The Animated Shorts is the best set of titles I’ve seen in 8 years. Simply a delight. The group covers hope and sadness, the surreal and sublime, the joy of entertainment, and the fun of silliness. Animated Shorts plays again March 5, Friday.
Read more →I’ll keep this one simple: “Exploding Girl” is a sleeper/snore. Script was empty and the overall presentation more than a tad slow. The story was boring. I give it a must-pass.
Read more →Raspberry Magic is a delightful little soufflé set in the simple world of an 11-year old. Monica (Lily Javaherpour) plays a young lady intent on proving a horticultural premise; a raspberry plant will thrive if it receives touch-therapy. Her need to succeed is compounded when her father, just laid off and constantly fighting with his […]
Read more →Applause is a film of angst and despair. From start to end, the film places you on scene as voyeur, watching the dysfunctional world of Thea (Paprika Steen) crumble. That’s the plot. That’s it. Nothing else. What makes this film watchable is Steen. She embraces and breathes energy and life into her desperation. Steen overcomes […]
Read more →This documentary lives at two levels. The first are the stories, a telling and touching group where the culinary envirnoments are engaged and, whether in triumph and tragedy, we learn of our humanity and history through food. The central theme is simple. We need to eat. In war, in peace, in crisis, survival begins with […]
Read more →Remaining Screenings: 3/5, 1:30 PM (Cam 12) How hard can it be to host an orgy? Harder than you’d think, especially if the people involved are half a dozen neurotic thirtysomethings. “Cummings Farm” is ostensibly a comedy, but most of its humor derives from awkwardness. If situations in which the tension would be resolved if […]
Read more →Remaining Screenings: 3/2 9:00 PM (Cam 12) Documentary director Cullen Hoback returns to Cinequest (past offerings included the fantastic “Monster Camp”) with a film that blurs the lines between truth and fiction so completely that it’s hard to tell what really happened and what didn’t. “Friction” is ostensibly a documentary about Hoback’s attempt to shoot […]
Read more →Remaining Screenings: 3/4, 12:00 PM (Cam 12) “The Robbers” Is a pitch-black comedy from China. It veers from near-slapstick comedy to grim violence and back again as it tells the story of a pair of brothers and the village they inadvertently turn upside-down. The brothers roam the countryside robbing people, but when they wander into […]
Read more →An irascible curmudgeon, Jacques (Brian Cox/Bourne Identity), owns a rather unique bar, a dusty hole in the wall that he created as a male sanctuary. No women, no walk-ins, no frills. If you’re not invited, you’re not welcome. Seems he’s dying and, after his fifth heart-attack, he seeks someone to whom he can give the […]
Read more →Kill the Habit is a film I found difficult to care about. It carried an interesting idea but didn’t get off the ground. Galia (Lili Mirojnick) wants drugs. She visits her source at an apartment, and in an argument, bashes him in the head. Trying to leave she ends up selling white powder before she […]
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