Holy Cow (2024) opens Friday at the Film Forum

HOLY COW is the story of Totone, an 18 year old young man who loves to party. When his father dies he tries to curb his wild ways so that he can care for his young sister.

This is a sweet coming of age film that is closer to reality than any other coming of age film I’ve seen. Life is messy. Relationships are messy. There are sex and beer and stuff. If it wasn’t for more adult elements this would be a great family film simply because what we see is feels closer to life.

To be honest I need to see HOLY COW a second time to really see the film for what it is. I say this because the write up for the film at Cannes gave me the impression that the film was going to be a bit more narrowly focused. Instead the film is bit more wide ranging and covers a lot of territory.

It’s that wide ranging nature that kind of hurts the film slightly. The problem is that the film juggles a large number of plot and thematic threads at the same time while trying to focus on the romantic thread a bit too much. If the film were another fifteen or twenty minutes longer things would have been a bit smoother. As it stands now this is a good little film, which you’ll want to see continue. (A sequel? Yes please)

Nightcap 3/23/25: Sliding into the pause and some random notes on films

Scheduling the last of the New Directors New Films reviews and I am taking that previously mentioned break. I have three features and a short to review but the time table is relatively long. What this means is that I can kind of coast until the later half of April. 

That may not sound like much but it means I can play catch up on things I missed and want to see. It also means, outside of an interview I did this past week, I don't have to do I lot of writing. I think I've run out of words.

I need to find the desire to continue. I say that because I am running into way too many bad or mediocre films of late. Its as if the flood gates have opened and a lot of wastes of time escaped. I'm keeping bad films off my worst of the year list because they aren't as bad as others.

Actually the films this year have been firmly great or okay or bad. There hasn't been a lot of degrees. I either love something, thought it was okay and wanted to move on or hated it. Usually everything is I like certain things in a film and dislike others but its an interesting mix. What I'm seeing is not a mix.

It's killing my desire to cover films because there is little room for discussion

It also doesn't help that I'm feeling a bit isolated and antisocial. The last few weeks, while I have met up with some friends,  I've been spending way too much time alone. I feel like I've been living in a basement. Part of it is work, part of it is shifts in friends' schedules, part of it is taking on too much and part of it has been some health issues (nothing serious just annoying).

Most of the next six weeks look to be one review a day.

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As part of  cutting back I've been watching more and more films and series I'm not writing up.  These are things I just didn't feel like writing up.

To that end some random notes on movies I've been seeing and not reviewing in full (I may have mentioned some these before).

  

BORDERLANDS
After a couple of tries I think this all star scifi  film that is an absolute mess. It's a hypnotic road accident of a film with some great moments, an interesting performance by Cate Blanchett and a script that doesn't know what it wants to be be.  As background during multiple viewings it wasn't bad. Honestly there is enough here I wish they had a real script and a different director.

HERETIC

I desperately wanted to see this horror film because word among my friends was it was really good. I know some people said that the film was set up too much as a polemic on religion. For whatever reason the film disappointed. I think beyond it being over sold to me there is a formalness to the set up that it felt like a film checing off things in a ticky box. Yes it has moments, but over all it was just okay....that said I need a revisit.

CROSS 
This Amazon series is very good. I've liked all the cinematic configurations of the character. And this one is not exception. Is it my favorite? No but I will watch the next season.

ELEVATION
This Anthony Mackie action film about people have to stay above a certain elevation lest monsters get them isn't bad. It doesn't make a lick of sense, but tn minutes in you're just going with it. Definitely will watch this again when I run across it on cable.

SPEAK NO EVIL (remake)

The original film is so evil I never wanted to see the remake. Matt Schulman said it wasn't the original and I should see the mess they made of it. It is a mess, they removed th bleakness that made the original so powerful and watered it way down. Destined to be forgotten.

HERE
Why? It's an interesting idea but why?

I have watched several episodes of both the JACK RYAN and BOSCH series of Amazon and I liked them both. But I only watch them fleetingly

NEXT GOAL WINS

Taika Waititi needs to stop making movies. This is way worse than I imagined or heard. Everything is a joke and it might have been fine except none of the jokes are funny. See the documentary instead

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For those playing the home game I have finished the interview I did for THE FALLING SKY and it will run just before the LA play dates.

Girls and Gods (2025) CPH:DOX 2025

Portrait of Inna Shevchenko as she takes on the main stream view of religion and the misogyny it contains and ponders if there is a better way to move toward spirituality. 

This is a film that is going to sting a lot of people. Feminist Shevchenko is very straight forward and never backs down. Her view toward religion is a decidely anti-status quo one that will get on the nerves of many of the devoted followers of the various religions. She sees most beleif systems very anti- female. She also thinks that there is perhaps a better way, that isn't one of the choices with a hairy male comic thunderer at the center.

I don't think she's wrong, her point was argued by Nina Paley in her film SEDER-MASOCHISM a film that looked at being Jewish and that religion's notion of god via a conversation with her father. It was a film that very gently and very convincingly made similar points that got  people I know who saw that film thinking about how they view god.

As for this film points are made but I don't know how much will stick since this is not so much a discussion but a emotion fueled rallying cry by Shevchenko. It's a film that has one view point which it hammers away at over and over again. There is no real discussion or argument, more it's a statement of facts or it's an exploraion of a mindset, so there is nothing to engage because of it. This feels like a lecture or a polemic rather than anything else. The problem is that with anything like this is that you have a limited time before you lose the audience beyond the converted (and even then they can grow tired too).

I'm not saying that she 's wrong, only that after 105 minutes I felt the worng sort of worn down. 

Should you see the film? That depends upon your own point of view. While I agree with Shevchenko I don't feel the need to be lectured again.

Aquariums :The Dark Hobby (2021) hits VOD 3/25

 Dark Hobby is a look at the aquarium industry. More specifically it’s a look at the salt water aquarium industry which is stripping the reefs of Hawaii of the colorful fish. The trouble is that for 50 bucks and no training you can get a permit to collect fish. The trouble is that so many people are doing it the fish are disappearing and going extinct.  Worse the removal of such vast quantities of fish is destroying the echo system.

As someone who has had aquariums for much of his life, this is a shocking story.  I never realized that most fish last less than a year in their tanks and have to be replaced. (I say this because the fish that we had tended to last for years.) As pretty as the fish are I no longer see the reason to have something that is going to die so quickly.

While very much a one sided film, there really isn’t any talk about why putting the fish in a tank is a good thing, the film still makes its point if only in that it reveals how out of control the harvesting of fish is.  And it also reveals how dangerous can be  as the collectors violently try to stop the anti aquarium activists via means that are deadly.

If you care about the environment  this film is worth a look.

THE LAST AMBASSADOR (2025) CPH:DOX 2025

This is a portarit of the Afghan ambassador in Vienna, Manizha Bakhtari, who remains the country's only female ambassador since the Taliban's takeover.

This is a solid portrait of a woman doing what she feels is right under an incredibly difficult situation, she works for a regeime that very much wants to shut out women from public life. She has used her position to help Afghan women and girls continue to be educated, despite the Taliban ban on their going to school.

This is an eye opening film in a lot of ways. You would think that with all the problems the Taliban has created (she was appointed prior to their take over) that she would have walked away, but she is trying to do the right thing and make a difference. 

Watching the film is a bitter sweet affair. While you will take Bakhtari into your heart, you will hurt from the problems she faces and the impossible situations she has to deal with. She truly is a hero.

Recommended.

The Gorge (2025)

The action and monsters in this film are very cool, but the tonal shifts and a plot line that have you asking "Why?" every couple of minutes destroy the film.

The plot has two snipers each manning a tower on either side of a gorge somewhere in Europe. They are to prevent whatever is in the gorge from coming out. They are not to communicate but they do and a romance blossoms. Things become complicated when Miles Teller finds himself in the gorge and Anya Taylor Joy has to go rescue him and they discover what the secret the gorge is.

Long part of the black list of unproduced scripts, I'm left to wonder how many interations this went through. The ideas are cool, but the reasoning (it's not supernatural devils or creatures from the center of the earth) of it being a long running corporate project really makes no sense...especially since it went back to the Second World War.

Also a huge problem is the shifts in tone.  Thriller to rom com to action to meet cute ending gives us whiplash and destroys the suspense-once we hit the romcom bits I lost all fear either of the lead would die.

While not bad as such, I was ready to hang it up in middle, and only stayed to find out if the explanation makes sense.

Only worth a look on a desperate night on the couch

Good Boy (2024)

GOOD BOY is a nice little film. It’s the story of a young man who is about to commit a robbery only to have someone from his past appear. As the day goes on things go more and more sideways as still more people appear. 

Oscar short listed film is a tour de force for Ben Whishaw who just breaks apart as life shows that some times the best laid plans will never happen. The film survives because of his performance. He sells the insanity and makes us believe in what is happening. 

Currently n Disney + GOOD BOY is worth 15 minutes of your time.

Hood Witch (2024)

Mother and son who smuggle exotic animals end up in deep trouble and on the run.

This a tense little thriller that score points by not being like most other films out there. Set in a world most films never show us this is a place where everyone is connected by technology and where old beliefs still hold sway. Personal feelings and petty jealousy trump rational thought, and the result is a film where the mood is off. We aren't in Hollywood or even in the world of many European filmmakers but something made from a different point of view. The result is a film that grabs us and pulls us into a vice grip hold.

I loved this film. I loved that it didn't behave like anything that I've seen recently. Its a film that breaths and is alive and isn't a carbon copy of everything else.

I know this isn't a deep and detailed review, and I'm sorry about that, but the truth is that HOOD WITCH deserves to be seen on t's own terms and taken for what it is. I did not have any real idea of what the film was about and I think that helped the film feeling special. From the opening moments when the mother and son went through customs I realized I had no idea where this was going to go and it was a feeling that made me love the film more. It's something I want tou to feel so all I'm going to say is - if you hate the typical mainstream movies- see HOOD WITCH to have atrip to somewhere else.

A CURSED MAN (2024) Premiering in LA Saturday, March 22nd and VOD on Tueday the 25th

Filmmaker Liam Le Guillou investigates whether or not there is anything to spirituality and the supernatural by having a cursed placed on himself…and then he tries to have it removed.

This is an intriguing documentary that actually shows the various ceremonies that Le Guillou is part of. It’s so atypical that the film begins with a warning saying that the filmmakers are not responsible if anything bad or strange happens to the viewer after watching the film.

For me the most interesting part of the film is not the ceremonies  but the discussions that happen around them. The confused nature of the various shaman, priests and practitioners is gripping. Their confusion that anyone would want to put themselves into any sort of danger intentionally or not is very real, if one wants proof of something why put yourself in danger to do so?

I liked A CURSED MAN. I liked that it didn’t cut away from the various ceremonies. I liked that there was serious discussions about the mature of the “supernatural”. In the age of flashy cable TV shows that amp up and over sell every moment, I like that the film was tethered to reality.

Worth a look.

ANY DAY NOW (2025)

Off beat comedy crime drama that is nominally about the Boston art robbery from ---- that still remains unsolved. The reality is it is a look at a bunch of guys who are on the fringes who are just trying to get out of their own way.

The plot of the film has a hood (Paul Guilfoyle) making the acquaintance of a security guard in an art museum (Taylor Gray). He’s deeply in debt and  Guilfoyle has an offer for him that could solve his problem.

This is a small gem of a film that isn’t what you expect. I don’t think the trailer or the official write ups do this justice. The reality is this film that is its own thing. It doesn’t really follow the typical plot lines and instead give us a collection of atypical characters who don’t do the typical gangster sort of things.  Actually this plays closer to life than the movies with everyone being people rather than characters.

Honestly I had a blast with this. I loved the characters and I loved that we weren’t going down the same crime riddled road that most other American gangster film gives us.  We aren’t watching a film full of cliched characters.

Is this the greatest thing since sliced bread? No, but god damn is it entertaining.

I should give one word of warning, that while the film is billed as a comedy it’s not fall down funny. There are some off kilter laughs, but it’s not a straight comedy. Its also not a straight on thriller either, as I said it is its own thing.

Recommended

FAIRY CREEK (2025)

This is a look at the Fairy Creek Protests in Canada which resulted in 1200 arrests when the protesters attempted to stop the logging of old growth forest.

This is an absolutely beautiful film  about the right/need to maintain nature and it’s beauty. It’s a film that goes deep into the protests showing us the protesters and the members of the First Nation fighting to maintain the forest.  It’s a film that demands to be seen on a big screen where the images can truly give you a sense of what is being fought over.

While the arc of the film is largely what you expect, the film still holds our attention because of the urgency of the telling.

I really liked the film.

Recommended- more so if you can see this on a truly BIG screen.

Secret Mall Aprtment (2024) opens Friday

 

Jeremy Workman's latest film is a great deal of fun. It is the story of how a group artists built a secret apartment in the Providence Place Mall in 2023 and managed to remain there undetected for four years.

The press notes tell the story of how Workman had become friends with Michael Townsend in Greece. They were talking and Michael began to tell the story of how he and his friends had built this apartment in a mall that no one knew about and lived there for four years. Workman was entranced by the tale. However when Michael dropped the bomb that they and filmed the whole thing he knew he had to do something with the story. 

Continuing the wonderful run of films about people and stories you may or may not have heard about but should have, director Jeremy Workman brings us another delight. This is a film that is going to change how you look at public spaces. You will end up asking yourself could someone be hiding just outside of view. 

Explaining how it happened and why it might never happen again (circumstances collided correctly)  the film introduces us to some really fun people and lets us hang out with them as they relive this crazy thing they did. It's a film that will make you talk out loud as you lean in to see what is going to happen next.

I had an absolute blast watching this.

You'll forgive me for not saying too much about what happens, but so much of the delight of the film is seeing the things that happen along the way.

Easily one of the best films at this year's SXSW, it is highly recommended.

FISHBOWL (2023) is released Friday

 

Isel Rodriguez gives a staggering performance In THE FISHBOWL a film about a young woman trying to decide how to deal with the cancer that has reoccurred.

The plot of the film had Noelia (Rodriguez) running out on her partner and back home to her mother when it's clear her cancer is no longer in remission. There she reconnects with friends and family and ponders the damage done to the small island by the American military which left the landscape littered with unexploded bombs and poison.

While the script juggles way too many plot threads for a 90 minute film, we continue to watch and stay focused on what's happening because we fall in love with Rodriguez's performance. She lets it all hang out and we feel her pain, both physical and emotional. She brings us in and holds us close and as a result we are there for the duration. As a character study this film can't be beat.

This is one of my favorite films from  Sundance 2023

Recommended

AUM: THE CULT AT THE END OF THE WORLD (2023) opens Wednesday

This is the best film that I've seen on the Aum cult. I don't say that lightly having seen a good number of films both from the US and from Japan.

For those who don't know, the Aum cult gained infamy when the the cult released sarin gas in the Tokyo subway.  It was a move that put the group into spotlight that revealed all their dirty laundry. 

This film will tell you everything you want to know about the cult and then some. More importantly the film does what most other films doesn't do and that is put the cult into the context of Japan and the world.  The film also tells is clearly and susinctly what happened and why.  This is important because there have been several other docs that got lost in the teachings or lost talking to cult members

I loved this movie. This was the first time that I saw something on the cult where I didn't come away feeling they left something out.

If you love true crime this film is a must.

Devil's Stay (2025)

After a "succesful" exorcism results in the death of a young girl, weird thngs begin to happen at the funeral and it soon transpires that the demon that inhabited her never left.

I need to say at the out set that my having recently seen the similar Korean exorcism film DARK NUNS affected how I feel about this film. While the plots are not really similar there are enough simularities, owing to the subgenre of horror, that I found myself comparing them. That's not really fair but it happened.

The reason it happened is that this film has very deliberate structure. The film starts with a truly frightening sequence where the sounds of an exorcism fills a families house. Its one of the most chilling sequences of the last few years and it sets the stage for what is to come. After the explosive first sequence the film switches modes to a slow burn tale that slowly builds to the conclusion. While the slow build is fine unto itself it suffers from having come after a gangbusters sequence. My interest waivered.

This isn't to suggest that the film is bad or doesn't work, more that you need patience until the film clicks again. Once it does its creepy again.

My own reservations aside I had a good time and I look forward to hunkering down with the film again on some dark and rainy night.

Recommended.

Misericordia (2024) opens Friday

Alain Guiraudie's MISERICORDIA starts off as if wants to be a Hitchcockian thriller,  but it not so quickly descends into bedroom farce where it should have been from the start.

The film begins when a former employee man comes to the home of his former employer for his funeral and he ends up committing murder. Things become complicated as he tries to not let anyone know what happened.

Never getting the tone right MISERICORDIA flounders for much of it's running time. Not much happens. And up to a certain point you will be asking if it is this a comedy or a thriller? It isn't clear until almost the very end. 

Complicating everything is the fact that Guiraudie doesn't tell us anything about any of the characters. Lots of details are not in the film, such as the lead character being a former employee. Everyone has a back story they clearly know but at the same time we are not let in to any of it. What exactly is everyone's relationship? I have no clue because it isn't in the film (it is all revealed the press notes). The characters aren't cipher's they are voids.

It isn't until the murder happens that the questions as toi what is happening stop because we get a sort of narrative thrust. And it isn't until the film falls fully into farce that the film finds it's tone. But by that time the film is a complete mess even if we are laughing at it. (And don't bring the kids since erections are used as punchlines twice)

Yea I kind of liked it but this really should have been better.

Worth a shot

Remaining Native (2025) SWSW 2025

This is is a portrait of Ku Stevens, a 17 year old young man  living on the Yerington Paiute reservation in Nevada. He is a long distance runner who dreams of going to the University of Oregon. As Stevens trains and tries to get noticed by college recruiters he ponders his great grandfather  who fled one of infamous religious schools designed to make Native American children into good little Christian kids.  His grandfather ran 50 miles into the desert to find his freedom, its a story that haunts him.

This winner at SXSW is a good portrait of a young man trying to come to terms with the present while reclaiming his family's history. It's a good portrait of a good young man trying to make a difference. It's also a film that makes the story of the children much more real than many other documentaries that deal with the stolen childen that keep things at arms length. 

If you are interesteted in the tragedy of Native American children and a want to see a great bio, then this film is for you.

A Pause

 I mentioned a week or so ago I was running behind in my posting. The good news is I've kind of caught up.

The bad news is that getting there, coupled with couple of slates full ofilms that left me wondering "why am I still watching this crap" and watching the souless corporate disaster ELECTRIC STATE have made me need to step back. I need to step away from the steady diet of PR prepared cinematic choices. I need to watch more movies for me for a while.

Yes I will review the New Directors Titles I have and I will finish the other titles I requested (many of which I genuinely am interested in) but I taking a break and mostly doing me movies

What this means is after this week and into early April look for the quantity of pieces to fall. Hopefully the quality will go back up because there are a couple of up coming pieces that I cobbled together from hope and bullshit. The feeling positive or negative is genuine, but the pieces should have been just two sentences long not several paragraphs.

Now to begin to do fun stuff and look at Matt's list of titles so we can try this podcast thing again

Liz Whittemore on American Dreamer (2022) which is getting a Digital Download from 17th March in the UK

 With AMERICAN DREAMER getting a digital download in the UK, here is Liz Whittemore's review from 2022's Tribeca

There’s something about Peter Dinklage that makes him a brilliant leading man. Tribeca 2022 film American Dreamer is another example of his ability to captivate on screen. In Paul Dektor‘s feature directorial debut, Dinklage plays adjunct social economics professor and lecturer Dr. Phil Loder. As he speaks eloquently to his students, we witness a sly Indian Jones hommage from the front row. Perusing real estate porn, as so many of us do regularly, Phil is serious about finding his slice of heaven and stability in his career. Chasing tenure and respect, he stumbles across a deal in the classifieds that seems too good to be true. With the assistance of his smarmy real estate agent, played to perfection by Matt Dillon, Phil purchases an enormous estate. But there is a catch. His contract contains a “live-in” clause for the previous owner. 

Phil has sold his soul to a woman named Astrid. Thought to be on her deathbed, unpredictable circumstances lead Phil to hire a private detective (Danny Glover) while navigating a complicated relationship with Astrid and her skeptical daughter Maggie. The script dives into the mythic “American Dream” and what the concept means to each of us. Screenwriter Theodore Melfi allows MacLaine and Dinklage to do their proverbial thing. I was hypnotized by the ease of their scenes together. 

Shirley MacLaine brings her truest form with sass and spitfire. Her ability to make you smirk and piss you off is a gift. She’s a legend, and Dinklage keeps pace at every turn. Peter Dinklage has mastered the art of charming his costars and the audience. After watching him in Cyrano, his sex symbol status became solidified. In American Dream, Melfi and Dektor allow him to woo in only the way Peter can woo. Picturing him as a man that constantly has women in the palm of his hand is sheer perfection. His comic timing is unmatched. The magic permeates throughout his fully fleshed-out portrayal of a flawed man.

American Dreamer wins with a great score and soundtrack, stunning locations, funny fantasy sequences, and some clever transitions in the form of novel chapters. I had no idea where this plot was going, and damnit, that’s rare. It is easy to say that it is one of my Top 3 films from the festival this year. I cannot wait for larger audiences to experience this beguiling comedy when it inevitably gets distribution. You’re gonna love it.

Nora (2025) Cinequest 2025

A woman who gave up her singing career for a family, begins to rethink the choice when her husband goes on tour and leaves her to be a single mom.

Anna Campbell is a one woman band writing,diecting, starring and compsing NORA and should celebrated for doing so. There is some really good moments here and I want to see what comes next.

At the same time the film has one problems that hurts it.  The problem wth the film is the intergration of the music into the tale. While the performance sequences are fine, there are other sequences that are music videos. These sequences don't really feel as part of the film. They feel like the sequences were  created by someone not connected to the rest of the film. It feels like Campbells script was written with spaces left for the insertion of a musical sequence. Its not fatal but it hurts the film.

Uneven insertion of music aside NORA is worth a look.