Sundance ’22: ‘FRESH’ a Horrific Meat-Cute That Takes a Bites out of Modern Dating

January 21, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Daisy Edgar-Jones, Fresh, Horror, Mimi Cave, Reviews, Sebastian Stan, Sundance, Sundance 2022 Leave a comment

A one-of-a-kind allegorical delicacy, Fresh revels in taboo subjects to poke fun at the stomach-churning appetites of the modern dating world. A delirious mash-up of cheesy romance and body horror shlock, the debut film from Mimi Cave begins in deliciously grotesque fashion, showing flashes of both American Psycho and Martyrs as her devilish meat-cute puts a dark spin on the idea of “finding the right guy”. Overnight, chemistry and flirtation turns to imprisonment and cannibalism, giving new meaning to the phrase “eating butt.” Read More

Sundance ’22: ‘EMERGENCY’ Effectively Mixes ‘Superbad’, ‘Blindspotting’

January 20, 2022 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Carey Williams, Donald Watkins, Emergency, RJ Cyler, Sundance, Sundance 2022 Leave a comment

A perfect way to officially launch the Sundance 2022, Emergency reimagines the Superbad formula through the lens of Blindspotting. Striking a well-oiled balance between drama and comedy, this riff on the “best friends on the verge of graduation” goes down some pretty harrowing rabbit holes, rarely pulling its punches as it explores prescient themes of racism, brotherhood, and Black excellence. Smartly-written, director Carey Williams’ killer debut explores black friendship and fraternity as straight-laced Kunle (Donald Watkins) and party animal Sean (RJ Cyler) prepare for a wild night of partying that goes off the rails in ways they never imagined. Read More

Sundance 2021: ‘SUMMER OF SOUL (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised)’ Finally Televises the Revolution…And It Rules

February 3, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Documentary, Questlove, Reviews, Summer of Soul, Summer of Soul (…Or, Sundance, Sundance 2021, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised) 2 Comments

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised), Ahmir Khalib Thompson’s (aka Questlove) infectious collection of never-before-seen-footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival (defamed for generations as “Black Woodstock”) is both a musical spectacular blowout and a powerful deconstruction of the Black experience of the era. In a lyrical collage of glorious music and sociological study set at the end of the Civil Rights Movement, Summer of Soul looks through the lens of performance, activism, and musical genealogy to speak to our country’s history, black identity, and the all-transformative power of soul. The musical segments alone make Questlove’s Sundance-winning documentary an absolute must-see. The sociopolitical commentary that runs throughout however makes it essential. Read More

Sundance 2021: Stunning Performances Make ‘MASS’ A Sorrowful Reflection On The Aftermath of Violence

February 1, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews, Most Popular Tagged (Jacob Isaacs, Ann Dowd, Fran Kranz, Martha Plimpton, Mass, Reed Birney, Sundance, Sundance 2021 3 Comments

Two sets of parents, Jay (Jacob Isaacs) and Gail (Martha Plimpton), and Linda (Ann Dowd) and Richard (Reed Birney), meet six years after a tragedy that forever changed their lives. A swirling character-focused chamber piece about responsibility, guilt, grief, parenting, and forgiveness, Mass is an incredibly difficult weepy that honestly confronts challenging material. To go into the specifics of those details is to deny the reader of the hard-fought suspense that the filmmaker works to achieve so do try to go into this as blind as you can. Read More

Sundance 2021: Oral Histories and Prison Hierarchies Make Up ‘NIGHT OF THE KINGS’

February 1, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Bakary Koné, NEON, Night of the Kings, Steve Tientcheu, Sundance, Sundance 2021 1 Comment

As a piece of metafictional drama, Philippe Lacôte’s Night of the Kings delivers a wholly unique spin on the power of storytelling, weaving a story within a story that’s characterized by Shakespearean turns and prison-palace intrigue. Deep in the first of Côte d’Ivoire’s Abidjan lies “La Maca” prison. There, the inmates run the asylum. Read More

Sundance 2021: Porn Industry Is More Business, Less ‘PLEASURE’ In Phenomenal Star Is Born Cum-Up

February 1, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews, Most Popular Tagged Casey Calvert, Chris Cock, Dana DeArmond, Evelyn Claire, Kendra Spade, Mark Spiegler, Ninja Thyberg, Peter Modestij, Pleasure, Reviews, Sofia Kappel, Sundance, Sundance 2021 2 Comments

The porn industry is first and foremost just that: an industry. Pleasure, the stunning expansion of Swedish writer-director Ninja Thyberg’s 2013 short of the same name, takes an unfiltered and decidedly hardcore look at how the porn industry operates through the lens of newcomer “Bella Cherry” (an incredible Sofia Kappel). A Swedish transplant that just arrived in LA with her mind set on being the next big thing in porn, Bella declares at passport control that she’s in the States for pleasure but soon discovers that she’s there for business. And business can be a sticky situation. Read More

Sundance 2021: Clifton Collins Jr.’s Work As a ‘JOCKEY’ is Backbreaking but Soul-Affirming

January 31, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Clifton Collins Jr., Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Jockey, Moises Arias, Molly Parker, Sundance, Sundance 2021 1 Comment

Every rider has a laundry list of injuries: cracked ribs, broken collar bones, shattered hips, busted noses. Riding on a professional circuit comes with no shortage of physical, social, and spiritual wear and tear and Jackson (Clifton Collins Jr.) is already well into his sunset years in Clint Bentley’s spirited but gentle horse drama Jockey. Read More

Sundance 2021: Robin Wright Proves Herself in Wyoming-Set ‘LAND’

January 31, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Demian Bichir, Erin Dignam, Jesse Chatham, Land, Robin Wright, Sundance, Sundance 2021 1 Comment

Everybody hurts sometimes. But for Edee (Robin Wright), hurt has pervaded every nook and cranny of existence in Wright’s somber, self-reflective directorial debut Land. We know of Edee’s loss only through fragments: the glimpses of a husband and son inauspiciously missing. The thinly-veiled threats of self-harm made to her sister (Kim Dickens.) Edee is an irrevocably altered force for reasons that are all too clear. Read More

Sundance 2021: Twisty Holocaust Survivor Doc MISHA AND THE WOLVES’ Is Not What It Appears To Be

January 31, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Documentary, Jane Daniel, Misha and the Wolves, Misha Defonseca, Sam Hobkinson, Sundance, Sundance 2021 Leave a comment

At the center of Sam Hobkinson’s stirring documentary Misha and the Wolves is a beautiful story of youthful resilience: a 7-year old girl in Nazi-occupied Belgium trying to find her parents is taken in by a wolf pack. Through German forests, she evades and searches for her captive mother and father, the pack helping the young girl to survive both the elements and the Nazis that lay in her path. Read More

Sundance 2021: You Simply Cannot Unplug From Chilling Documentary ‘A GLITCH IN THE MATRIX’

January 30, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged A Glitch in the Matrix, Documentaries, Rodney Ascher, Sundance, Sundance 2021 Leave a comment

No one can wring more documentarian juice from a conspiracy theory than Rodney Ascher. With A Glitch in the Matrix, the director of Room 237 – a deconstruction of the multitude of fan theories centered around Stanley Kubrick and his making of The Shining (including the oft-trend myth that the film included a subtle confession that Kubrick helped fake the moon landing) – and The Nightmare – an eerie, if wonky, study of the terrors of sleep paralysis – has settled soundly into his niche, creating his most complete and haunting film to date as he begs the question, “Are we living in a simulation?” Read More