Sundance’s strengths for me this year (as in the past) were the festival’s documentaries.
Film
Film Interview: Gillian Wallace Horvat on “I Blame Society”
“Everybody in this industry right now is looking for like, female beards to rescue them, but that’s not what we’re here for.”
Film Review: “I Blame Society” — Bringing Out Your Inner Serial Killer
I Blame Society may put off some enlightened neoliberals, but it is a fun little B-movie with killer insight and attitude to spare.
Arts Remembrance: Christopher Plummer, 1929-2021
It is difficult to think of a harder-working actor or one more devoted to his craft.
Film Review: “The World to Come” — A Haunting Female Frontier Romance
The excitement of these films – perhaps the word frisson would not be amiss – is that these women are envisioned as explorers in the land of Eros, map-makers of new terrain, discovering and inventing love as they go.
Film Review: “Son of the South” — The Civil Rights Movement, Served on Wonder Bread
What we need is to see the world through the eyes of Black activists, even though that might be frightening to White audiences reluctant to deal with the unmediated truth.
Film Review: “Psycho Goreman” – The Gory Adventures of Luke and Mimi
A B-movie inspired horror-comedy, Psycho Goreman is a delightfully schlocky homage to entry-level, kid-centric horror films but with the sort of grotesque violence one would expect from a more adult-oriented movie.
Film Review: “Censor” — “The Horror, the Horror…”
Censor explores thought-provoking questions about the strange relationships between films, society, fantasy, and reality — and individual identity — in an increasingly mediated and violent world.
Television Review: “Strip Down, Rise Up” — The Liberation of Pole Dancing
An intriguing look at smashing the patriarchy through the art of pole dancing.
Film Review: Buster Keaton’s “The Cameraman” — The Final Feature-Length Blaze of Brilliance
The Cameraman is the hilarious capstone to a glorious period that began for Buster Keaton in the late teens.