The Most Precious of Cargoes (2024) Animation First 2025

In Poland during the Second World War  the wife of a woodcutter  takes in a baby that  was thrown from a train going to the concentration camps. She and her husband struggle to raise the child, while the man who threw the baby struggles to survive the camp.

Michel Hazanavicius shifts gears yet again with an animated film about the miracle of survival and the things we will do for the ones we love. It's an odd move for a man who is best known for his comedies and the results are extremely mixed.

There are some great sequences in this film as well as some head scratching moments. Feeling less like an organic tale and more like a very serious, very important novel, the film never quite comes together because the film never fully connects the two halves. The result is a film that feels a bit like sermon.  

I was intrigued for a while but the film began to lose me as the film started to tell us about the man who threw the baby from the train. It's not that these sequences,  having to do with surviving in the camps, are bad, indeed they include some of the most crushing sequences I've ever seen  about the Holocaust, but rather they never fully mesh with the sequences about the baby and the woodcutters wife. a big part of the problem is the style of the images are too dissimilar.  The woodcutter sequences are more lyric and realistic where the images of the man are closer to some of the surrealist art that sprang up around the war.

While a wasn't connected from start to finish the film still threw up some staggering pieces such as the post war sequence where the man stumbles on the woman and the child selling cheese on the street.  The whole sequence of recognition of finding the now grown child, while also seeing his horrific physical persona is one of the most crushing moments I've ever seen in any film.

Perhaps I would have liked the film more had the ending amounted to something but the film never ties up all the threats ans the 20 year jump ahead didn't amount to much.

Worth a look for those interested in stunning uses of animation or atypical Holocaust stories.

The Other (2024) NYJFF 2025

This was the first great film I saw in 2025.  In a world being broken by hatred, the film makes clear that the only way to begin to end the madness is to meet and open lines of communication.

Filmed before the October 7 massacre and the madness that followed, THE OTHER is a series of interviews with both Palestinians and Israelis telling the story of how the conflict between them directly affected their lives. Largely the stories are a catalog of loss chronicling how they lost a loved one to the violence.  Then over time the film begins to turn and become something else. It becomes and exploration of people reaching out  and trying to bridge the gap.

I was deeply moved by this film.  When it ended I was  left wiping tears from my eyes and trying to find words to express how much this film means to me.

Go see it. This will be one of the best films you see this year.

Highly recommended.

Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story,(2024) opens Jan. 24 in NY & Jan. 31 in LA

With LIZA... opening Friday here is a repost of my review from last year's Tribeca

I'm at a loss about how this film flew under the radar at Tribeca. This is a truly great portrait of Liza  from the death of her mother onward to today. Full of incredible and probing interviews, including with Liza herself, it is a film that perfectly explains why Liza is an Icon and why she moved generations of people.

This film floored me. I went into the film expecting to like it and wander out with a enough for a couple of quick lines, instead I staggered out, jaw hanging open with too many words. I don't know what to say except see it.

How good is the film it was the source of two animated discussions about how the film doesn't have a buyer yet. No one could sort out why a film this good wasn't picked up and slotted for release.

A must see for fans and non fans.

Nightcap 1/19/25 Animation First and Sundance start this week

My good friend Hubert’s birthday tomorrow and I want to start with a quick HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

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The always wonderful Animation first starts Tuesday at New York L'Alliance and runs through the weekend. A glorious collection of animated films and live events it is always a delight. As this posts I will be reposting reviews of MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI and MASTERS OF TIME. I also have tickets to a couple of films on Saturday the 25th when I will be joining the ever wonderful Eden who will be coming into New York  for the festival.  I will have reports from the road, but you should just buy tickets to anything you can- especially the shorts which are always excellent.

For more information and tickets go here.

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Sundance starts this week and as always it will be laying out the films that will be big deals later on in the year.

Because it’s too much of a pain in the ass to try and get one of the limited remote viewing slots, and because I don’t view an on line pass as financially worth it for me I will be covering the festival based on the screeners that I’ve been able to round up through other means.

To be completely honest, Sundance is the one festival I don’t feel the need to cover officially. The reason is not because the films are bad but more that almost every film seems to get a release. While I would love to cover the smaller films that need a push I can’t sell my soul to do a few films. (That said if you have a small film playing the fest email me and I will get you coverage)

Reviews when embargoes drop

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For the few of you who haven’t noticed Sundance’s sister festival Slamdance has moved into February. I will have a lot of coverage of that festival. Additionally I’ve seen a number of the features and I can say the festival rocks and is worth your time and money.

And if you aren’t in LA know the festival has a virtual component.

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I know David Lynch passed away this week.  I  still don't have words. I will post something when I do.

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I will not discuss the regime change that is to occur tomorrow in the United States. I will only say, good luck and God bless and may we all survive to fight another day.

Torah Tropical (2024) NYJFF 2025

 

This is a lovely little film.

TORAH TROPICAL is the story of a family in Columbia who converted to Orthodox Judaism and their efforts to make a life in the faith and to move to Israel.  It’s a film full of great people you will want to scoop up and give a hug to.

I don’t know what I was expecting but I was not expecting what I got and I was delighted as result.  This story of a family in love with their faith is just wonderful. No it is not all skittles and beer but because we connect to everyone on screen we will take this ride with them.

Yes I know this isn’t much of a review but at the same time some films don’t require deep explanation, they just need to be handed to you and be watched.

Recommended

A LEGEND, debuting on Digital, Blu-ray & DVD January 21

Billed as a sequel to the 2005 film THE MYTH, A LEGEND is really closer to a remake (though don't quote me it's been long enough since I saw THE MYTH that I could be overstating it) . The film is the story of a professor, played by Jackie Chan, finding some ancient relics that mirror ones in his dreams. His dreams tell the story of the battle between the Huns and the Hans and a beautiful woman tasked with keeping the land safe.

I know a lot of people are getting upset that they used AI  to make Jackie tat look younger, but the truth of the matter is that the film has a more serious problem and that is a wildly uneven script. Drifting erratically from grand action to soap opera and back again the film feels like it doesn't now what it want to be. The film feels like it is trying to make a point about the glory of China instead of being an entertaining action film.

I know I have been admonished by some of my friends for covering films from China owing to their crack down on artists and dissenters, but the truth is the Chinese government intervention in the making of films is going to do more damage faster simply because no one is going to want to see the films or the art produced. A LEGEND, like several recent other films from China, has the feel of a film that had the government crawling all over it, making it less enjoyable because the plot feels contrived and the film praises the glory of a mythical China that exists only in legend.

While the action is very good (if incredibly slick) I'm not sure it's quite up to the task of making the film  worth seeing. The problem is there is too much blah around it.

Lost City (2024) NYJFF 2025

This is the story of how the city of Amsterdam used the tram system to effectively deport the entire Jewish population of the city during the Nazi Occupation.

This is a film that doesn’t play like other Holocaust films in that almost the entire film is told by the survivors of the deportation while they stand on the streets of the city or take a tram ride around it. The film begins symbolically with a tram leaving the depot and ends with a tram returning. This effectively bookends the story of the whole sad affair.

What I found most troubling was how the use of the tram mixed with the modern telling makes the whole thing deeply disturbing. The context makes the deportation quietly banal, which is what it was designed to be. The Nazi's didn't want a fuss. I was deeply bothered by it and completely came to understand why it all happened.

A word of warning about LOST CITY, when I originally saw the film I went through the film  and it’s tale and I liked it, but I didn’t love it. However after the film was over and I was allowed to let the entire film wash over me I found I was becoming more and more disturbed by the implications of the film. As a result the film became not just a retelling of a historical event but a dire warning for a society on the edge of falling into darkness.

Recommended

A pointer toward Hester Street (1975) NYJFF 2025

The festival is playing a restored version of HESTER STREET for the film’s 50th anniversary this year. The film was quietly a major hit  in the years following it’s release, with the film becoming the very definition of an inde success. It played in New York City for the better part of a decade (it really felt like it was playing somewhere at all times). It garnered Oscar nominations and is held close to the hearts of many people I know.  At the same time I never want to see the film ever again because back in the late 70’s and early 80’s it always seemed to be on the few cable TV stations my family had. While I haven’t seen it in decades I’m sure if I saw it again I could quote portions of the film.

That said, if you’ve never seen it you really need to. All kidding aside the film is one of the great films in cinema history and it is a key film in the history of cinema. No, really the film is just as important as any other game changing films you’ve ever heard about. This is a film that changed the way many people viewed smaller films.

Highly recommended.

A Great Big Secret (2024) NYJFF 2025

This is a great little film about Anita Magnus Frank who was a hidden child during the Second World War.  Frank was born in 1936 and was spirited away  a few years later so she could live under a new name. It was only decades later that she began to tell the story of her real life.

This is an important tale of families broken apart in the hope that someone would survive. Frank not only survived but thrived in the best sort of a way.  It’s a wonderfully compact film, it runs just over 12 minutes, and would make a great feature film.

Highly recommended.

Breaking Home Ties (1922) NYJFF 2025

Made in Pennsylvania in the hope of countering the rise of antisemitism being spread by the KKK and Henry Ford, BREAKING HOME TIES is one film that was set up to both entertain and inform people that there was nothing evil about Jewish people.

The film is the story of a good man in Russia. He lives with his family and is studying American Law. He comes to the aid of a wandering violinist who takes refuge with his family. However when argument turns heated he strikes the violinist and ends up fleeing, thinking he killed him. He then flees to America where he becomes an attorney in New York. Years pass and he tries to contact his family in Russia, unaware that they have come to America.

The film is pure melodrama and very much of it’s time, but at the same time it’s compelling and you will want to see how it all comes out.

From a historical point of view the film is interesting because the whole story is so matter of fact. Even by the standards of the time things are not typically movie heightened, as a result the normalcy of the Jewish elements of the film are nothing out of the ordinary. I can see why this approach was used since the film was supposed to counter the hatred, and it works.

One quick note, the film was believed lost for decades and then a copy was found and it was restored on film and later digitally restored. While the film is now perfectly watchable (and has a great score), there are a couple of moments were there is some picture issues due to the deterioration on the original. I mention this because some people are more concerned with picture than with the fact the film is historically important.

Recommended.

A spoiler filled nitpicking review of Wolf Man (2025)

After his father is finally declared dead, Blake takes his daughter and wife to the remote farm where his father lived and where he grew up. The farm, like all the farms around it are very off the grid. They plan is to  pack up the house over the summer. As they are deep into the woods and close to the farm, a weird man appears in the road in front of them. Shocked, and not wanting to run the man over Blake swerves, driving  the truck off the road- down a hill and ends up in a tree. The truck is attacked by a wild beast, and Blake is wounded.  The family struggles to get out of the truck in the tree but manages to do so and flee the farm.   As they barricade themselves in an effort to remain safe the beast begins to make an effort to get in- and Blake begins to get sick and turn into a beast himself.

Don’t expect this to be your normal werewolf film but something closer to an outbreak film.This isn't a typical werewolf but a disease called "wolf face" which is explained in some titles at the start. It basically turns you into a wolf like beast like zombie plague turns you into a zombie. It makes no real sense, but nothing in the film does.

Well-made, well acted and great looking this film has a script that is really bad.It’s a film with too much on its mind, so much so that I'm pretty certain it was chopped down from something longer because things seem to be missing. The result is a film where things happen because they need to not because they actually could or would.

What is wrong with the story? Everything. I took over four pages of notes detailing issues such as:

-The wolf beast(s) has been stalking the area for over 30 years, during both day and night, but there is no concerted effort to find it or bring in authorities- despite it being so prevalent and deadly no one dares go out at night (or during the day without a gun). The turned are worse than any stalker than any low budget horror film
-The landscape where the truck crashes changes…and then ends up being really close to the house and the location we saw at the start of the film which was a good distance away…and it’s in a tree  not where there was a hill before.(Watch where the ruck crashes and then where we see it the next morning)
-Despite being in the woods, or in the house or barn, at night there is always just enough light to see, except when a monster needs to hide.
-The family returns to the farm after the Blake's father was declared dead, which would mean no one was there for over five years but everything like a generator, just runs. The truck at the farm has tires are full of air and is easily jumped. The jerky would have long gone bad, the hanging meat rotted. 
-The wolf monster will (repeatedly) punch through truck  windows but not a pain of glass in the house.
- The wolf man has been running through the woods for years and is still fully clothed.
-The CB radio is in a box and not seemingly hooked to anything- there is a black wire from the box but no indication it's hooked to an antenna- and if that’s the only way to communicate (there is no cell service) why is it in a box? 

And don’t get me started on the family climbing on top of a greenhouse made of plastic sheeting to get away the wolf man. For all the effort to get up there they could have made it into the house. It makes for a visually interesting sequence but the truth is it makes no sense.

The film riffs on all sorts of movie tropes which makes it easy to guess what many of the turns are going to be. From NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (being trapped in the house), to the wolf man being created by wound (pick a zombie film) to the wolf people seeing weird (WOLFEN), to the design of the wolf faces mirroring other prosthetic man wolf designs beginning with the Oliver Reed one in CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF to some of the in between stages of  AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, we’ve seen almost all of this before. 

This borrowing of tropes results in the biggest problem  in that the the disease turning people bestial results in the film being like so many other contagion zombie films where the infected has to fight to remain human before going over. From Romero's THE CRAZIES, to his zombie films, to the Martin Freeman headed CARGO to the 28 DAYS series to WORLD WAR Z to a couple hundred films we've seen this and all it's turns before. There is nothing wrong with traveling that road, I mean all of those films are similar, but they also do something different. Here the only difference is that what the infected is called, instead of a zombie, its a wolf. It's not enough.

The film shoots itself in the foot by loudly foreshadowing many of its turns with repeated motifs, especially the film’s desire to be about generational relationships and the trauma and the sins of the father and how they infect the next generation, that we know many of the "twists" at the start.  Worse the film is so heavy handed in its story construction that you know what is going to happen. as each item or location shows up. Bear trap? I know he'll gnaw his leg off.

I could have forgiven all the flaws if  there was one or two, or even five problems, but every moment in this film made me take a note of something out of place. Seriously there is a point where you just can't forgive all of the WTF and "Are you kidding" moments. Most direct to video cash grab horror films are not this badly plotted. Hell, those films at least have some original twist, or character or something that sets them apart even a little, this film doesn't.

How did a guy who rethought the invisible man genre so brilliantly fail so badly?

The absolute worst sin is that there are no scares anywhere in the film. It’s so unscary because it’s so obvious as to what is going on that loud  noise jump scares don’t even register. (Though the sound design, , which most people probably won't experience in a good theater, is stunning)

What a waste.

NINA IS AN ATHLETE (2024) NYJFF 2025

This is a portrait of Nina Gorodetsky a world champion badminton player. As she heads toward her first, and possibly last, Paralympics in Tokyo she also has to consider that at 40, she maybe running out of time to have a second child.

This is a very good look at what it means to be a top athlete who has to decide how to order the things that are important to her in life. While the fact that Nina is in a wheelchair colors the story, the truth is that this is, unfortunately a choice that many women have to make. 

Is it possible to do everything? Nina is going to give it a try, and the result is an engaging sports biography that lifts us up and carries us along.

This is not your typical by the numbers tale and as such it's absolutely worth your time.

The Writer (2023) hits streaming tomorrow

Two former lovers who were soldiers together in Lithuania and the former Soviet Union meet up again in New York and talk about the past after publication of a book about their relationship.

This is less a film and more a stage play. I am stating that  because  it took me a while to stop thinking that this would have been better on stage where events could just play out before us instead of wondering about the camera moves. While I liked this film I think I would have loved it on stage.

Once you get past the stage bound nature of things the film is good. The film is an intriguing look at love and politics and the things we do to stay alive. 

It is buoyed by two great performances, so the film connects to us. All hail Bruce Ross and Jamie Day who create two characters who you can feel still burn for each other and have a long shared past. That the film works on the screen is due to the connection we feel with them.

I like the work of writer director Romas Zabarauskas. I liked his earlier film THE LAWYER a couple years back and I look forward to his next film which is coming out next year. 

Grand Theft Hamlet (2024) opens Friday

I want to say this just to get it out of the way, while I really liked this film and it's surreal nature, I hope to hell I never have to see another film like this ever again. I say that because quite honestly this film shouldn't work and while it does, I hate to think of all the copycats that this may spawn.

This is a documentary about a bunch of gamers who decide to perform Hamlet in the world of the video game Grand Theft Auto. This means that as the actors are performing weird things are going on around them and some times people show up just to shoot them dead.

Yes, it is as WTF as that sounds. Yes it is screamingly funny at times. Yes some of this doesn't work....

...and yet you can't look away. I went from "you must be joking" and wanting to turn it off in the first couple of minutes to finding I was half way through the film and dying to know how it came out.  This is a film that just grabs you and pulls you along.

Oh, the wonders I've seen.

This is a one of a kind film that is going to make you laugh, make your mouth hang open, and delight the snot out of you.

AN absolute joy

Recommended for anyone who wants an atypical film that isn't from Hollywood.

Dinogator (2024) hits VOD tomorrow

Various people go into the backwaters for a photoshoot and vacation and end up having to fight for their lives when a giant dinogator attacks.

 Jim Wynorski's goofy and kind of serious film is the sort of thing that used to be direct  to Syfy, and now fills VOD slots. It’s a film to watch with films while you get drunk and make fun of it. That’s not a bad thing if you like these sort of things, but it’s not now, nor has it ever been high art. This is a goofy film with only the barest pretense of seriousness.

The dinogator has a gator head, but the truth is it’s really a giant snake that resembles the snake version of Xenomorph from alien that was released as toy a bunch of years ago. It looks cool. And the truth is the compositing of the monster into some scenes is better than most big budgeted Hollywood films.

If you like this sort of thing, you are going to love this. If not stay away.

Nightcap 1/12/25: Why can't Adam Pearson be a regular leading man?

I was watching A DIFFERENT MAN when Adam Pearson came on screen and ten seconds later all I could wonder was why he wasn’t being cast in more roles. Pearson was so wonderful and charming that my heart ached for all the lost performances he could have given in the past if people had just looked past his face and saw the person underneath.(I have not met the man, but I have been told by several people he is one of the best people I will ever meet and it is something I need to do)

The trouble is that the entertainment industry,Hollywood and  Broadway, doesn’t want to cast people with physical issues because "people" don’t want to see it. They only want people with physical issues or wheelchairs or what have you, to appear in roles where they mirror the character on the screen. The trouble is that in real life people with various issues are living regular lives and there is no reason that they can’t play any other role, just as there is no reason that they can't do any other job that is out there.

This truly hit home for me when Ali Stroker, who is in a wheelchair, won the Tony award for Oklahoma as sexpot Annie a few years ago. She was so magnificent that I was hopeful that Broadway would put her, and others like her, in  other iconic roles because she made the role her own. She was so good that I went to see her do a solo show at Lincoln Center and she brought the house down. 

The wave I hoped for never happened.

My question is why not cast Ali or Adam in other roles? They can do anything and honestly, by not doing so we are losing some truly amazing cultural moments by thinking inside of a broken box.

Seriously, why can’t someone like Adam Pearson be cast as a romantic lead? We know he can do it, he is after all the romantic lead in A DIFFERENT MAN, and we completely believe it. Why not cast him in other roles? Wouldn't he be great in an action buddy comedy? How about a heavy drama? I could think of probably 15 to 20 classic roles he would be perfect in.  I could also think of a large number of modern films where his charm could have made the film better.

While I mentioned above how the casting would raise awareness and visibility above, my real reason for wanting it is I want the best people to play the role. I want the best performer, regardless of who they are, possible to play the role. Cast these actors and never mention anything that sets them physically apart, there is no need to because they are everywhere, whether we want to acknowledge them or not. Hell, if we just cast them and make no mention of it, it will be common place and and only the small minded will ever have a criticism.

At the same time I want the best people behind the scenes, behind the camera and beyond the footlights to be making the films or the shows. Who cares about how they are physically if they can do the job? I don't want to get emails any more about a great new filmmaker who is handicapped. Chop off the handicapped part, just give me the great filmmaker part, that's the important part. If they are great directors, or writers or composers or whatever that's all that matters.

Yes, I know this is a no duh moment, but at the same time I am haunted by the fact that Adam Pearson isn’t a huge actor, nor is he seriously in the Awards discussions, while his co-star Sebastian Stan is, because he is that freaking good.  I am also heartbroken that Ali Stoker hasn’t become a regularly appearing lead on Broadway because she too good not to taking on the classic musical theater roles.

We need the these great performers and creators out there doing their thing and showing us a true reflection of the lives that we are living

Escape (2024) hits digital January 14

North Korean soldier has been plotting his defection for years, making maps and working out the best way to go. When things go side ways, he finds someone else blamed and himself hailed as a hero thanks to the intervention of a "friend". Put into a new and dangerous situation he begins to plot anew.

This is a good but kind of by the numbers film.  While I wasn't really certain how this was going to play out at first once the initial escape attempt is turned on its head I had a pretty good idea who this was going to go once the friend intervenes.  I don't blame the filmmakers rather the seeming need to make a rah rah North Korean soldier escapes tale. I would have been shocked if this had ended as badly as the film seemed to hint at times.

While completely enjoyable, I still wish the film had been a little grittier and a little real world meaner. Say what you will the North Koreans are kind of cartoony, even if they kill people, and it takes the edge off everything.

Worth a look when the film hits digital.

Hunting Daze (2024) Hits VOD January 14

Nina is traveling through the hinterlands. She and her friends run out of gas. When one of her other friends, Kevin, arrives to rescue them, tension causes a fight to break out and Nina is left stranded by her original companions. Truly in the middle of nowhere, Kevin takes Nina back to the hunting lodge with him. She manages to bond with the macho and crazy hunters, passing an initiation test she is considered one of them. All is going along swimmingly until Kevin brings in another stray, a black man he found wandering down the road. All is well until something happens and everyone is sent skidding.

Beautifully made film is for it’s first half a tightly plotted drama. It’s a wonderful look at a bunch of people being crazy in a remote cabin. The comradery is real and you have the feeling that everyone is truly friends. You also see  how Nina becomes one of them. That first half is wonderful.

The problem is that there is a moment after the stranger joins them that the film goes sideways. The film shifts from straight reality into something else. Things become dreamlike and we aren’t really certain what is real and what isn’t. The straight narrative disappears into mystical trips. It’s creepy and unnerving for a while but there came a point where I wasn’t certain it was going anywhere. Honestly the pieces are, like every other bit of the film, fantastic, but they just don’t some together.

That doesn’t make this is a bad film, it just makes what is great film for the better part of an hour an okay one in the end.

The one thing I have to talk about is the performance of Noubi Ndiaye. Giving one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen (no really) he is a force of nature. There is a moment where he stares hurt and broken and not understanding and my soul cracked.  I had to rewatch the sequence a couple of times to see if I could figure out how in the hell he was doing what he was doing. I have no idea other than he managed to call up all the pain in the universe and bleed it out of his soul and on to the screen in a few fleeting moments. It was a moment that pretty much broke me in half. This is one of the finest piece of acting I have ever seen on screen or in person. I can not wait to see what he does next. His performance singlehandedly makes the film worth seeing.

For the bits that work and for Noubi Ndiaye‘s performance HUNTING DAZE is recommended

George Romero's Resident Evil (2024)

This is going to be an odd place to start but there is a moment in George A. Romero’s Resident Evil, A Documentary that I started to sob because in that moment I connected to the story that was being told on screen so much that even though the person on screen caught them self and didn’t cry as their voice cracked with emotion I simply let the water works go. The moment was when director George Demick  spoke about  how when he was still a kid they met with George Romero  we was so over come with emotion that he couldn’t speak and his mother spoke for him, and he was so embarrassed that he walked into a wall.  Romero  checked on him and then told the future director to write down his questions and then come spend an afternoon with him. It was a moment that changed one young man’s life – and in it I saw also the moments of my life when I got to meet the people who are important to me

Now while that is a minor moment, and probably one you would never notice, in a film about a film that never happened, but it is a moment that shows you why I like this film so much. I like it because while the film is nominally about a film, it never loses sight of the fact that the film is actually about the director who changed movies and whose life and work changed everyone around him or ever saw his movies. We care about what would have Romero's version of Resident Evil, because of the man and not because of what the property was.

Backing up, the film is nominally the story of how George Romero was tapped in the late 1990’s to try and turn the video game Resident Evil into a movie. The film charts the history of the video game, how filmmakers came calling and why they turned to the man who changed the zombie genre into what we know today to make a film. And while the film largely is the story of the attempt to make the film as well as an explanation of what that film would have been, the film is also a love letter to George. It’s a film that shows us why people loved him and still love his films today and why people want to know what he would have done. It’s a film that shows us what might have been and why it never was.

This is a really wonderful film. While it isn't going to connect to some people, horror movie fans, fans of films about films or films about lost works are going to love this.

Recommended.

THE TENTH ANNUAL UNSEEN FILM AWARDS 2024

Somehow this is the 10th Anniversary of the Unseen Film Awards. A decade ago they started when Joe Bendel (aka JB) said that we should start our own awards since there was a big enough group of us traveling together that we could actually make it work.  We kind of joked that if we kept it up we’d manage to get a TV show out of it.  Time and tide had other ideas.

The truth is that the awards have shifted over the years. Up until 2019 the awards were like all the other awards and we picked our own Best Picture and related awards. After that Covid scattered everyone and the awards became something different. In 2020 the award was given to Trace Beaulieu and Frank Coniff aka The Mads of the MST3K because everyone was watching their riffs and getting through the dark times. After that it shifted into a list of the best under seen films.

This year we are again doing  a list of under seen/discussed films. The reason is that since covid has scattered everyone. While people are watching films, no one, even in the various members of the critics groups, are seeing the same things. I say that because as a member of NYFCO I had conversations with other members about trying to play catch up.

This year things were much looser than in years past. I threw the selection open to a number of Unseen Films writers as well as to some friends of the website. There was no pressure, just a gentle hey I’m putting this list together. I didn't chase anyone down as if it was life for death (i was too busy with actual matters of life and death) The result are some films, features and shorts that you really need to track down. Some people gave me just a title, others gushed.

Thank you to everyone who participated. Hopefully this list will spur you to go out and find a new favorite film.

Ian Bulaclac- an on line friend who I follow on Twitter and Blue Sky and who I have yet to meet despte attending the same events like NYFF and Triveca-  "For me that movie is CLOSE YOUR EYES" (Steve comments: I love this choice. How this film was not on more people's radar is insane. I saw it at the NYFF in 2023 and it topped my year end list)

Marq Evans- film director of CLAYDREAM and the just premiering THE DIAMOND KING- ANGEL APPLICANT (Steve comments: This is the story of how director Ken August Meyer found strength in the story of Paul Klee who had the same autoimmune disease.)

Liz Whittemore- Actress, mom, secret agent, friend, sometimes contributor to Unseen Films, lord god boofoo of Reel News Daily-SEW TORN -  A business on the verge of closure. Unresolved grief. An accident. A briefcase full of money. Welcome to SXSW 2024’s quirky caper, SEW TORN. At the ripe age of 24, boy wonder filmmaker Freddy Macdonald delivers a cleverly woven genre bender. 

Nate Hood- Friend, confidant, Unseen Film contributor, excellent dinner guest :Mine is "WE CAN BE HEROES." You'd have to have a cold, dead, stony heart to not fall for this film. A remarkable portrait of young people discovering themselves through fantasy and found family. Has the dignity to treat its subjects with a seriousness and sincerity our world rarely affords teenagers. I cried three different times, wishing I could've had a Wayfarer experience growing up, but also so, so thankful that other kids have it now. (Steve comments - If only Wayfarer was available when I was growing up so many lives might have been different)

Kurt Brokaw, Senior Film Critic, The Independent - * JUROR #2.   This slipped out of New York theaters in a New York minute, exiled to Max starting on Dec. 20.  It's the 40th drama produced and directed by 94-year-old Clint Eastwood, and it's a murder trial and 12-member jury, set and filmed in Savannah, Georgia. The accused is a short-fused hothead (Gabriel Basso) who allegedly killed his girlfriend (played by Francesca Eastwood, a Clint daughter)  on a rainy country road after a bar fight. Toni Collette's prosecutor has testimony and evidence that look airtight.  Only juror #2 (Nicholas Hoult), a married journalist with a pregnant wife, is reluctant to cast a guilty vote.  We discover he's a recovering alcoholic (with a four-year sober coin) and gradually, scene by scene and flashback by flashback, begin to realize his sobriety and recovery are the movie's tipping points.  Kiefer Sutherland as his sponsor, J.K. Simmons as another juror who''s convinced the wrong man is on trial, and Toni Collette as a prosecutor with a conscience, are aces. The drama is not so much about alcoholism as about the profound conflicts of sobriety and recovery in a 2024 society. There have been 200+ major feature dramas and documentaries about alcoholism and addiction since Days of Wine and Roses in 1962, and like that classic, Juror #2 is full of unending surprises. 

BC Wallin is a friend and occasional contributor to Unseen FIlms. He gives us two different Films

L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat (1934 3D remake)

dir. Louis Lumière

Everybody knows the story. The train approaches the station, comes at the screen, everybody screams. While doing some research on anaglyph 3D and the processes to create three-dimensional images in cinema, I discovered that one of the Lumière brothers had remade the iconic movie Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station in 3D, about 40 years after the original was first screened. The version available online is rough quality and it's done up in cyan-red anaglyph 3D to give at-home viewers the impression of the 3D experience (it's more likely contemporary viewers used polarized glasses). I didn't see it as those attending Lumière's exhibit would have seen it in 1934, but I saw what they did. A train! Coming right at me! What a thrill!

Prometheus (2012, in 3D)

dir. Ridley Scott

Downloaded in 3D and converted into cyan-red anaglyph to be viewable on my non-3D TV, Prometheus is a beautiful exhibition of the promise of the third dimension in cinema, one that made me fall in love with movies again this year (I was already in love — we renewed our vows). Talking about 3D usually ends up falling into corporate boardroom speak (immersive experiences marrying technology with the artistry of cinema, etc.), so I'll say that movies often feel like Alice's looking glass, and 3D — well-executed, employed for depth over gimmicky things popping out at you — feels like falling in. Technology and artistry are the bedrock of the industry, and it's beautiful to see something like Prometheus, a tragic tale of looking for meaning and instead finding gods made in the image of man, expanding the canvas of experience. I believe in 3D. I believe in the movies. Down with post-conversion! Long live the $3 upcharge!

Ernie Stevens - Occasional Unseen contributor and an expert in crisis intervention I met Ernie when I interviewed him about the HBO documentary about his life and we have been talking ever since.  I recommend THE QUILTERS, a short documentary directed by Jenifer McShane who directed Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops. The Quilters is an unexpected story about a group of incarcerated men who create beautiful quilts for local foster children. It follows a handful of men, some of whom have life sentences as the design and make beautiful personalized quilts gifted for the children's birthdays. I found it very moving. The film is 32 minutes and I wanted it to be longer! It has been winning awards at film festivals and is currently seeking distribution. (Steve comment - Ernie is right. You need to see this. It is so good it made my year end lists.)

Ed Douglas - Ed is a multi-hyphenate who has done so much- He is one of my favorite people to talk movies with.  A TASTE OF THINGS. (Steve comments: This film is food as life. Had Ed seen this in 2023 when it came out played film festivals, it would have been his best film of that year. It may still be the best film he's seen this year but since it was released in 2023 he can't put it at the top of his list. And yea- its is that good. 

@lifeisafilmfest on Twitter - has been a fellow traveler Festivals. He's a man you need to follow if you want to know whats out in theaters or streaming because he knows it all. His choice is  Rúnar Rúnarsson’s WHEN THE LIGHT BREAKS : What a gorgeous and poignant film this is! I don’t think anything else I have seen got under my skin this way since Aftersun. Taking place over the course of a single day, Cannes Un Certain Regard opening film follows Una as she tries to cope with an unexpected tragedy in the company of a group of friends. Elin Hall, who was very good in 2018 addiction drama Let Me Fall, gives a breakthrough performance here, brilliantly portraying the nuances of all the emotions Una is going through. The film’s symmetrical structure gives a sense of closure despite its concise running time. It is one of the best films I’ve seen this year.

Abe Friedtanzer writes for Cinema Daily, Film Experience and other outlets. He and I have been talking about films at festivals as long as I've been doing this: Almost a full year after seeing it on a big screen at SXSW,  IT'S WHATS INSIDE still stands out to me as the best and most unforgettable movie of the year. Its construction and creativity are unmatched, and hopefully its acquisition by Netflix means audiences are giving it the proper attention at home.

My pick is SOCIAL MEDIA MONSTER. This documentary has rocked the world of everyone I've shown it to. It's a dire warning about the dangers of interacting with people both on line and in real life.

Reid Ramsey is a a good friend, sometimes cinematic co-conspirator and not so frequent Unseen FIlms writer. His choice was SNACK SHACK