While Meredith Johnston may not be a household name, the actress delivers one heck of a performance in Pet Names. Leigh didn’t finish college and her mom is sick. Having to take care of her, she’s in desperate need of an escape from reality. A chance encounter with her ex-boyfriend Cam (Rene Cruz) soon leads Leigh to make a foolish mistake by going camping with her ex. Even if Leigh had the best of intentions,…
"SXSW 2018: Pet Names"Category: Movie Reviews
There’s been a lot of films that took place in New York City but The World Before Your Feet may just be the most unique as it follows Matt Green on his walk across every block of the city. Matt Green may be crazy. He quit his job as a civil engineer to walk across America from Rockaway Beach, N.Y., to Rockaway Beach, Ore. in 2010. A few years later, he’s at it again and walking…
"SXSW 2018: The World Before Your Feet"
Operation Odessa is a documentary that goes behind the scenes of what happened when a mobster, playboy, and a Cuban spy sold a Soviet submarine to the Cali Cartel, a Columbian drug cartel. The story is so crazy that it is completely insane. It was 1997 when a federal task force had uncovered a plot to sell a Soviet submarine to a Columbia drug cartel for a whopping $35 million. The feds were under the…
"SXSW 2018: Operation Odessa"
Social Animals is a documentary that explores the how and why people decide to use Instagram as a social media tool and what followers, likes, and comments mean. With over 700 million active users of the social media app, it would be practically impossible to make a documentary about every single person that uses Instagram. Instead, it must be whittled down to just a few people in order to make even a decent documentary. Wisely, Jonathan…
"SXSW 2018: Social Animals"
If writer-director Chloé Zhao isn’t a household name, it certainly will be after a docudrama, The Rider, reaches a wider audience. Brady Blackburn (Brady Jandreau) was going to be a star of the rodeo one day. Unfortunately for him, he suffered from a riding accident while competing and ends up in a coma for a few days. For Brady, it means that his days of competing are over. For any rider, it’s a sad day to…
"SXSW 2013: The Rider"
Alt-Right: Age of Rage is perhaps the only documentary this year that one will watch and can’t help getting angry. It’s not even the good anger but the WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING THEY’RE RIGHT ANGER! Without a doubt, it’s a documentary that requires a trigger warning before going forward. Director Adam Bhala Lough manages to profile a lot of key players of the “alt-right,” which the AP would have you label as a multitude of…
"SXSW 2018: Alt-Right: Age of Rage"
Based on the novel by Willy Vlautin, film festival favorite Lean on Pete tells the poignant story of of a teenage boy and his strong connection to a horse. Charley Thompson (Charlie Plummer) hasn’t had an easy life living with his father Ray (Travis Fimmel). Charley’s mom is out of the picture and looking for meaning in his life, he turns to the Portland Downs racetrack where he meets Del Montgomery (Steve Buscemi) and jockey Bonnie (Chloë Sevigny). …
"SXSW 2018: Lean on Pete"
The Death of Stalin takes a comic approach from director/co-writer Armando Iannucci when it comes to the death of the Russian dignitary in the 1950s. The all-star cast assembled includes Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Paul Chahdi, Dermot Crowley, Adrian McLaughlin, Paul Whitehouse, and Jeffrey Tambor. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer! Politics is no easy game to play and there are…
"The Death of Stalin: A Comic Approach to 1950s Russia"
Based on classic novel, A Wrinkle In Time may break the time-space continuum but there’s a lot of important life lessons at hand–none more important than to win against fear. Middle school student Meg Murry (Storm Reid) is struggling in school. This isn’t so much because of her school work but because her father, Mr. Murry (Chris Pine) has been missing for four years now. Nobody knows why he disappeared as he just vanished one…
"A Wrinkle In Time: Let Ava DuVernay Direct Everything"
While late actor Anton Yelchin serves as the third lead of Thoroughbreds, his performance is a reminder of how much was lost when his life came to a tragic ending. Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Amanda (Olivia Cooke) used to be close friends when they were growing up but their friendship faded away in recent years. Lily’s parents had sent away to boarding school and she was able to land an internship. Meanwhile, Amanda, who has…
"Thoroughbreds: Goodbye, Anton Yelchin"