Female Film Critics 24/375
Alone Together joins a lengthy roster of films that fail to live up to promise. It’s also one of those films that calls for interrogation: Where does it go wrong? Who is to blame? How much time does it deserve in the viewing before the leaving? Looking for someone to blame means glancing no further than the triplicated credit: Katie Holmes not only stars in Alone Together but also wrote and directed it.
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This small indie film from directors Jessica Hester and Derek Schweickart does a better job at capturing the restlessness, the risks and the thrills of being a teenager than most teen-targeted studio films ever hope, or probably aim, to. Coast‘s realism is underscored by its setting, a central California coastal town with a heavily Hispanic farming community, a place where kids grow up looking toward a life working the fields if they don’t strive for something different – or leave.
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Measure of Revenge is suffused with intricacies, double meanings, and foreshadows. The film, directed by Peyfa, exhibits a masterful use of flashbacks, in particular scenes from Lillian’s (Melissa Leo) famous roles, in The Scarlet Letter and Hamlet, for example, with allusions to literature that include Edgar Allen Poe. Measure of Revenge almost demands a second viewing to catch all the lines and allusions. It helps to have done your homework.
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John Swab’s vision is getting clearer. With strong performances, solid pacing and intriguing cinematic choices, the Oklahoma filmmaker’s gritty new thriller “Ida Red” proves the evident progress Swab has been making in practicing his craft.
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Writer/director Margaret Betts’ first feature is a compelling drama that tells the sometimes-bleak story of Cathleen, an earnest young woman who decides to take the veil in the early 1960s, as Vatican II reforms dictated changes in the cloistered lives of women religious. Novitiate is a stunning eye-opener. Continue reading…
NOVITIATE stars Margaret Qualley as Cathleen Norris, a 17-year-old raised by a non-religious single mother who nonetheless decides to enter
Read moreAt Whistler Film Festival, during the presentation of the AWFJ EDA Award for Best Female-Directed Narrative Feature to Ingrid Veninger
Read moreWhy Christian Bale and Melissa Leo will probably take home statuettes this year. Read more>>
Read more“The Dry Land” finds its most effective corollary for James’ post-war trauma in the story of his mother, Martha (the
Read moreJudging from the well-deserved accolades that continue to roll in, “Frozen River” is unmistakably being hailed as one of 2008’s
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