Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel is the documentary that tells the story of the underdog team that shook the hearts of Jews across the globe. It wasn’t just that Team Israel grabbed the hearts of Jewish baseball fans but they were never expected to go as far as they did. When Team Israel won the qualifier over Great Britain in 2016 and advanced to the the 2017 World Baseball Classic, MLB reporter Jonathan…
"Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel Swings For The Fences"
A dark comedy about meaning and connection, Flower gives actress Zoey Deutch a big opportunity with a star-making role. Erica Vandross (Zoey Deutch), a defiant 17-year old, lives with her mother, Laurie, (Kathryn Hahn) and Laurie’s boyfriend Bob (Tim Heidecker). With her father in prison, Erica goes around town with her friends, Kala (Dylan Gelula) and Claudine (Maya Eshet), to blackmail police officers. Bob’s son, Luke, moves in with them after he gets out of rehab. …
"Flower: Zoey Deutch is A Star In The Making"
Oscar winner Alicia Vikander gets the opportunity to kick ass in Tomb Raider in what is no doubt the best film based on a video game in quite some time. Films based on video games usually go one of two ways–they are good or they are downright awful. What Tomb Raider does is allow for Lara Croft do get a new origin story on screen in a way that reboots the franchise. Vikander takes the…
"Tomb Raider: Alicia Vikander Is An Action Hero"
The Dawn Wall tells the inspiring true story of Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson as they seek to climb the Dawn Wall of El Capitan. This is a wall that nobody had ever attempted to climb before but it gave Tommy a goal. The military veteran had come off of the hostility and tension that came after eight years in a relationship. Climbing just wasn’t enough for the two of them. His first wife ended up…
"SXSW 2018: The Dawn Wall"
The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned From A Mythical Man offers a glimpse into the many stranger-than-life stories about comedian Bill Murray. This is a film that took director Tommy Avallone across the country and even to the United Kingdom in order to collect all these crazy-but-true Bill Murray stories. He heard his first Bill Murray story over a decade ago–it was the one about Murray covering someone’s eyes and telling them that their friends…
"SXSW 2018: The Bill Murray Stories"
Man on Fire offers a glimpse at life in Grand Saline, Texas, where a white preacher Charles Moore killed himself in 2014. Moore’s life came to an end in 2014 with an act described as self-immolation. Self-immolation is described as the the killing of one’s self, usually by lighting their self on fire. At the time of his suicide, if you want to call it that, Moore was an elderly white man and it is…
"San Luis Obispo: Man on Fire (Slamdance 2018)"
With a topic that could not be more timely with the gender parity among directors in Hollywood, Half the Picture is such an important film. Amy Adrion, who directs the film, is a first-time director. There’s a staggering statistic regarding female filmmakers in that 84% will become a one-time director. A lot of this is due to financing or lack thereof. It doesn’t have to be this way. Studios can and should get better when…
"SXSW 2018: Half the Picture is Timely And Important"
With its mix of comedy and drama, Being Frank (formerly You Can Choose Your Family) delivers the goods in filmmaker Miranda Bailey’s narrative feature directorial debut. Frank Hansen (Jim Gaffigan) is a awful human. He’s perhaps the worst human of the world even if he isn’t willing to admit it. Frank’s problem is that he has two sets of everything but nothing is more secretive than his having two families. All his trips for work…
"SXSW 2018: Being Frank (You Can Choose Your Family)"
Men Don’t Whisper, one of my favorite short films that played Sundance and SXSW, is now available on Vimeo to watch. The 22-minute short film was directed by Jordan Firstman. Firstman wrote the screenplay with Search Party creator Charles Rogers. The two of them star alongside Fort Tilden co-stars Claire McNulty and Bridey Elliott. Elliott took home a Solzy Award in 2015 for her breakthrough performance in Fort Tilden. Firstman and Rogers star as Peyton…
"Men Don’t Whisper is Now Available"
If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd tells the story of the band through recent and archived interview footage. From “Free Bird” to “Sweet Home Alabama,” and beyond, the rare interviews and never-before-seen archive materials tell the story of the band that found their way from Jacksonville, Fla. to Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Ala. Beyond the songs, there is a pivotal moment in the band’s history that, while emotional, must…
"SXSW 2018: If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd"