Film Reviews
We Are the Thousand Solidifies Foo Fighters As One of Rock’s Most Inspiring Bands: Review
The Pitch: Anyone who has ever lived in a small town understands the frustration of being constantly passed over by bands in favor of larger markets and bigger venues. While most just grumble about it, there are those dedicated fans who will do whatever it takes to experience a live performance from a treasured artist. For most, that means a road trip. But for marine biologist Fabio Zaffagnini, it meant thinking out of the box in a dramatic and unprecedented way. In 2015, Zaffagnini hatched an elaborate plan to lure his favorite band—Foo Fighters—to his small Italian town of Cesena. Gathering 1,000 local musicians together to simultaneously play one of the band’s songs, Zaffagnini and his crew of enthusiastic friends recorded and released the performance on YouTube in hopes to capture the ...
Concrete Cowboy Rides Into a Summer of Predictability: Review
The Pitch: Idris Elba has the gravity and laconic cool to make a great cowboy, and clearly Netflix knows this. Before the star-studded Western The Harder They Fall arrives later this year, though, Elba is saddling up for a less traditional take on the genre. Enter Concrete Cowboy. Based on Gregory Neri’s 2009 novel Ghetto Cowboy, the coming-of-age story follows Cole (Caleb McLaughlin), a troubled teenager who’s been sent to stay with his father Harp (Elba) in North Philadelphia for the summer. Harp, as we learn, is involved with a group of Black cowpokes who ride and tend to a stable of horses in the city. Cole takes a liking to this club, but also can’t shake his loyalty to an old friend who sees drug-dealing as his ticket out of the neighborhood. This may sound mildly outlandish, but it’...
Rachel Sennott Is an Anxiety-Ridden Revelation in Shiva Baby: Review
The Pitch: A bisexual college student struggling to figure out her career path (Rachel Sennott) attends a Jewish funeral service with her parents, where she attempts to juggle well-meaning family friends, a run-in with her ex-girlfriend, and an accidental encounter with her sugar daddy. Social Anxiety on Steroids: Never have I wanted to attend a family function less than in Shiva Baby, Emma Seligman’s grand-slam of a feature directorial debut. Old flames, sugar daddies, and painfully awkward altercations with relatives are the sparks that set this 75-minute marathon of full-body-cringe rolling — and from the second Danielle sets foot into the Shiva, neither Seligman nor the torrent of stressors lets up. To create genuine anxiety and stress in an audience is no easy task, and to sustain tha...
Godzilla vs. Kong Is Punch-Drunk Fun: Review
The Pitch: Godzilla and Kong square off in battle to determine who will be the planet’s apex predator. Five years have passed since the events of Godzilla: King of the Monsters when Godzilla established himself as Earth’s alpha Titan. Presently, only Godzilla and Kong remain active, and both are continuously monitored by Monarch, the scientific organization that tracks and studies Titans. Kong now resides in a large dome on Skull Island, designed to look like his natural habitat before the island’s climate shifted into near-constant hurricanes, but also to protect him from Godzilla. Doctor Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) oversees his daily life along with her adopted, deaf daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle), who can communicate with Kong through sign language. Jia and Kong’s connection is unmistake...
HBO’s Tina Is a Disappointing Slog for a Vibrant Legend: Review
The Pitch: You can’t keep Tina Turner down. Born Anna Mae Bullock in Brownsville, Tennessee to a sharecropper, her mother left when she was 11 years old to escape the clutches of her abusive husband. Bullock would later visit her mother in St Louis wherein she met Ike Turner at a nightclub. From there: The pair began a tumultuous, abusive relationship on the part of Ike. Bullock, by then known as Tina Turner, became entrapped but eventually escaped, rebuilt her music career, and performed one of the most unlikely comebacks in music history. Her story is one of survival, one of resilience, and one too often defined by Ike and not under the banner of Turner. The hardest working woman in show business bids adieu and recounts her life in T. J. Martin and Daniel Lindsay’s HBO documentary — Tina...
Nobody Is the Premier Dad Film of 2021: Review
The Pitch: Hutch Mansell’s the name, and accounting is his game. Bob Odenkirk is Mansell, a five o’clock shadow of a human being, working in a warehouse as the back-office calculator. He drones day in and day out, running the numbers for louder and more macho men. His son hates him. His wife sleeps with a pillow between them. His life is the very model of suburban repression and depression, but beneath the pale exterior lies a sleeping giant. Prior to accountancy, Hutch was a homicidal “accountant” for “all the places with acronym names”, as he puts it. He was once a veritable James Bond, with an affinity for swift completions and anonymity. Now, no more. It’s all Restoration Hardware décor and vinyl collections for lame old Hutch. But where most men spend their midlife crises on cars, boa...
The Spine of Night Is a Gory, Retro Throwback to Ralph Bakshi: SXSW Review
Editor’s Note: The following review is part of our coverage of the 2021 South by Southwest Film Festival. Stay tuned for further reviews straight outta Austin — well, virtually, of course. Below, Clint Worthington reviews Philip Gelatta and Morgan Galen King’s animated fantasy horror. The Pitch: In a mysterious fantasy world, an enchanted flower known as The Bloom holds the secret to many dark and powerful magicks. The tale of the Bloom, and its effect on the many inhabitants of this strange land, is told by a nearly-naked swamp witch named Tzod (Lucy Lawless) to the flower’s enigmatic Guardian (Richard E. Grant) atop a snow-capped mountain. Among her many tales are heroes and villains, religious zealots and diligent scholars, and buckets of blood and shattered bone along th...
Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes Is A Beautiful, But Disappointing Tribute: SXSW Review
Editor’s Note: The following review is part of our coverage of the 2021 South by Southwest Film Festival. Stay tuned for further reviews straight outta Austin — well, virtually, of course. Below, Rachel Reeves checks out Caroline Catz’ experimental documentary on electronic wunderkind Delia Derbyshire. The Pitch: In 1962, Delia Derbyshire began working at the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop. While many employees ended up being assigned to the department out of necessity, Derbyshire requested it. Fueled by her continual fascination with mathematics, music, sound, nature and the way they interact, Derbyshire was on a mission to create new and usual sounds. While best known for her contributions to the iconic Doctor Who theme song, it’s her hefty influence on the world of electronic musi...
Jakob’s Wife Sinks Its Fangs Into a Complicated Feminist Message: SXSW Review
Editor’s Note: The following review is part of our coverage of the 2021 South by Southwest Film Festival. Stay tuned for further reviews straight outta Austin — well, virtually, of course. Below, Jenn Adams dances in the darkness with Barbara Crampton’s latest feature. The Pitch: Anne Fedder (Barbara Crampton) is the epitome of a church mouse. Married to Pastor Jakob Fedder (Larry Fessenden), she dutifully stands by his side as he cares for his flock and listens to his sermons on what a good wife should be. But something strange is happening to Anne. She’s got a new look, a newfound swagger, a new bite mark on her neck and a new thirst for blood. During a clandestine tryst with a former flame, Anne is attacked by a vampire and begins to transform into one herself. Rather than fea...
Charli XCX’s Alone Together Is a Cyber-Dusted Love Letter To Her Fans: SXSW Review
Editor’s Note: The following review is part of our coverage of the 2021 South by Southwest Film Festival. Stay tuned for further reviews straight outta Austin — well, virtually, of course. Below, Rachel Reeves checks out Charli XCX’s new doc. The Pitch: Charli XCX, born Charlotte Aitchison, has never been an artist to play by conventional industry rules. Ever since she began posting songs on MySpace in 2008, her avant-garde approach to pop music has rallied fans and defied common practice. Collaborating with everyone from Iggy Azalea, Carly Rae Jepsen and Troye Sivian to Dorian Electra, Brooke Candy and Sophie, her genre-defying sound and conscious approach to inclusivity quickly resulted in a passionate LGBTQIA+ forward fanbase. Then, just as she was wrapping up her 2019 arena-p...
Offseason Is a Terrifying Road Trip to Nowhere: SXSW Review
Editor’s Note: The following review is part of our coverage of the 2021 South by Southwest Film Festival. Stay tuned for further reviews straight outta Austin — well, virtually, of course. Below, Jenn Adams covers Mickey Keating’s spooky new feature. The Pitch: There’s something mysterious about Lone Palm Island. Marie Aldrich (Jocelin Donahue) and her friend George (Joe Swanberg) head to the island community after receiving a letter from the caretaker of her mother’s grave notifying her that it’s been vandalized. They arrive to find the island closed to tourists for the offseason, not to reopen until Spring. While searching for answers, and for the mysterious caretaker, Marie and George realize they may be the latest to fall into a horrific trap spanning generations. Mickey Keat...
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched Is a Comprehensive, Spellbinding Folk Horror Doc: SXSW Review
Editor’s Note: The following review is part of our coverage of the 2021 South by Southwest Film Festival. Stay tuned for further reviews straight outta Austin — well, virtually, of course. Below, Clint Worthington learns all about folk horror. The Pitch: The history of folk horror is far richer and more expansive than is typically thought of by horror neophytes: More than The Wicker Man and Midsommar, folk horror has its roots all the way back to the 18th century and extends beyond the Anglocentric perspectives of ’70s British horror film fans. Director Kier-La Janisse knows this, and in Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, she’ll show you an entire syllabus’ worth of cinematic folk horror from across nations, time periods, and forms of media (folk horror exists on T...
