
January 20, 2026
The 2026 Sundance Film Festival runs live and ...>>
Chris Reed’s Top 10 Films of 2025
December 31, 2025
It always amazes me how different a given year’s ...>>
Hannah Tran’s Top 10 Films of 2025
December 29, 2025
Whether in narrative or documentary, few years have ...>>