2010s

CARDBOARD GANGSTERS: Irish Crime Thriller is Brutally Effective
CARDBOARD GANGSTERS: Irish Crime Thriller Is Brutally Effective

A searingly authentic piece of work, Cardboard Gangsters brings complexity and surprising humanity to a world of gangsters, persuasively evoking the lives of marginalized people.

D'INKED - A TATTOO REMOVAL DOCUMENTARY: An Eye Opener
D’INKED – A TATTOO REMOVAL DOCUMENTARY: An Eye Opener

D’Inked: A Tattoo Removal Documentary delves into the world of tattoos and the people who subsequently decide to have theirs removed, showing the arduous process and how it has changed the culture of tattoos.

THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT: Knocks A Bit Louder The Second Time Around
THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT: Knocks A Bit Louder The Second Time Around

With sophisticated cinematography and aesthetics, The Strangers: Prey at Night and its moody semblance of survival preserves dread just enough to deserve its place in slasher cinema.

WILD WILD COUNTRY: A True Story That Seems Stranger Than Fiction
WILD WILD COUNTRY: A True Story That Seems Stranger Than Fiction

Wild Wild Country is highly intriguing, captivating its audience from the very beginning, provoking sincere emotion and proving itself to be wild indeed.

THE VANISHING OF SIDNEY HALL: Tricksy Melodrama About a Depressed Novelist Falls Flat
THE VANISHING OF SIDNEY HALL: Tricksy Melodrama About a Depressed Novelist Falls Flat

Despite some promising moments, The Vanishing of Sidney Hall never quite reaches the level of its ambition, ultimately fading in the background amongst more prominent films about the art of writing.

THE THIRD MURDER: A Complex puzzle of a legal thriller
THE THIRD MURDER: A Complex Puzzle Of A Legal Thriller

Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest film The Third Murder is a complex, rewarding legal thriller that is a notable departure from his usual humanist approach to character studies.

1985: A Tender Elegy For The AIDS Epidemic
SXSW Review: 1985: A Tender Elegy For The AIDS Epidemic

Relying heavily on the personal over the historical, 1985 is a gripping reminder that the social drama need not be loud and tumultuous for it to be effective.

FINDING YOUR FEET: Pensioner Dramedy Is Surprisingly Moving
FINDING YOUR FEET: Pensioner Dramedy Is Surprisingly Moving

Though it is too perfectly machine-tooled to appeal to British pensioners, Finding Your Feet is a charming and funny ride.

SXSW Review: MOST LIKELY TO MURDER: A Noir Comedy For The Holidays
SXSW Review: MOST LIKELY TO MURDER: A Noir Comedy For The Holidays

Most Likely to Murder may not reinvent the wheel of holiday films, but its subversion of the genre, especially its willingness to fully indict and satirize its own protagonist, gives us ample reason to invest interest in the future of director Dan Gregor’s filmography.

TERRIFIER: Elements of Horror, but missing Depth and a Point
TERRIFIER: Missing Depth & A Point

Director Damien Leone’s horror introduces us to the terrifying Art the Clown – it’s just a shame the rest of the movie doesn’t live up to the terrifying promise of its central big bad.

SXSW Review: 6 BALLOONS: An Intimate Foray Into Crisis
SXSW Review: 6 BALLOONS: An Intimate Foray Into Crisis

Far from the average Netflix indie, 6 Balloons is a thrilling turn for its co-stars and a promising sophomore picture for its director.

SXSW Review: YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR FAMILY: A Tour Of Toxic Masculinity
SXSW Review: YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR FAMILY (BEING FRANK): A Tour Of Toxic Masculinity

The narrative debut of director Miranda Bailey, You Can Choose Your Family, is a misjudged dark comedy that earns enough goodwill through the committed performances from its ensemble.

MIDNIGHTERS: A Perfectly Watchable Midnight Thriller
MIDNIGHTERS: A Perfectly Watchable Midnight Thriller

Midnighters doesn’t ask too much from the audience. Respectfully, it knows what it is: a popcorn thriller with style and a bit of substance, enjoyable for anyone who likes a thriller in the Hitchc*ckian vein.

Sorry To Bother You Review
SXSW Review: SORRY TO BOTHER YOU: Boots Riley’s Absurdist, Existential, Surreal, Anti-Capitalist Sci-Fi Masterpiece Of A Debut

It’s hard to describe what Boots Riley’s debut, Sorry To Bother You, is actually about, because it is trippy, all over the place, and absolutely brilliant. You need to see it.

SXSW Review: PROSPECT: A Slow-Burning, Atmospheric Hard Sci-Fi
SXSW Review: PROSPECT: A Slow-Burning, Atmospheric Hard Sci-Fi

Quite different from the big budget, blockbuster action films that we associate with sci-fi nowadays, Prospect is a slow-burning, languid study of people who end up at the wrong place at the wrong time, somewhere in outer space.