With its arrival in limited theatrical release, this sequel expands one of the most unexpected and satisfying indie film offerings into an official trilogy. This series has become gilded, not in golden box office riches, but in a shiny red varnish of the bloody good fun these movies have shed, squirted, and sprayed across so many of its frames for six years now.
Read MoreA movie like Jimmy could recreate highlights for two hours, and audiences would welcome the show—and likely forgive mild caricature—if it meant snuggling up to that famous droll and some of his well-worn stories. But there was more to the Pennsylvania native and a motivation of greater purpose than what was projected on the silver screen.
Read MoreOne cinematic trait, among a great many, that the fine animation artists at the Portland-based Laika Studios consistently demonstrate is visual sweep. When you see one of their films, it’s like no other filmgoing experience. The precision movement and jaw-dropping detail poured into the production house’s 17-year, six-film catalog, which began with Coraline, is beyond impressive, and with Wildwood, that sense of sweep only gets bigger.
Read MoreDigger, with Alejandro González Iñárritu’s choices of layered implications that create a mystery as to the actual setting and time period in which all of this is taking place, invites the head-scratching question of whether one can make a satire and judge it at the same time, removing that latter participation step from the audience. Oh, the polarizing think pieces coming from this bleak and inky movie will fill volumes!
Read MoreWith decent chemistry and plenty of her own zingers, Lili Reinhart sets most of the scenes up, but the endearing transformation belongs to Bateman, in almost an academic Beauty and the Beast-tinged arc. No one is going to call Set It Up director Claire Scanlon’s fourth feature film high art or the next great screwball comedy, but it finds its stride the longer the fake dating carries on and creates our wishes it sticks around for good.
Read MoreMade on an indie budget’s dime with an all-hands-on-deck mentality (including Shelby Gaines helping pen the screenplay with Trench 11’s Matthew Booi), the grit of The Weight is hugely apparent, and it starts with Ethan Hawke. Spitting gravel with every line reading, Hawke weathers the unrelenting march with an understated, yet commanding performance.
Read MoreThe emotional quicksand in On a String is palpable, yet oddly endearing. Leave it to consummate down-player Dylan Baker to drop the zinger that nails the ideal tone by stopping a small venting rant from his on-screen daughter to say, “I hate to break it to you, but you’re not that special.” In different hands, this could all be stretched to an epic length and height to be played as a Poor Man’s Tar as some kind of toxic roller coaster making larger, bolder points.
Read MoreWhile his plots have been quite varied over Swanberg’s 20-year-plus career, some tale of love is almost always percolating in the background, often dwelling for long stretches at the pining level. There’s a very peculiar love triangle at the center of Swanberg’s new film, The Sun Never Sets, which epitomizes this energy; only this time, the flailing from attempted grand romantic gestures is the center of the movie, not the subplot.
Read MoreIt begs the question of what it would actually take to win the attention and approval of the device-centered youths of today. Would it be what’s in the film, as in a set of parents instituting a cold turkey removal of wi-fi, a migration to analog country isolation, and the nudging increase of go-out-and-get-dirty experiences? Sure, that stuff tends to work in fictional movies, but what about stepping out of the movie itself to the theatrical and streaming marketplaces.
Read MoreWhen a creative person gets the fullest chance to tell a piece of their autobiographic story through their chosen medium, that’s a special result worth celebrating. Lauren Caster is wonderfully granted that very freedom as she writes, directs, and stars in the gracious independent film Rhythm Is a Dancer.
Read MoreNo son or daughter wants the “Alvin!” treatment from any incarnation of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Olmo isn’t just the title of the new film from Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke that played at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and as a Panorama selection at the 75th Berlinale. It’s the word you hear hollered most often, much to the dismay of the character who bears the name, played by Night Swim newcomer Aivan Uttapa.
Read MoreIn many ways, there is no amount of “What the fuck is wrong with you?” questions, bellowed from both sides of this dichotomy, that will ever get to the bottom of the dirty depth being scooped in I Want Your Sex, and that’s a complete plus to the film’s appeal. Splicing comedy to sexual awakening in this day and age is a tall task, and scrambling brains with the jeopardy of fantasy fulfillment is even bolder.
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