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SIFF ‘23: Danish Mindf*ck ‘SUPERPOSITION’ Freaked Me Right Out

Teit (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) and Stine (Marie Bach Hansen) are storytellers who’ve left civilization to live off the land for a year – and podcast about the experience – in Superposition. The issue is that might not be the only Teit and Stine out there. This dense and well-constructed metaphysical thriller is designed to screw with your head, with splashes of heady sci-fi creepers like Coherence, Good Night Mommy, and The Night House spliced throughout to create an unnerving exercise in existential dread and doppelgänger distress. Though impressively economic and “small” in scope, Superposition feels expansive by virtue of its big ideas and Karoline Lyngbye’s staggering, inventive direction. She ratchets up the tension and pokes at philosophical quagmires, like the meaning of fidelity in bold, metaphysical ways. It all begs the question: if you met an exact copy of yourself, would you rather fuck, marry, or kill them? (B+)

Capsule Review for Seattle International Film Festival 2023. 

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SIFF ’23: ‘My Animal’ Unleashes Queer Love and Werewolf Angst

In My Animal, Jacqueline Castel deftly blends ’80s nostalgia and Giallo inspiration into a queer, modern fairy tale. This indie film take on high school werewolf erotica feels like a darker, more niche Stephanie Meyer creation, complete with issues of abuse and alcoholism, the tension of forbidden love, and, yes, werewolf angst. Bobbi Salvör Menuez and Amandla Stenberg offer a pair of compelling lead turns as Heather and Jonny, new friends falling headfirst into forbidden flirtation, their palpable chemistry grounding the more outlandish elements of the film. A worthwhile slow-burn, My Animal succeeds in spite of obvious budget constraints, leaning into its over-the-top ’80s-inspired synth score and cheap production design element to add a nostalgic touch – which lends the howling haunt a major whiff of after-school special. (B-)

Capsule Review for Seattle International Film Festival 2023. 

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SIFF ‘23: Romantic Korean Drama ‘PAST LIVES’ Aches With the Power of Many Lifetimes

Some of the most romantic movies to ever exist (Before Sunset) don’t feature even a kiss. Enter Past Lives, Celine Song’s achingly romantic two-hander about a pair of entangled Korean childhood friends who must navigate their deep connection across 7,000 miles (she’s in New York, he’s in Korea) and 24 years as they drift into and out of each other’s lives. Song makes it all feel so natural and real, allowing an outsider’s glimpse into this simmering relationship to blossom into something closer to deep knowing and genuine intimacy, eliciting a complex spectrum of emotion that’s both universal and deeply specific. Her debut feature, which boasts spellbinding cinematography and a yearning musical score, is just so alive; as ponderous and philosophical as it is well-acted and deeply-felt. One of the best of the year thus far. (A-)

Capsule Review for Seattle International Film Festival 2023. 

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SIFF ‘23: The Toxic Workplace is a Silent Killer in ‘NEXT SOHEE’

A contemplative and unique Korean thriller, Jung Ju-ri’s Next Sohee is artfully directed and performed with reserved grace. Sohee (Kim Si-Eun) is an “extern”, a student worker exploited for their labor, mandated to work a call center as a precondition for graduation. Ju-ri turns the office worker grind into a mental prison that chisels away Sohee’s identity, dulling her sparkling presence to a nub. Gaslit by her superiors, manipulated into manipulating customers, subject to degrading psychological warfare, it’s no wonder Sohee is falling apart. Ju-ri paints a portrait of a young adult’s evolution from student-to-worker that’s deeply dehumanizing, revealing a shockingly broken system that’s intentionally stacked against the Sohees of society. Powerful stuff. (B+) 

Capsule Review for Seattle International Film Festival 2023. 

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SIFF ’23: Gothic Thriller ‘MOTHER SUPERIOR’ A Tight Haunt

The occult dabblings of the Nazi party casts a dark pall over the estate of a witchy Baroness circa 1975 Austria in Marie Alice Wolfszahn’s Mother Superior. The  atmospheric, feminist midnight movie tells the story of deep-cover nurse Sigrun (Isabella Händler) as she attempts to puzzle out the mysteries of her lineage, only to stumble upon the bewitching practices of the Blood Moon Templar. Wolfszahn’s direction is economical and effective, the film clocks in at just a smidge over 70-minutes but never skimps on mood or narrative tidiness. The result is slight, spooky, and impactful; a calling card for an emerging horror talent in Wolfszahn. (B-)

Capsule Review for Seattle International Film Festival 2023. 

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SIFF ‘23: Daddy-Daughter Dramedy ‘SCRAPPER’ a Delightful Diversion

Georgie (Lola Campbell) is a 12-going-on-30 type, living on her lonesome in her London flat following the death of her mum in Scrappers. When her estranged deadbeat dad (Harris Dickinson) hops the fence and re-enters her life one day, Georgie has to navigate her newfound feelings towards her out-of-the-woodwork parental figure in writer-director Charlotte Regan’s pleasant but lightweight debut. This airy dramedy, clocking in just over 80-minutes, succeeds by virtue of the strong chemistry between its two leads, though there’s not a lot of texture to any of the other characters or character dynamics, making it a somewhat one-dimensional – though pleasant – distraction. What it lacks in narrative complexity, it makes up for in scrappy charm. (B-)

Capsule Review for Seattle International Film Festival 2023. 

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SIFF ‘23: Horrifying ‘20 Days in Mariupol’ is As Traumatic as it is Necessary 

Dying babies. Dead bodies. Mass graves. Shelled maternity wards. War crimes. 20 Days in Mariupol is not for the faint of heart. It is however an urgent and unblinking reminder of the atrocities occurring to this day in Ukraine, with director Mstyslav Chernov documenting indiscriminate violence in horrifying detail. This makes for a documentary that’s a necessary but exceedingly difficult watch. Chernov documents the horrors of war waged on the civilians of Mariupol with the resolute courage of a wartime journalist and the pressing eye of a documentarian, making for a glimpse inside the war in Ukraine that’s utterly horrifying while also being must-watch. Extremely heavy stuff. (B+)

Capsule Review for Seattle International Film Festival 2023. 

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SIFF ‘23: Belgium Drama ‘WHEN IT MELTS’ a Painful Kick in the Feels

A feel-bad Belgium coming-of-age story, Veerle Baetens’ When It Melts focuses on increasingly predatory pubescent children as they learn the art of exploitation. Icky but powerful – and powerfully performed (young Rosa Marchant is outstanding) – this somber drama is incredibly uncomfortable but packs an emotional wallop. Though it becomes increasingly obvious where things are headed, it remains an entirely engrossing – and at times rather gross – watch. Ultimately, Baetens’ film is a poignant, seething indictment of parents who fail to protect the innocence of their children. Trigger warning indeed. (B+)

Capsule Review for Seattle International Film Festival 2023. 

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SXSW ’22: Punchy ‘BODIES BODIES BODIES’ Subverts Slasher Formula

Everyone’s always a suspect in any slasher movie worth its salt and that’s true up until the very last moments in Halina Reijn’s Bodies Bodies Bodies. The film, which stars a slew of established and rising talent in the form of Maria Bakalova, Lee Pace, Amandla Stenberg, Chase Sui Wonders, Peter Davidson, and a scene-stealing Rachel Sennott, cleverly subverts what we know of the genre trappings and what we – perhaps falsely? – assume to be true.  Read More

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SXSW ‘22: Yearning Homoerotic Thriller ‘IT IS IN US ALL’ 

When out-of-tower Hamish (Cosmo Jarvis) gets in a head-on-collision with Irish teenagers Callum and Evan (Rhys Mannion), only the later survives. Reeling from the fallout, the unscathed Evan and banged up Hamish wind up in a complicated dance, caught somewhere between trauma bonding and flirtation in a film that’s slow to reveal its hand. Their relationship becomes bizarrely intimate but undercut with a simmering level of foreboding in actress-turned-first-time-director Antonia Campbell Hughes introspective thriller It Is In Us All. Read More