Janel Tsai | Film Festival Today

Middleburg Review: “Left-Handed Girl”

October 17, 2025

Middleburg Review: “Left-Handed Girl”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
October 17, 2025
Left-Handed Girl (Shih-Ching Tsou, 2025) 4½ out of 5 stars First-time solo director Shih-Ching Tsou has been working with filmmaker Sean Baker since the early aughts, beginning with a movie they co-directed, the 2004 Take Out. After that, she produced his 2012 Starlet, 2015 Tangerine, 2016 short film Snowbird, 2017 The Florida Project, and 2021 Red Rocket. Making her debut behind the camera on her own, with Left-Handed Girl, Tsou nevertheless ... >>
Middleburg Review: “Rebuilding”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
October 16, 2025
Rebuilding (Max Walker-Silverman, 2025) 4½ out of 5 stars In his 2022 feature debut, A Love Song, writer/director Max Walker-Silverman demonstrated a gentle, but assured, confidence behind the camera that made of the movie a poignant study of late-in-life romance. Lead performers Dale Dickey and Wes Studi brought their A games to the project, as did cinematographer Alfonso Herrera Salcedo, the sincere performances and breathtaking imagery ... >>
Screamfest Review: “Big Baby”
By Billy Ray Brewton
October 14, 2025
Big Baby (Spider One, 2025) 3 out of 5 stars As a writer myself, I am always interested in and drawn to films about the process, as it were: the use of imagination to create ideas and the ability to take those ideas and turn them into a cohesive, engaging, and authentic story. Lots of films have tackled this over the years, with varying levels of success. On the high end, you have something like Adaptation, the Spike Jonze masterpiece from ... >>
“Solvent” Has Splatter and Guts
By Patrick Howard
October 9, 2025
Solvent (Johannes Grenzfurthner, 2024) 4 out of 5 stars While searching for Nazi documents in an Austrian farmhouse, a team of experts uncovers a hidden secret buried in its bowels. American expatriate Gunner S. Holbrook becomes obsessed with solving the mystery, and as his sanity wanes, he must confront an insatiable evil. Can he find redemption before it drains the life out of him? ... >>
New/Next Review: “OBEX”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
October 5, 2025
OBEX (Albert Birney, 2025) 4 out of 5 stars The films of director Albert Birney—be they of the live action variety (Strawberry Mansion) or animated (Tux and Fanny)—are always loving tributes to the meticulous process of artistic creation. Each shot within each scene is composed with great consideration, the visual components beautifully coming together while also advancing the story. Such is very much the case with his latest, OBEX, in which ... >>

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