Indie Movies
Independent movie reviews from film festivals, theaterical releases, video-on-demand, home video and streaming.
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The Overnighters
The Overnighters feels like one of those rare, lightning in a bottle stories caught in a documentary. What are the odds of coming upon such an incredible story, let alone one that manages to be captured on camera? Life imitates art...
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Camp X-Ray
Camp X-Ray opens like a tense thriller, with the capture of Ali Amir (Peyman Moaadi) and his transportation to Guantanamo Bay, played out in quick, rapid cuts and an imposing soundtrack. The film may start with intensity but this isn’t...
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It Was You Charlie
The moment near the end of a film that puts everything you have just watched into perspective is a dicey proposition. It requires the closing payoff to be something worth waiting for–and more importantly, it demands deft storytelling. To...
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The Pact 2
At the end of Nicholas McCarthy’s The Pact, Annie (Caity Lotz) killed the Judas Killer, her crazed uncle responsible for the decapitation of several women over several decades. Annie was ready to move on, but Evil (or, more accurately, film...
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Life After Beth
While zombie movies can be traced back to the 1930s, the modern zombie film era is generally accepted to have begun with George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968). Since then, the zombie movie has been a...
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Believe Me
Believe Me marks director Will Bakke’s first foray into fiction film after two documentaries, One Nation Under God and Beware of the Christians. Both of these films attempted to explore Christianity’s place within modern society, by asking people on...
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Lilting
Almost every film review I have written has opened with an introduction relating to the film at hand, whether it be an anecdote or a trivia item about awards, news, or details relating to the film. In the case...
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Two Night Stand
While tales of the war zone that is online dating in our modern era are timely, the release date of the latest film to cover the subject, Two Night Stand, seems to be a bit off. Taking place between...
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Starred Up
Fans of the terrific cult British teen drama Skins have long suspected that it was only a matter of time before Jack O’Connell rose to star status. Fantastic as many of the young actors of that series were, O’Connell...
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Laggies (TIFF Review)
Coming off a disappointing previous film (Touchy Feely), director Lynn Shelton returns with Laggies to what she does best —examining likable but flawed characters at a crossroads in their life. Working from a script she didn’t write (a first for...
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20,000 Days on Earth
Nick Cave, a musician, songwriter, author, and sometime actor, whose music seems to polarize listeners into love or hate categories, fictitiously frames his 20,000th day on earth in this choreographed documentary. A day in which Cave allows the world...
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The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears
After decades of watching movies, I never thought I would discover a genre I had never heard of before. Such is the case–was the case–with “giallo.” “Giallo” (from the Italian for “yellow”) is a style of filmmaking that mixes...
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Honeymoon
Newlywed life is fraught with difficulty as adjusting to life with someone else can make for plenty of stressful situations. At the least, the honeymoon phase can usually be depended upon to be a time of blissful happiness before reality...
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They Have Escaped (TIFF Review)
Finnish filmmaker J.-P. Valkeapää comes up with a wild take on a boy-meets-girl story in They Have Escaped, which appropriately premieres in the offbeat Vanguard section of the Toronto International Film Festival. Using intriguing camera techniques, the film expends...
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The New Girlfriend (TIFF Review)
If there’s anything we’ve learned from François Ozon‘s past work it’s this: The man is unafraid to explore boundaries of sexuality. And he does it extremely well (see: Young & Beautiful, 8 Women, In the House, Swimming Pool). While...
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Kelly & Cal
Juliette Lewis is an actress who seems to get relegated to supporting roles. It makes sense though. There is a wounded quality to her. Her performances are often comic, but there is regularly something sad, desperate and manic to...
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The Strange Little Cat
Want to know the definition of beguiling? Look no further than The Strange Little Cat. Ramon Zürcher’s debut feature definitely lives up to both of its title’s adjectives. At 69 minutes in length, it’s so brief it barely even qualifies...
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To Be Takei
It’s hard “shocked” when information about a celebrity’s past is revealed. Nowadays information about someone gets dredged up by the TMZs of the world and distributed ad nauseam across social media. Plus, there is very little a celebrity could...
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Senoritas
Lina Rodriguez’s Señoritas opens with a lengthy shot of Alejandra (María Serrano) looking out a car window as she goes around Bogotá. Rodriguez, a Canadian-based filmmaker from Colombia, went back home to shoot her debut feature in Bogotá, an...
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Lyle
Indie filmmakers will try anything – and god bless them for doing it – to fund their next film. Options have ranged from begging family and friends for cash and giving producer credits to financial donors to maxing out...
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About Alex
About Alex is very much a film of its time. For starters, the film is occasionally hyper-aware, in the Chris Miller-Phil Lord vein, of its architecture as a film imbued with tropes. The film also feels like a clichéd...
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The Zero Theorem
Terry Gilliam is no stranger to absurd dystopian science-fiction films. His best work came early in his career with films like Brazil and Twelve Monkeys, and his latest film The Zero Theorem feels like an extension to those titles....
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The One I Love
Let me first start out by saying that this review contains some spoilers found in The One I Love. Normally I believe spoilers shouldn’t be discussed in reviews, but in this case the “twist” is revealed almost immediately and...
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The Dog
If you ask any film buff to rattle off a list of 10 great Al Pacino films, or if you avoid social interaction and just Google it, several crime dramas are guaranteed to appear (and usually in the Top...
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Frank
No matter the mixed criticism of Frank, one thing the film makes obvious is more bands should be using theremins. That’s not just a frivolous statement, it’s part of the movie’s sugarcoated message on the value of sticking out, embracing your limits,...
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Abuse of Weakness
In 2004, Catherine Breillat suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage, triggering a stroke that paralyzed half of her body. She eventually recovered, and after getting back to filmmaking she met Christophe Rocancourt, a notorious con artist. Breillat wanted Rocancourt to...
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Cannibal
Director Manuel Martín Cuenca’s Cannibal won the 2013 Goya Award (the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars) for best cinematography. It’s not hard to see why. Pau Esteve Birba’s cinematography is eerie and elegant, and it helps set the mood...
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Miss Violence
The term Greek New Wave (sometimes called Weird Wave) has been floating around ever since Giorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth screened at Cannes in 2009. The film instantly won over critics with its unique and absurd style, winning the Un Certain...
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At the Devil’s Door
The long road between the small screen and the silver screen is littered with the corpses of wonderfully talented individuals who knew nothing but success when beamed into millions of homes each week, but many failed to bring those...
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Palo Alto
Gia Coppola’s Palo Alto wades through the malaise of modern teen life as well as any movie has in years, reminding us of how dirty and distressing high school life can truly be. Based on a book of short stories by James...