“In ‘I Love You Forever,’ David and Kalani have their fingers firmly on the pulse of the current zeitgeist, injecting a much-needed youthful zest into a well-worn genre with an artful eye and incisive wit.”
“What sets ‘Invader’ apart from more conventional stalker horror films is its feverish aesthetic that owes more to the manic energy of 1970s and 80s exploitation cinema than modern genre trends.”
“Love on Trial’s opening two acts integrate personal drama into a subtly scathing social critique, but Fukada’s narrative loses power when the heroine must contend with the dark price of fame.”
“Michael Casey and Paddy Murphy’s ‘Lulu and the Electric Dreamboat’ is a winsome coming-of-age film with surgical wit.”
“‘I Only Rest in the Storm’ is a succinctly angry film in large part because Pinho knows it doesn’t offer a reassuring explanation about its myriad themes.”
“‘The Heirloom’ doesn’t follow a conventional climactic structure, and its brittle, dry humor and abstract tone may not appeal to everyone. However, Petrie’s inventive vision is admirable…”
“Public Information Films, once tools for instruction, became haunted reflections of a nation’s growing uncertainty and discontent…”
“By the end of Carroll’s frustrating and stylistically unambitious film, it seems that there was a deeper, more interesting story just out of reach.”
“‘Swing Bout’ doesn’t establish enough of a backstory for any of the key players for them to register beyond the individual performances…”
“Perhaps if ‘Crawdaddy’ played into the idea of an unremarkably ordinary man becoming a sex symbol for comedy, the sillier tone elsewhere wouldn’t feel as disparate from the rest.”
“‘Vulcanizadora’ is an astonishing coming-of-age tale for adults-in-crisis.”
“‘Ransom Canyon’ season 1 would’ve been much more entertaining with a stronger focus on Staten and Quinn’s perspectives/wants/needs, and how their values influence the people around them and the overall community culture.”
“Unapologetically queer, sexy, messy and celebratory all at once, by refusing to conform to mainstream norms and instead leaning into the chaos, ‘Queens of Drama’ is utterly transcendent.”
“It’s a shame that the conversations ‘The Fishing Place’ will provoke just might be far more substantial than anything within the film itself.”
“Taken purely as a cheap thrills style horror movie, ‘Unfriended’ is hugely effective. But as an unflinching denouncement of peer pressure and cyberbullying, it’s downright terrifying.”
“In Lodge Kerrigan’s first three features, he asks audiences to consider those left in the wake of his central characters…”
“‘Manucure 24/24’ betrays the formula of so many short film productions, as the filmmakers fully embrace the task at hand with a vibrant color palette, a catchy needle-drop and an always-relevant feminist message.”
“‘Liquor Bank’ is a fine example of economical indie filmmaking.”
“‘Thank You Very Much’ separates itself from previous Kaufman documentaries in the way the director directly confronts the correlation between an artist’s childhood trauma and creative outlook as an adult.”
“The biggest problem with ‘Pet Shop Days’ is the extent to which it feels indebted to both an earlier wave of rebellious LGBTQ cinema and current trends in American independent filmmaking, never finding a distinct identity beyond homage.”