What We Left Unfinished never moves past the basic work of archivalism. 1921. 1989. 2021. The cycles of imperial superpowers invading, occupying, and summarily abandoning Afghanistan run their course with horrifying regularity to the point of near mundanity. To American and European onlookers, even the…
Whirlybird ultimately disappoints with its own kind of bland journalism. Charting the professional milestones and personal travails of Zoey Tur and Marika Gerrard, the dynamic partners noted for their contributions to L.A. live reportage (most prominently coverage of O.J. Simpson’s trial and high-speed freeway chase),…
American Sausage Standoff is even more asinine than its title suggests. The first question that must be asked of American Sausage Standoff has to be: what the hell, actually, is this? Danish actor Ulrich Thomsen, perhaps best known for his leading role in Thomas Vinterberg’s…
The minor miracle of Playing God is that it somewhat works despite its obviously stupid conceit. One would be forgiven for mistaking the new con artist dramedy Playing God for yet another Conservative-leaning, faith-based project from the PureFlix assembly line, home of the godforsaken God’s Not…
Blood Conscious is a low-key horror charmer that mostly succeeds on the strength of its clever manipulations. Blood Conscious, the debut feature from writer-director-editor Timothy Covell, starts on a note of ripped-from-the-headlines horror, as siblings Kevin (Oghenero Gbaje) and Brittney (DeShawn White) — accompanied by…
Can You Bring It is a sumptuous, intelligent work about the beauty and infinity of the creative process. Following the evolution of the titular groundbreaking dance piece, D-Man in the Waters, in the three decades since its release, Can You Bring It weaves together…
Broken Diamonds at least steers clear of the offensive depictions that sink so many schizophrenia flicks, but it doesn’t rise much above this low bar. The portrayal of schizophrenia in film is often problematic, to say the least, as the afflicted are often presented…
Before We Vanish by Daniel Gorman Film
Rock, Paper and Scissors | Martin Blousson & Macarena Garcia Lenzi
Rock, Paper and Scissors starts off beguilingly odd, but fails to ever realize its genre potency and soon falls into wheel-spinning. There’s something very wrong with Maria Jose (Valeria Giorcelli) and her younger brother Jesus (Pablo Sigal). Living a hermetic existence in the dilapidated…
The Man with the Answers aims for restraint but instead fails to either properly probe or articulate its characters. A well-meaning and tentative entrant into the realm of slow-burn road trip romances, Stelios Kammitsis’ The Man with the Answers is perhaps most noteworthy for…
Long Story Short is occasionally pretty to look at but otherwise gruelingly repetitive and dull. From the guy that played Kano in this year’s Mortal Kombat reboot comes Long Story Short, an Australian romantic comedy that basically takes the third act of Adam Sandler’s…
