★★★★★ Gossamer Folds is a positive and uplifting drama that takes you on a spectacular journey with its phenomenal characters. Once I entered director Lisa Donato’s colorful world, I never wanted to leave. While brimming with positivity and hope, Gossamer dips its toes in the troubling waters of vicious transphobic hate crimes, adultery, transphobia, and … Continue reading Oxford Film Festival 2021: Gossamer Folds
SBIFF 2021: Broken Diamonds
★★★★★ Schizophrenia is a disease that doesn’t get nearly enough attention, and rarely do we get to see it on film in a convincing way. The most famous example is obviously Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind, which I personally find overrated and bordering on exploitative. Broken Diamonds comes at a time when exploring mental illness and … Continue reading SBIFF 2021: Broken Diamonds
Film Review: Moffie
★★★★ Nominated for a BAFTA award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer, South Africa’s Moffie is a harrowing depiction of military service during the Apartheid regime. The title, a slang Afrikaans term for a gay man, clues us in on what we can expect: intense racism, toxic masculinity, and deep-seeded homophobia. … Continue reading Film Review: Moffie
Film Review: Here Are the Young Men
★★★ Here Are the Young Men brings together a stellar cast jammed full of television mainstays already comfortable with fleshing out characters of their own. These include Animal Kingdom’s Finn Cole, Game of Thrones’ Dean-Charles Chapman, The Queen’s Gambit’s Anya Taylor-Joy, and Viking’s Ferdia Walsh-Peelo and Travis Fimmel. All deliver performances worthy of a bit … Continue reading Film Review: Here Are the Young Men
Oxford Film Festival 2021: Drought
★★ Drought, set in North Carolina circa 1993, is a coming-of-age film targeting a weather-obsessed Autistic teen named Carl (Owen Scheid). His family doesn’t exactly support his obsession, imploring him to cut the meteorology discussion at the table. After his troubled mother gets arrested, Carl unceremoniously gets fired from his job. His sister Sam (Hannah … Continue reading Oxford Film Festival 2021: Drought
Film Review: Sugar Daddy
★★★ Sugar Daddy presents an appealingly simple story: Darren (actress Kelly McCormack, in an enthralling lead performance), a talented aspiring musician, is stone-cold broke. Darren stumbles upon an easy way to build funds: a website where rich guys set up dates, and women get paid just to go. The lead character’s emotional state as she … Continue reading Film Review: Sugar Daddy
Interview: Actresses Raechelle Banno & Karina Banno
Photo credit: Mollie Rose for Raechelle Banno; George Maher for Karina Banno From the network that brought to life many of the books in V.C. Andrews’ rich bibliography, comes the newest film adaptations. Adapted from the Ruby Landry books, Ruby, Pearl in the Mist, All That Glitters, and Hidden Jewel are every bit as pulpy … Continue reading Interview: Actresses Raechelle Banno & Karina Banno
Film Review: The Voices
★★ Creepy dead people who speak to you is nothing new (hello, 1999’s The Sixth Sense), but creepy dead people talking to a blind woman who also desire reincarnation through the body of her unborn child has definite potential. The feature film debut of director Nathaniel Nuon, The Voices tries to sway from typical horror … Continue reading Film Review: The Voices
Favorite Film Friday: Call Me By Your Name
Each Friday, I will be exploring (and dissecting) one of my favorite films of all time. I’ll be delving into spoilers for each film, as I elaborate on why they remain so vital. This week, I decided to cover 2018’s poetic, visually stunning drama, Call Me By Your Name. This gay romance/drama film had so … Continue reading Favorite Film Friday: Call Me By Your Name
Film Review: VC Andrews’ Hidden Jewel
★★★ The darkest and most serious in tone out of the four Landry Lifetime adaptations, Hidden Jewel backpedals from the over-the-top intrigue of the previous two movies. The film rewinds the action as well, forming a self-reflective ‘greatest hits’ journey. Returning to the bayou of the origin film, Ruby, allows us to consider just how … Continue reading Film Review: VC Andrews’ Hidden Jewel