This Is Not a Movie | Film Festival Today

Christopher Llewellyn Reed’s Favorites from 2019 Middleburg Film Festival

October 22, 2019

Christopher Llewellyn Reed’s Top 10 from 2019 Toronto International Film Festival

September 17, 2019

Christopher Llewellyn Reed’s Top 20 Recommendations for TIFF 2019

September 4, 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 ... >>