LUNATIC: THE LUNA VACHON STORY (2025) world premiered at the Canadian Film Fest and is going to the Calgary Underground Film Fest and coming to a theater near you

This a portrait of Gertrude Elizabeth Vachon aka Luna Vachon, one of the great female professional wrestlers ever to come down the pike. The film is a warts and all look at Vachon from her childhood to her death. It’s a film that doesn’t shy away from telling the dark side of the sport and revealing the cost on mind and body the sport takes.

While the life and times of Vachon was covered in an episode of The Dark Side of the Ring, the truth is that there was way more material than a simple hour-long episode could reveal. Running almost two solid hours this film is an eye-opening look at not only the life of Vachon but the whole sport of professional wrestling. I say that as a guy who has been a fan of the sport for the last 50 plus years. There is a lot here, and I was about halfway into the film and I realized that I wanted to go back and start the film over to catch what I missed.

This is a super film. While the fact that Vachon was a wrestler may make people hesitate stepping in and seeing the film, the truth is there is much to consider outside of wrestling such as mental illness and the cost of addiction. This is not a wholly happy tale and its bittersweetness hangs in our mouths long after the credits have rolled.

If you like under the radar films LUNATIC: THE LUNA VACHON STORY is for you.

Recommended.

Lunatic plays Calgary Underground Film Fest next, April 24

LOST CHAPTERS (2024) NDNF 2025

Young woman returns from Spain to visit her father. Arriving home she finds he is searching for rare books that will help preserve Venezuelan history and that her grandmother's memory is fading. When she finds a postcard  stuck in a book, she sets off with her dad to find a previous unknown book.

If you have been going to New Directors New Films for any length of time you know that the festival frequently shows small films that, while good, are probably not going to get a huge release. It's not that that they are bad, rather that they are just so low key or atypical most distributors in the US wouldn't know what to do with them. Often, as in the case with LOST CHAPTERS, small also means short, in this case 67 minutes, which means most theaters won't play it. That means if you like small, atypical films, you are going to have to jump to NDNF in order to see it.

This is a low key film that isn't really about the plot. Told in longish static shots this is more about the relationships of the people and the ideas being discussed in their conversations. This is a film about family, about memory, about how we see the past and decide what to hold on to, and what we unexpectedly lose. It's a film where we follow some good people around for a while and see how they feel about the things in their lives. I know some people have compared it to a documentary  in its approach but that isn't quiet right, while some sequences feel that way, others are most decidedly written.

I like the film. Its a small gem of a film. It doesn't have bells and whistles, it just quietly entertains and makes you ponder life. That this film is probably going to disappear from view here in the US is a kind of a sad sign about the state of American cinamtic tastes. That said, if you want to see something good, mae an effort to go see LOST CHAPTERS before it disappears from  New Directors.

Yoko Kanno played New York City (finally) at Town Hall

This is not so much a review but a report of a fan getting to see one of his musical gods for the first time.

Yoko Kanno has finally played New York City. While Kanno had appeared at a 2023 concert celebrating the 25th anniversary of Cowboy Bebop to say than you,  this was the first time she was on stage and played her music. It was a moment that rocked the world as people from across not only America but the globe treked to 43rd street to bask in the glow of the great one..

The concert opened with Logan Richards and his and taking the stage. They blew threw eightpieces, adding people as they went. Nary a word was spoken as the band effortlessly moved from song to song, pausing only momentarily  to allow the packed house to express their approval.

I was with my friend Nora, a regular at jazz clubs at in Manhattan and she was  slipping compliments in between songs comparing Richards and his band to many of the great musicians playing today.

Things changed when Richards stood up and introduced Yoko Kanno explaining how the concert came together and how he was in awe of being given the opportunity to put a band together for Kanno. Kanno’s arrival on stage, in a bright red dress,  was met with thunderous applause and a standing ovation. Kanno  smiled and thanked the audience before introducing the entire jazz band (though not Little Kruta the strings ensemble) individually and saying something about each person. While she had worked with some of the people before, it wasn’t everyone and yet she knew who everyone was.

Kanno then introduced the next song Piano Black before she receded to the side of the stage to dance and conduct.  Until the post Tank sequence of songs Kanno was purely a dancing conductor. After that she played the played the piano on several songs.

The evening  was a magical experience. Somehow this was the first time that Kanno was performing in New York, a fact that left many people around me feeling shocked. One would have thought that she would have been invited to play sooner. Personally I was feeling bad that I had missed her until finding out I never did.

The choice of songs was quite good. Honestly I’m such a fan of Kanno’s that there are a lot of other songs I would have loved to have heard played live, but not being happy is quibbling. The mere ability to see Ms Kanno live and in person was enough.

What I loved about the performance was that the performance was not by the numbers. This was not a recreation of the recordings but a live performance. Almost every song had improvisations. Any live performances I had seen of Kanno and her band The Seatbelts seemed to be less jazzy. For example while I’ve seen and heard numerous versions of Tank played live, this was the first time where the band improved and really grooved on it. All the songs were not a note for note recreations but something living and breathing in the moment.  All of the material, including the  songs performed by both Steve Conte  and Scott Matthew, took the versions the fans know and love and made them something special, something bigger and better.

It was wickedly cool and left me and everyone else at Town Hall wanting more..

What I want Ms Kanno to return to New York and do more nights, not just with a jazz band, but a symphony orchestra that can really allow the full extent of her musical prowess.

It was a night that is destined to become legendary.

The Set List:

COSMOS Cowboy Bebop

Odd Ones Cowboy Bebop

Slipper Sleaze Cowboy Bebop

The Egg and You Cowboy Bebop

Cat Blues Cowboy Bebop

Clutch Cowboy Bebop

AUTUMN IN GANYMEDE Cowboy Bebop

CAR 24 Cowboy Bebop

PIANO BLACK Cowboy Bebop

Time to Know / Be waltz Cowboy Bebop

Is it real? Cowboy Bebop

lithium flower Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone

Complex

Could You Bite the Hand? Wolf’s Rain

CALL ME CALL ME Cowboy Bebop

Waltz in High Socks Cowboy Bebop

High Heel Runaway Darker Than Black

Go Dark Darker Than Black

RUSH Cowboy Bebop

TANK! Cowboy Bebop

Gotta knock a little harder Cowboy Bebop

ENCORE:

Paradiso Wolf’s Rain

Green Bird + Piano Bar I Cowboy Bebop

All the photos are courtesy  of Anthony Mulchay and Town Hall

In the Hands of Fate (2025) is ​ on streaming right now on Fawesome

I saw IN THE HANDS OF FATE earlier this year but because of circumstances I could not do a full on review.  I told director Samuel Fronsman to let me know when the film was going to be released and I would put something up.

The official synopsis of the film reads as follows:

In the Hands of Fate centers around Donovan Harlow (Adam Joseph Turner), the reluctant hitman recommended by street hustler Vic Giovanni (Keith Migra) to work for drug kingpin Rocco Scaletti (Steven Scionti). Rocco hires Donovan to kill a thug who’s been doing business behind his back. However, things spiral out of control when Ashe Winters (Sofia Bianchi), a witness to the hit who Donovan let live, later steals money that Vic took from Rocco. To make things more complicated, she seeks the help of an old friend Charlotte Woolfe (Megan Reneau), who has since joined a cult headed by the egomaniacal Jeramiah Smith (Joseph Legion Slade). Now, Donovan must hunt down the junkie girl he previously spared in a chaotic tale, where everyone’s life is in the hands of fate.

This is a super little film and Fronsman and his crew are to be commended. As I told him when he sent me the film, keep sending me the films you make because I want to see what comes next and even after that.

Before you dismiss this film or the piece consider that I liked the film enough that three months after I saw the film I am taking the time that I could be writing a review to write up a pointer.  If that doesn’t speak volumes about what I think of the film, I don’t know what does.

Recommended

You can stream IN THE HANDS OF FATE for free on Fawesome: https://fawesome.tv/movies/10666537/in-the-hands-of-fate

DROWNING DRY (aka Seses aka Sisters) (2024) NDNF 2025

When I saw that Laurynas Bareiša's follow up to the excellent PILGRIMS was at New Directors New Films I got excited. I was even more intrigued when I realized that it also had been short listed as Lithuanian entry for the Oscars.

The film is very hard to discuss.  The film is about two sisters and their families who go to a remote cabin and something happens. What happens at that 36 minute mark is not immediantly clear and the film spends the next hour bouncing through time and replaying some events as we see what happened after in fragmented form. How you react to the film is determined by the pieces that are thrown our way. Because the trip is required to get a fair reaction I can't tell you more regarding details.

I will say that with this second cinematic foray Bareiša has taken a step toward being recognized as a crafter of fine human dramas. The characters are compelling, the situations feel real. There is a sense that for the most part this is happening right before us.

I will also say that I'm not so certain that the fragmentary telling of the tale really works. I say that because the fragmentation implies something greater than what we get. I wish the film had played out chronologically and that what happens happened without the broken narrative. The strength of the directors earlier film was the fact that it played out like life with no grand revelation promised nor given. Here the shift from straight forward to chronological muddies the water needlessly.

That isn't to say it breaks the film. It doesn't. It just makes what would have been a near great film into a solidly good one and that is enought to recommend it when it plays New Directors New Films.

PÁRVULOS: CHILDREN OF THE APOCALYPSE (2024)

I want to just say "Don't read any reviews-Just buy a ticket and go see PARVULOS". I say that because the film changes and changes and changes and while you will know where a bit of this is going- you won't know it all and it will punch you in your face like a boxing glove filled with cement.

The plot, or as much as I am going to say, concerns three brothers after a plague has ravaged the world. Lots of people are dead and the brothers are living in the wilderness trying very hard not to have any contact with anyone.

That's all I will say about the plot....

...about everything else I will say that director Isaac Ezban's film is a wicked little gem. It's a film that is very much about family. It is a family drama disguised as a horror film. The horror stuff is merely the window dressing for a film about the love of three brothers. It's a film that soars because Ezban stays focused on the characters and lets us watch how they are forced to fight for each other as things happen. 

I know, I know many of you want to know how it is as a horror film. It's really good, but it's more a thriller than a straight on horror film. Yes, there are horror elements but as I said the film is more interested in other things.

Shot with a deliberate use of lens and muted color palate that beautifully put us in a time and place. It's a film where the images set the mood almost as much as the story. I wasn't sure about some of the way Izban used certain lens, but it grew on me, more so when I realized how off the images were making me feel- they were dragging me down the rabbit hole.

I'm sorry if this a bit rambling and disjointed but this is a film you need to see and not read about. The power of this film comes from taking the journey from first fframe to the last. It's a film where how the revelations are made affect how you feel. It's a film where you have to go with where it wants to take you because the film is not what you think it is. Nothing is as you suspect, and I don't want to give you any clues about what happens beyond what Ezban has allowed us to know.

Trust me on this, PARVULOS is a stunner... more to the point it's destined to be consider a classic.

Virgin of the Quarry Lake (2025) NDNF 2025

When another girl finds that the affections of the man, she is interested are being directed towards another she takes magical steps to try and stop the pair.

This moody and oppressive fantastical romance of sorts is going to send chills through your body. This is a creepy little film full of the dark side of humanity.

While there is much to love in the film, some may not be happy with the deliberate pacing. There are lots of times where we simply observe and other times where there aren’t conversations but speeches. This is very much an art house film.  If you are okay with that and get with the film’s vibe this film is going to leave you deeply bothered (I mean deeply bothered)

Recommended