Maria Semple | Film Festival Today

Film Review: “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” Loses Its Cinematic Way

August 15, 2019

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 ... >>
Sundance Review: Gentle “Blueback” Is a Call to Environmental Arms
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
January 29, 2023
Blueback (Robert Connolly, 2022) 3 out of 4 stars. Based on Australian author Tim Winton’s 1997 novella of the same name, the new film Blueback, from writer/director Robert Connolly (The Dry), offers a gentle, occasionally thrilling, paean to nature conservation that is now more needed than ever. We jump back and forth between the present and the past as Abby (changed from a boy named Able in the book) remembers the events of her childhood that ... >>
Sundance Review: Mockumentary “Theater Camp” Is Hilarious and Heartfelt
By Hannah Tran
January 29, 2023
Theater Camp (Molly Gordon/Nick Lieberman, 2023) 3 out of 4 stars. It’s a weird feeling to be in the middle of watching a movie for the first time and already get the sense that it’s destined to be a cult classic, but that’s exactly what I felt when watching the co-directorial debut of Nick Lieberman and Booksmart actress Molly Gordon’s Theater Camp. Spotlighting the story of a financially ruinous theater camp’s fight to stay afloat ... >>