Writer-director Jennifer Phang’s Netflix film Advantageous is a feminist science fiction film for lovers of French New Wave cinema and intimate family dramas. It deals with issues of race, motherhood, and economic hardship.
Film Festivals
Docs Iris and Best of Enemies delight and educate
Opening weekend of the San Francisco International Film Festival featured a wide range of documentaries, from the delightful and impressive Iris to the educational if somewhat disappointing Best of Enemies. Here’s a look at these two films. Iris **** Master documentarian Albert Maysle’s final film is an introduction to the lively, fashionable, and fabulous 93-year-old New York […]
Weekend 1 at SFIFF: Mr. Holmes, Entertainment, and Sand Dollars
Set in the Dominican Republic, Sand Dollars follows a local twenty-something Noeli (Yanet Mojica) who makes her living by sleeping with the rich European tourists.
Women shine behind the camera at SFIFF58
One of the great pleasures of attending the San Francisco International Film Festival is the ability to binge on films by female auteurs, which are much harder to come by throughout the year. This year, you can catch Helen Hunt’s sophomore feature, Ride, a follow-up to her wonderful debut “Then She Found Me.” It’s also […]
Sundance Review: Take Me to the River is creepy, unsettling, and a tad thin
Perhaps the most polarizing film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, writer-director Matt Sobel’s Take Me To The River has left some critics grossed out and others fascinated with this evocative, probing mood piece that winds up a bit thin.
Best of Sundance NEXT 2015: Poekel’s bittersweet and quiet Christmas Again
Christmas, Again is a quiet, subtle film from writer-director Charles Poekel, about a lonely man, aptly named Noel (Kentucker Audley), who spends the week before Christmas selling and delivering Christmas trees.