Sherin Nicole – Page 2 – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

DADDIO – Review by Sherin Nicole

June 19, 2024October 20, 2024 Sherin Nicole Christy Hall, Daddio, Dakota Johnson, Dickson Hinchliffe, Phedon Papamichael, sean penn, sony classics

In this cinematic confessional, Hall takes us on a night drive through the veins of New York City, in a film with a finger on the pulse of human connection. Her actors are up for the ride. Penn plays a world-weary cab driver with so much tension, I kept expecting Daddio to turn into a thriller along the lines of Collateral (2024). I’ve met men like that, who spin from laughing to rage faster than you blink. Instead, Penn gives us a grizzled softie who delivers empathy with razored profanity and piercing insight. In crafting his counterpart, Hall has a history of writing acute studies of women in bad situations.

Festivals Reviews

BIKECHESS (Tribeca 2024) – Review by Sherin Nicole

June 18, 2024June 9, 2025 Sherin Nicole Assel Aushakimova, Best International Narrative Feature, Bikechess, Saltanat Nauruz, Tribeca 2024

The title, Bikechess, is the first indication the film is a farce focused on the hyperrealism behind how ridiculous, yet dangerous, governments can be. This second feature from writer/director Assel Aushakimova is not a comedy in the typical sense, you’re unlikely to laugh out loud. Bikechess rolls its eyes at its subject matter in the absolute certainty you will get the joke: How absurd the life of a journalist is when your job is to tell the truth, but you’d better not.

Festivals Reviews

THE EVERYTHING POT (Tribeca 2024) – Review by Sherin Nicole

June 18, 2024June 18, 2024 Sherin Nicole Delaney Rowe, Erik Griffin, James Wolk, Lisa Edelstein, Sherise Dorf, The Everything Pot, Tribeca 2024

Around 30 minutes into watching The Everything Pot, I asked myself: Is everyone in this movie whacked out, kooky beyond belief, 100% bananas? Why, yes. Yes, they are. That’s my review (just kidding). Before any concerns develop about my introduction, I’m not talking about mental illness. Instead, I’m marveling at this eye-popping pile-up of social blunders that will redden your checks in several shades of secondhand embarrassment.

Festivals Reviews

BAD SHABBOS (Tribeca 2024) – Sherin Nicole

June 18, 2024June 18, 2024 Sherin Nicole Bad Shabbos, Clifford Smith, Daniel Robbins, David Paymer, Kyra Sedgwick, Method Man, Tribeca 2024, Zach Weiner

If one person behaved rationally in Bad Shabbos the movie would end after 20 minutes with a 911 call. But that wouldn’t be a NYC story, and this most definitely is. Directed by Daniel Robbins with co-writer Zach Weiner, Bad Shabbos is a religious culture clash comedy that brings together a zany ensemble led by Kyra Sedgwick and Clifford Smith AKA Method Man. The film thematically flips the traditional greeting “Good Shabbos,” unfolding over a chaotic Friday night.

Festivals Reviews

DARKEST MIRIAM (Tribeca 2024) – Review by Sherin Nicole

June 12, 2024June 13, 2024 Sherin Nicole Britt Lower, Darkest Miriam, Martha Baillie, Naomi Jaye, The Incident Report, Tribeca 2024

If someone asked me to contribute a song to the soundtrack for Darkest Miriam, written and directed by Naomi Jaye, it would be Splitting Atoms by the lovely, departed Lamya. Specifically, the chorus featuring the hook, “I lost but didn’t lose the lesson. Yes I’m, learning from falling, learning from falling down, hard lessons.” Like the song, the life of Toronto librarian, Miriam (Britt Lower), changes when she falls into a hole on the side of the road

Festivals Reviews

AISHA (Tribeca 2024) – Review by Sherin Nicole

June 12, 2024June 13, 2024 Sherin Nicole aisha, Frank Berry, josh o'connor, letitia wright, Tribeca 2024

Aisha charts the experiences of a young Nigerian woman as she seeks international protection in Ireland. Caught in limbo for years in Ireland’s immigration system, Aisha Osagie develops a friendship with former prisoner Conor Healy who she meets at one of the accommodation centers. Aisha and Conor’s growing friendship soon looks to be short lived as Aisha’s future in Ireland comes under threat. An inconvenient love becomes a balm for an asylum seeker during uncertain times in Ireland. Writer/director Frank Berry’s third feature is rooted in a starkly compelling reality so apt it could be a documentary. There is no paradox in saying Aisha is a study of hopeful despair.

Festivals Reviews

ARZE (Tribeca 2024) – Review by Sherin Nicole

June 12, 2024June 12, 2024 Sherin Nicole Arzé, Betty Taoutel, Bilal Al Hamwi, Diamond Abou Abboud, lebanese films, Louay Khraish, Mira Shaib, Sam Faisal Shaib, Tribeca 2024

Arzé,, the directorial debut from Lebanese filmmaker Mira Shaib, is the tale of the titular single mother, living in Beirut and struggling to care for her agoraphobic older sister and to appease her teenage son. When the opportunity to sell more of her homemade pies comes up, Arzé (Diamond Abou Abboud) hocks her sister’s beloved bracelet to buy a red scooter, allowing her son, Kinan (Bilal Al Hamwi), to deliver to a larger area. What begins as a dream on the verge leads to the opening of old wounds when the scouter is stolen and hopes crash.

Festivals Reviews

ALL THAT WE LOVE (Tribeca 2024) – Review by Sherin Nicole

June 11, 2024June 11, 2024 Sherin Nicole All That We Love, Clay Liford, margaret cho, Tribeca 2024, Yen Tan

Directed with understated charm by Yen Tan and penned alongside Clay Liford, All That We Love shares a meditative cycle of healing. All That We Love is a heartfelt and poignant depiction of grief and what it means to start anew. Through richly drawn characters, the film gently blends sorrow with insightful humor in its exploration of themes that are universal to all of us: aging, friendship, parenthood, mortality, past loves, second chances, and the profound connection with our pets.

Reviews

WE GROWN NOW – Review by Sherin Nicole

April 9, 2024April 14, 2024 Sherin Nicole Blake Cameron James, Cabrini-Green, Gian Knight Ramirez), Jurnee Smollett, Lil Rel Howry, minhal baig, S. Epatha Merkerson, We Grown Now

In a time known as 1990s Chicago; in a place called Cabrini-Green, a pair of peach-colored curtains, imprinted with a mosaic pattern, undulate in the wind. The curtains, as a pair, seem as inseparable as our young friends Malik and Eric. But no pair is immune from being swept apart. This is the story of We Grown Now — of a friendship as strong as kin. Two boys and their families are caught in the crossfires of crimes born of scarcity and America’s wars on crime, drugs, anything… Like so many innocent poor people before and after. But We Grown Now is also a poetic reminiscence on the community that once infused America’s most iconic housing project, the great migration from Mississippi to Chicago, and love in its many mercurial forms.

Reviews

FRIDA – Review by Sherin Nicole

March 6, 2024March 10, 2024 Sherin Nicole Carla Guitterez, Diego Rivera, documentaries, Fernanda Echaverria del Rivero, Frida Kahlo, mexican films

It’s as though Frida Kahlo‘s illustrated diary alights off the shelves of a mystical library, and opens itself to immerse us in her story. Filled with animated paintings and sketches; coupled with love letters and lovers’ portraits; enlivened by footage and photographs: This is the Frida (2024) documentary. Binding it together are Frida’s written confessions—her heart is the inkwell, infusing the pages with copper and salt. Her blood and tears have spilled onto the screen. That must be how this documentary came to be. But we should ask director Carla Gutiérrez and the wondrous voice actress Fernanda Echevarría if that is indeed the ‘alchemistry.’