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SIFF ‘24 Capsule Review: ‘BOB TREVINO LIKES IT’ Will Break Your Little Heart

When Lily’s (Barbie Ferreira) narcissistic father, Bob Trevino (French Stewart, unrecognizable in the role), cuts off contact with his lonely well-meaning daughter, she finds a “surrogate dad” online (John Leguizamo) who shares the same name. Their relationship blossoms into something profound and poignant, with each struggling with their own personal demons but overcoming them through kindness. A sincere and heartfelt tearjerker that’s deeply personal but a total crowdpleaser; intimate and warm though mired in abuse and loss; and economical and authentic while brimming with breakout talent in front of and behind the camera. Ferreira and Leguizamo broke my heart over and over again while French Stewart is absolutely insufferable (as he’s supposed to be). The fact that this movie about healing from abuse – where broken people chose to be good in the face of life’s greatest challenges – is rooted in writer-director Tracie Laymon’s own true story just underscores its deeply felt sincerity. Expect to be misty-eyed throughout. (A-)

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SIFF ‘24 Capsule Review: ‘ODDITY’ Brings Paranormal Scares

Damian McCarthy’s SXSW audience award winnerOddity sees a blind medium (Carolyn Bracken) strike out for revenge after her twin sister is brutally murdered. A twisty midnight movie from Ireland that effectively balances jump scares and tension within its unique premise of otherworldly vengeance and recompense, Oddity dolls out its narrative breadcrumbs at a healthy pace, making for an frighteningly edge-of-your-seat foray into the world of the paranormal. A stoic wooden mannequin that’s just hanging out in most frames amplifies Oddity‘s crafty blend of suspense and WTF energy. McCarthy’s darkly-lit supernatural world flirts with the familiar – creaking hinges, patient shots down shadowy hallways, sudden apparitions – but is complemented by real style and narrative verve. The performances verge on B-movie camp but McCarthy’s sinuous, sinister work makes this dark fiction amply dreary nonetheless, resulting in a midnight fright-fest that’s sure to delight horror aficionados craving a good scare . (B) Read More

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Take a Delightful Sojourn Into Thespian Hilarity at ‘THEATER CAMP’ 

In the vein of the best Christopher Guest mockumentaries, Theater Camp delivers a laugh-a-minute exploration of the inner workings of a fictitious child actor’s summer getaway, firmly rooted in reality. Destined to become a cult comedy classic, especially amongst the performance-inclined, this feature-length adaptation of the short film of the same name is crafted with a deep understanding of the theatrical world. Co-directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman, both with theatrical backgrounds, the film expertly celebrates and satirizes the peculiarities of the theater world, infusing the humor with a delightful mix of specificity and personal touches. Read More

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‘THE INSPECTION’ An Understated Reckoning With Militant Homophobia

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Back in the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era of the US military (1993-2011), any LGBTQA+ service member was mandated to keep their sexuality to themselves. This blatantly homophobic legislation of the Clinton administration prohibited otherwise qualified gay Americans from serving, unless they kept their sexual preference under lock and key. Elegance Bratton’s understated tell-all, The Inspection, tells the story of a young, gay black man who turns to the military with the intent of challenging the very premise that sexuality can be made secret and the fallout that comes with systemic oppression of “the other.”  Read More

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‘MOONFALL’ A Crash Course on Big Dumb Havoc Wreaking

The master of disaster is back to ruin the world again with Moonfall, a shamelessly bonkers sci-fi disaster movie where the moon is suddenly on a collision course with earth. A select few suspect aliens are involved. Following a string of disappointments, director Roland Emmerich’s latest is a bit of a return to form, or at least whatever form best suits Emmerich. Moonfall is an uncompromisingly ridiculous disaster epic where the scale is as massive as the plot-holes and the human element is consistently overshadowed by destruction special effects. It’s big, it’s loud, it’s dumb, and by the time the whole thing takes shape, it’s almost too much fun to deny its simple pleasures. Almost. Read More

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NIGHTSTREAM 2020: Bugged Out ‘QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC’ a Pitch Black Supernatural Slasher

Three childhood friends return to the orphanage where they were grew up to pay their respects to the dying director who raised them in Kimo Stamboel’s brutal and gory supernatural slasher The Queen of Black Magic (also known as Ratu Ilmu Hitam). This Indonesian import has no qualms dialing up the blood and guts as the screenplay from Joko Anwar (Impetigore) immediately sets its stock of characters up for encounters with dark magic, free-flying viscus and so. many. CGI. bugs. Read More

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Avada Kedavra! ’THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD’ Kills Harry Potter Spin-Off Series Before It’s Even Started

The crimes of Grindelwald are apparently many but the crimes of The Crimes of Grindelwald are doubly so. This dreary snooze-fest puckers up to give the once-beloved franchise the Dementor’s Kiss, bewitching the audience with an irresistible urge to shutter their eyelids and be whisked off to that warm and welcoming valley of sleep – wherein they would miss little that couldn’t be summed up in a few throwaway sentences of recap. In two-plus-hours of screen time, this sequel to the somewhat mildly-received Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them manages little more than to draw battle lines in the sand, introducing a few new bland characters and then shuffling the deck for the inevitable, and presumably more-engaging, skirmishes to come.  Read More

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SIFF ’18 Capsule Review: ‘LEAVE NO TRACE’ 

Following 2010’s Winter’s Bone, Debra Granik continues to peer into the grungy sideshow of backcountry American life in the delicately told Leave No Trace. About a father and daughter who attempt to live off the land, Granik’s third feature film tackles heavy themes with a soft touch, allowing Ben Foster and Thomas Harcourt McKenzie’s soulful performances to soar in this quiet coming-of-age character study. A treatise on the bonds that tie and emotional scars too ugly to bear, Leave No Trace is a graceful and absorbing drama about the profundity of family love. (B+) Read More

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Out in Theaters: ‘COCO’

Perhaps I am dead inside but I can’t scrub free the feeling that Coco hits all the right notes but still feels like the same old song. Pixar, the studio responsible for such masterpieces of modern animation as Wall-E, Toy Story, Up and Monsters Inc., appears more than ever to have sold out, peddling mediocre stories lathered in an admittedly marvelous coat of digital paint. We all knew this day was coming at some point, Disney’s acquisition of the once smallish, creatively independent studio renowned for delivering one stunner after another a warning sign of impending doom. I remember an age where I used to anticipate a new Pixar film just as much as a new Batman film. My how the times have changed. Pixar has quite simply become formulaic and Coco, while charming, loaded with delightful music and animated with the immaculate medium-pressing precision that Pixar is known for, just feels rote.

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Out in Theaters: ‘THE BFG’

Our eyelids flow in the same direction as the Frobscottle bubbles in Steven Spielberg’s paperweight adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved The BFG : down. All the chartreuse-tinted whizpopping, electric neon dream-wrangling and slime-smelling snozzcumber buffets in the land can’t ameliorate The BFG’s nominal narrative offerings. Though Spielberg admirably ditches the chaotic whirligig of headache-inducing parade of non-stop action that defines much modernized children fare for something less expository and more steeped in otherworldly awe, his knack for forging wonder has receded like the gums of a past her prime monarch leaving us with a rather unremarkable, but ceaselessly shiny, icon of 21st century nostalgia pop art. Read More