Irina Starshenbaum | Film Festival Today

Film Review: “Leto” Is a Gorgeous, But Overly Sleepy, Soviet Rock Drama

June 6, 2019

Interview with “Aurora’s Sunrise” Director Inna Sahakyan
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
February 7, 2023
Before the end of 2022, I reviewed Armenian director Inna Sahakyan’s animated documentary Aurora’s Sunrise, which tells the tale of Aurora Mardiganian (née Arshaluys), who at 17 escaped the Ottoman genocide of Armenians and came to the United States to spread the harrowing news. Shortly after writing her story for an American newspaper, she was cast as herself in a 1919 Hollywood film, Auction of Souls. The film just won the top prize at the ... >>
Sundance Review: The All-Too-Real Comedy of “You Hurt My Feelings” Is Genius
By Hannah Tran
February 6, 2023
You Hurt My Feelings (Nicole Holofcener, 2023) 3½ out of 4 stars. If ever there was a movie premise created to start an argument between romantic partners, it might be that of Nicole Holofcener’s latest film, You Hurt My Feelings, which asks the question of whether you can love someone if you don’t love the work they create. What is a totally trivial matter, in the grand scheme of things, is here turned into a life-shattering revelation for main ... >>
Sundance Review: “Fancy Dance” Swings a Moving Dramatic Thriller
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
February 2, 2023
Fancy Dance (Erica Tremblay, 2023) 3 out of 4 stars. Jax is probably not most people’s idea of an ideal role model. An ex-con who served time for drug dealing, she makes ends meet on the Seneca-Cayuga Reservation in Oklahoma through some not-so-petty theft (such as stealing a vehicle), often accompanied by her teenage niece, Roki. Still, that’s just one way of looking at things. One could also see her as resourceful and, as far as Roki goes, ... >>
Sundance Review: “Animalia” Explores Unsettling Beauty
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
January 31, 2023
Animalia (Sofia Alaoui, 2023) 3 out of 4 stars. Director Sofia Alaoui’s debut feature, Animalia, is often a deliriously enigmatic work of art, weaving in and out of direct confrontations with meaning in ways both tantalizing and frustrating. Buoyed by a gripping central performance from actress Oumaïma Barid, the movie places her character, Itto, in dire circumstances when she is at her most vulnerable, pregnant and alone. Layering ... >>
Sundance Review: “Infinity Pool” Playfully Wades Through Perversion
By Hannah Tran
January 30, 2023
Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg, 2023) 3 out of 4 stars. I had the great displeasure of seeing Brandon Cronenberg’s previous film, Possessor, at 2020’s Sundance Film Festival. It’s not that I disliked the story about an assassin who invades others’ bodies from afar to fulfill her kills; I simply couldn’t stomach the gore-fest as it unraveled onscreen, which I’m sure was the intention. Returning to Sundance with his NC-17 cut of his latest ... >>