School Duel (2025) Fantasia 2025

Bleak black and deeply troubling film this is one of the feel bad films of the year. It is a bloody and broken scream into the night about the state of the world.

The film is the story of Sam Miller a bullied 13 year old living in a dystopian Florida where guns rule, school shootings are no big thing and  being macho, christian and right wing is the way to be. The state is in some twisted 1950's throw back.  When Sam strikes back at a bully who torments him he is punished. When he sees something about a School Duel, he signs up hoping to win and be crowned the king. Unfortunately it's a literal fight for life that isn't playing on a level field.

Think of the worst of society and the world today and it is here. This is a film where the worst of us plays out.  It is a terrfying thing. This is a world where our kids are sent to the slaughter.  In this Florida of the future there is no hope, only death.

It would be easy to compare this film to BATTLE ROYALE or  THE HUNGER GAMES, but that would be  lazy and dead wrong. Those films are several steps into fiction. the world of SCHOOL DUEL is just over the line. It's a film set in a world where  we will be when we stop getting upset with school shootings and stop fighting the morons who think "thoughts and prayers" actually makes dead kids better. It's a world run by bully's who think its fine to torment the weak. 

This is a deep visceral scream from the darkest abyss of a broken soul. It is a film that appears to have been made by some one who was almost broken by life, but pulled themself back from the abyss.  It is a clear eyed look at where we as a society and a country are headed. 

I went into the film thinking tht this was going to be something humorous and something I could shake off. I couldn't, because this this isn't funny. There is no humor in this film anywhere, just pain. Sam isn't an archetypal character in a polemic but a little kid who lives and breaths. When he picked up the grate to smash the kid tormenting him I found an instant connection to my life and when I was bullied. Too much pain welled up and I realized that I could never turn my pain into art.

Ultimately this isn't a movie but an elegy for death of the life we know. Yea we bleed for the doomed Sam (you thought this was going to end well? then you weren't paying attention) but mostly we bleed for the world as we know it. Long before the film ends this film will make you realize that unless we course correct, what happens here is just a precursor to something worse.

By the time the film ended I wanted to die. It removed any sense of hope, current events make me think that this future is coming. If you are paying attention to current events you see the world slipping towards this. My friend Liz Whiitemore has said that this film is a warning and something waving red flags but I think thats being much to hopeful. There is no hope here.

This film is brilliant.

I never want to see it again... but sadly I fear we will have to live it.

To Kill a Wolf (2024) opens tomorrow

There are a lot of films about how people running from things who come together and heal. It's a whole subgenre and frequently you know how it's all going to play out. The trick to making a film in the genre is to give us characters we love and enough coloring that we don't care about the framework because we are lost in the details.

TO KILL A WOLF is so good, er great, that we don't notice the framework or the characters or the details, but rather we are lost in the lives of the people on screen.

After Dani runs away from home she ends up in the forest where she meets a woodsman. The woodsman agrees to take her to her grandmothers house.  Along the way they connect and begin find the strength to confront the things that haunt them.

All hail Ivan Martin and Maddison Brown. Giving performances for the ages, the pair raise this film up to something truly special. Seemingly to inhabit their characters they make you forget that they are actors and in other films. I say this because when the film was done I had to see what else they had been in, and then I realized I had seen them in multiple films- but this film had wiped all of that away. Sure the rest of the cast is equally as good but Martin and Brown are on screen for the whole film and as such they grab us by the heart.

What I love about the film is that the story feels real. Normally films like this suffer in that you can feel the hand of the filmmakers who move everyone around to get the characters together and the plot moving. Here it just feels real.

I love this film. It's one the great finds of the year. Hell, it might also be one of the best films I've seen in 2024 as well. 

See this film. You will love it.

KEROUAC’S ROAD: THE BEAT OF A NATION opens tomorrow

This is a look at Jack Kerouac's On The Road and it's influence of the people who have read it.

Well it's trying to be.

What this really is is a mix of people talking about life on the road and people waxing poetic about what the novel means to them.. It's all decorated with some sunning images of people and places.

The problem is that none of it comes together. Its a series of great sequences that never tie to together. We know what people like about traveling, but how does it tie into the book? We know how the book influenced people but we never feel the wonder they do. Intellectually we do, but not emotionally.  I never felt why this book means something to anyone. 

Its not bad, but for a book that has changed the world and influenced generations it is never transcendant. 

FLUSH (2025) Fantasia 2025

What a black little film.

A coke head, whose life is going figuratively into the crapper ends up with his foot stuck in the toilet in a bar. Things get complicated when his dealer shows up and wants what is owed.

Some where past being a black comedy, this brief little nightmare is going to make you wince. laugh, groan and maybe throw up in your mouth. 

I went into this and thought it was going to be kind of like a film from a few years ago called HOLY SHIT about a guy trapped in a PortaPotty that is going to be blown up. It was mix of gross and funny and suspense. This on the other hand was tense, kind of funny and kind of disturbing.

I don't know what else to say. This is a brief film, it runs about 70 minutes, and if I start to explain what happens it will give a clue as to how this plays out, and I want you to be shocked.

If you like funny black comedies that make you wince, FLUSH is for you.

Naked Gun (2025)

 

Liam Neeson plays the son of Leslie Neilson in more adventures of Police Squad.

The big question that needs answering is, is it funny. Yes, yes, it is. More low brow humor of every sort fills the screen from first frame to a post credit sequence. While not all of it hits, and a few are repeated too often, for the most part this is a very funny movie for those who are fans of the original TV and Movie series.

To be honest, I and most of the critics at the screening I attended were set to be disappointed. We thought we’d seen all the best jokes in the trailers/commercials and that this was going to be aq painful 90 minutes. Instead, we were all surprised at how funny it was.

The plot has Danny Huston planning on destroying civilization so that he and the tech bros could rebuild the world. It doesn’t make sense, but it doesn’t have to and is just there to get Neeson and the cast in places where they can be funny.

The cast is good, with Pamela Anderson proving she is a way better actress than most of us once thought.

While the number of cameos in the film are small and fleeting, it is perfectly fine since we stay in the film as a result.

While some of the jokes crashed most hit and saying that these days about any comedy out of Hollywood is unheard of.

Recommended.

(Though a quick warning to parents there are more than handful of jokes that you will find screamingly funny but will require uncomfortable explanation to the little one – in other words some of this is very blue if you know the double meanings)

Delegation (2023) opens Friday

While on a school trip to the Holocaust sites before graduation three friends find their relationship under pressure as past and present collide in the wake of their soon becoming full-fledged adults.

I’m kind of uncertain what I feel about Delegation. It’s not that the film is bad, more that the mix of a coming of age drama set on a trip to holocaust sites makes for an odd viewing experience. While I know this sort of thing happens in real life all the time as school groups visit the sites, seeing it played out on the big screen is odd to me since it has been beaten into us that the  sites are to be treated with reverence. And I should say the subject of the Holocaust is handled reverentially.  It’s simply that that we are watching teen angst play out in Poland.

On it’s own terms Delegation is a good look at a bunch of kids growing up. The cast is excellent and they sell everything that is going on.  The mix of genres is something that Israeli film have always managed to do well going back to the long running Lemon Popsicle series in the 1970’s. Its films like this that truly make you understand what bittersweet means.

Worth a look.

OBEX (2025) Fantasia 2025

This is a black and white nightmare via a retro game. It is a tactile film that has a physical feel, especially if you ever played text computer games. It's a film that I can tell you what it's about, but I can't tell you what it really is.

This is nominally the story of a man who plays a video game and gets inside it and has to kill a demon lord in order to escape. What it actually is something else entirely. Its a character study via horror via a kind of misdirection via an exterimental approach. It's a film you have to experience rather than read about because the film is a trip and it chages over time.

I liked this film. Granted it took me a bit to click with it, but once I did I was willig to go anywhere it was going. This is ot like anything you've seen before, even other off kilter inde scifi films that are just plain weird. Yes this is that occasioally, but more often then not its something else.

If you want something that is very off Hollywood. OBEX is for you.

Stuntman (2025) Fantasia 2025

 

A black listed stuntman is brought in to supervise the work on an independent action that wants a retro feel. Will he be able to prove himself and help his assistant?

STUNTMAN will move you. That may sound weird, but the truth of the matter is this a characters forward film. Yes there are some great fights, the film opens with a 1980's style sequence, but it always keeps the characters and their interactions front ad center. The result is a film that had me misting up in the final moments.

What a joy.

To be certain this film covers familiar territory in the comeback gere, but at the same time it does something that few other films ever do and that is not rely on cliche or epectations to carry the story. The script here doesn't use a short hand and has the characters interact. We become invested and the film stops being disposable.

This is just a great film both as a drama and as a look at the making of action films.

Recommeded.

Hemet or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea(2023)

A group of people staying at a boarding house are gaslit and worse by the landy lady during a pandemic and the beginning of a zombie like apocalypse.

This a is a microbudgeted dark comedy that is all over the place tonally and with subject matter. A film with a lot to say HEMET is going to do its darnest to say it.  You won't know whether to laugh or be shocked, not will you know if it's serious or not until it is.

Ths is a one of a kind film that may not play well with anyone who needs a real world sense of solid ground but for those who don't mind a film that is bold and willing to take chances this is going to be manna from heaven.

That the film works is due entirely to the cast who sell the tonal shifts and seeming odd turns.

Is the film perfect? No, the make up on the landy lady looks too much like a rubber mask and the film's budget bleeds through with a couple too many scenes with limited angles. However neither fact is fatal and this is one that should be on the list of anyone wanting to stay the hell away from typical Hollywood processed pablum.

Shrimp Fried Rice (2024) Fantasia 2025

 A shrimp is revealed to be the cook at a Chinese restaurant.

Amusing foul mouthed riff on the Pixar film RATATOUILLE feels like the best film that Pepe of the Muppets never made.  Knowing and meta the film openly references the Pixar film. I laughed.

However as good as the film is it is probably too long by half.  Yes the pay off is very funny but there is a point where the film seems to be vamping. The result is a film that is good instead of great.

Definitely worth a look

Hi-Five (2025) Fantasia 2025

 

This is one of the greatest superhero films ever made.  

This is the greatest Marvel superhero team that Jack Kirby and Stan Lee never thought of. Think of this as the best cinematic version of the Fantastic Four ever made. This film does what every version of FF, including the new one, should have done.

Actually this film is light years beyond just being a FF retread and I have only used that analogy simply to get your attention.

This is the story of five people who get organ transplants from a super powered human. They didn't know the donor was super powered, though the doctors knew things were weird when the body disintegrated after the organs were removed. The organs give each one superpowers and a tattoo.  As they sus out what their powers are, an older religious leader leader steps on the scene and begins sucking vitality from anyone he touches.

This is a brilliant film. While the film has action sequences, this film is actually all about the characters.   How the five people work out their new abilities and come together is what makes this film works.  We fall in love with the film because we fall for the characters. How they react and interact is everything. These are people who are just like us, or our better selves. How they react is how we would. It is a delight. 

I loved this. 

This film has all the heart and love that almost all of the big budgeted superhero films of the last two decades have been striving and failing to achieve. This is a film with wonder and feelies and genuine laughs.

This film is magic.

As I said this is one of the best superhero films ever made and one of 2025's best as well.

The Undertone (2025) Fantasia 2025

Before we start be aware my reaction to this film is based on seeing it on a screener on TV with no surround sound. I mention this up front because this is film that an aggresive sound design that is a huge part of the film and if you don't have that your viewing will be affected.

A woman, the skeptic on a mysterious event podcast, is home waiting for her mother to die. As she does so she listens to some strange audio sent in by a listener and the sound recorded in the house she is in.

A film of sounds and silences, this is a film you are ether going to add to your list of films as one of the scariest ever made or on your list of films slightly more exciting than paint drying. I'm in the paint drying camp.

I should take a step back right here and say the final moments of the film scared the shit out of me, but it wasn't an earned scare. While it most definitely NOT a jump scare, as such, the frission it creates is just for those moments and not the 85 previous minutes.

The problem with this film its incredibly static. The mother is catatonic in the bed and never moves. The only other person physically in the film is the main character. That's it.  Visually its shots of the quiet house, some flashes of images and implications of other things, but mostly is just our heroine sitting with headphones on. Not much happens -until it does-hence the ending working- so the film feels inert.

Actually, this might have worked better as an audio play. So much of this film is geared toward the ears that I kind of wished I had headphones on (ADDENDUM: Liz Whittemore who did watch this with headphones loved it and said they are an absolute must). The audio is better than the visuals, though some of the sounds we hear sound wrong. For example, the voice of the woman singing in her sleep backwards has a metalic tinge to it as if played back on a recorder and not if they were actually making backward sounds. (I mention this because I knew someone who could mimic the sound of reversed audio and while it wasn't perfect it was freaky).

While I don't hate this film, I am not in love with it. This should have been told in another form.

Then again it may click with you, I have a couple of friends who will eat this up because slow or not they love a deliberately told horror film.

SOULEYMANE'S STORY Opens August 1

Abou Sangare will rock you as Souleymane, a young man looking for refugee status in France. The film follows Souleymane as he tries to prepare for his asylum interview.

I’m going to keep my thoughts about this film brief. Not because the film is bad but rather because this is a film where you need to see it from start to finish to truly understand what you are seeing and to be punched in the face by everything that happens.  It’s a film where  everything is in the finale, and you have to take the trip there to understand why I’m saying that.

The reason this film works as gloriously as it does is the performance of Sangare in the title role. Giving a performance that improves on a second viewing, it’s morphs from just this regular guy into a man drowning and fighting for his life. It’s a film where the we watch our focal point, Souleymane, go through his paces and have life smack him around until he breaks. The final scenes hit me so hard that I had to go back and rewatch the film because where he ends seems light years from where he started.

This is kick ass character study that lifts it’s plot line of a refugee looking for asylum frame work and makes it into something more. Sure we have seen similar tales before but with very rare exception have we ever been this close to experiencing the emotional roller coaster that refugees experience. It’s a film that grabs us and makes clear what how they feel.

All hail Abou Sangare who gives us not only a great performance but also connects us to a large part of humanity. May the awards gods shine down on him.

See this film

Thank you NYAFF- I'm done

I've been kicking this around for a bit now I've shown some versions to a couple of different people. Some liked it and some warned me that I might be cutting off my nose to spite my face.  They warned me the festival may black ball me but I can still buy a ticket (then again I think I'm already blackballed but that's another story and has zero to do with this) .  

Honestly, until the programmers and the people directing the festival change I am not going to be looking forward to the festival. Sure their might be some amorphous future movie that they might show, in which case I can buy a ticket; or a guest , again I can buy a ticket and go to a Q&A.  I am tired of feeling I am wasting my time which is how it's increasingly felt after Subway CInema walked away.  With that in mind here is my walking papers from covering th NYAFF.

I think I'm done with the New York Asian Film Festival. I think I'll go to the occasional film here and there but until the programmers change and the selection improves, I think it will no longer be  something I wade into with wild abandon and it will just be  a film here or there.

Seriously, I am done.

The issue is that since the Subway Cinema crew left it has been an ever increasing descent into "why am I watching this?" The number of films that the festival programs that I have liked, or understood why it was at the festival (beyond "we can get a guest") has diminished to the point where when the festival ends I always wonder why I bothered to go whole hog. To be certain, the films aren't bad, but they don't feel like anything that should be highlighted at a festival that claims it is the premiere look at Asian film outside of Asia. Most years there are occasional moments where the feeling of wasting time passes but this year there was almost no respite from that feeling.

A couple years back I posted a long piece questioning where the festival was going and I think a lot of what I saw then is still true. (That piece can be found here WHERE ARE YOU GOING NYAFF?). Right now I think the festival exists to have a two-week party and have famous people fly in for the festival staff, but not for everyone who walks through the door. In the old days I made friends at the fest because the Subway Cinema crew brought everyone along, and the last few years there seemed to be a distance between organizers (not the volunteers) and the audience. anyone above the ushers never felt approachable.

While I applaud the fact that the festival has gone wider in its inclusion of countries from Asia for their selections, and while I like the pivot away from the largely genre films of the early days, I still don't understand why they are picking the films they schedule. There is a sameness to the dramas. They tend to be very "meaningful" and of a type. The comedies tend to be about young people and feature romance. It's as if one person is making most of the choices year after year. 

Most of the films feel like they are being picked via a template or checklist that has to be followed. There should be a sense of the very wide range of variations on each theme, but for years NYAFF has never varied, it's the same number of the same type of films. There doesn't seem to be very many ground shakers outside of the  chacklist. The films seem to be chosen via a ticky box method. We need one samurai film, we need a J-Horror film, we need a Thai horror film, we need a Korean thriller. We need queer films for the side bar. And once they have those films they fill in with other films off the shelf that no one other festival picked up, picking as many as possible just so they can say they have the largest selection of films.

And it's not that I am upset that this year there aren't any great films...well only two are- THE OLD WOMAN WITH THE KNIFE, which I saw months before when it played across the country, and EMBERS. (And if you want to make it seem less dire SMASHING FRANK impressed with its technical virtuosity even if the narrative was uneven, and Anthony Wong broke my heart in VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH)... any way, I'm not upset about the lack of great films as in years past, it's more that the films around them more and more felt like a waste of my time.  And it isn't even that the film year isn't particularly good (everything is great or meh, with meh being the majority of what I'm seeing), it's more that also doing Japan Cuts and Fantasia and Locarno at the same time I am left to wonder why NYAFF didn't get some of those better films. Japan Cuts I understand (they are in a cold war with each other) but why didn't they get the Fantasia titles? Or the Locarno ones?(and there are fantastic best of year level Asian titles at Fantasia)

Seriously, I cover literally dozens of film festivals every year and no other festival, over the last 7 or 8 years, has presented slate after of films that felt dead on arrival. There is no life only pre-programmed blandness which they hide by having guests or a party.

I won't speculate beyond saying the programmers have their own tastes, but the tastes shift toward certain cookie cutter films every year. I know it's difficult to program a festival on any level so I know there are problems just dealing with filmmakers and studios. I know this results in a different crop every year. And I know that more and more many Asian films are getting regular releases in the US through other means, so the selection is limited. But at the same time almost all the NYAFF films feel exactly like the same also rans every year. You can't be programming this amount of blandness every year unless you have a certain taste.

At times it does seem that the festival is making choices purely on who they can get to the festival.  It's great that the fest is bringing more and more filmmakers over, but it seems that so many of the film choices are being made not because the film is truly spectacular but because the film will get the festival staff a chance to meet a famous person. The fest feels like the New York Chinese Film Festival from a few years back which I was told was started by a bunch of rich New York Chinese nationals who wanted to meet big stars (Jet Li, Donnie Yen), so they created a festival. It ran until the studios realized it existed just to bring stars over for meet and greets.(I'm not complaining I got do sit with Donnie Yen for half an hour and ask him anything about anything)

I won't get into the scheduling issues such with all films screen on a rigid schedule, everything is good if you live in NYC but not outside (I was told by the head of the fest it is designed for people in NYC), with almost all the thrillers or horror or action films starting at 9 and spread all over the city in such a way that it almost nigh impossible to go between venues to get to films playing after each other if they are at different venues. Nor will I go into how the festival is essentially now a club with membership dues, with things more and more geared to that membership (honestly, I could join if I wanted to - but I don't want to).

But the physical issues with the festival are minor, my real problem is what I said at the top is that the festival, which has been increasing in size year after year, has been diminishing the quality with what they are showing. They are just dumping crap on to screens to keep the party going and to fill the slots around the guests. This despite that during the Subway Cinema run they would shrink the festival because they couldn't get enough films to fill the slots-even with multiple screenings of titles. (Even Tribeca a few years back realized that getting bigger results in lots of dead titles and dilutes the brand.)

And I will not get into their seeming hate on for Japan Cuts which they now has them intentionally counter program out of a long burning dislike and a desire that there can be only one Asian centric festival that matters.  There is no need to program at the same time except that you want to see who has the bigger "built in audience". (and it does seem to be intentional on  NYAFF's part since dates always seem to appear after Cuts is set)

Somewhere around the 15th meh film in a row this year I realized I no longer want to waste my time sifting through the titles they show. I realized I no longer had any idea why the vast majority of the films from the last half decade were screened. Yes, most aren't bad, but they aren't engaging or memorable. I don't know why year after year I am being asked to watch carbon copies of the films from last year. (And you thought Hollywood was bad) Worse I really don't know why I am being asked to watch the majority of them because they should not be at a festival that was set up to highlight the best of Asian cinema. I say this as a person who has gone every damn year since 2009 and who went back and tracked down almost every film screened at the festival from its inception.  

I say this as a person who sees well over 1000 films a year: I would have better luck randomly selecting a better group of fulfilling films on the internet or in a DVD bargain bin at discount store than I would going to NYAFF in any of the last  half decade plus.

I used to look at NYAFF and know that I was going to see great wonders, but over the past 7 or 8 years it's become how much time am I going to waste?

Now admittedly I did not see every film. And I apologize if I somehow missed the 80 great films at the festival. There were literally dozens of films I missed, but at the same time I shouldn't have to wade into all 100 plus films to find a bunch that I liked, never mind delight me, especially when I saw over 20 films that were programmed.  

Outside of the odd film, I am done. Even though I know this will probably result in my missing something great down the road, but based on the er evdiminishing returns I can't abuse myself hoping to find something good in the endless films. Honestly looking back at the coverage of the last half decade I realize that with very few exceptions the films that were best  were the one's I bought tickets for not the  titles in the press library. Stepping away as accreditted press just means no interviews, but I will live.

So Thank you  NYAFF for the great films you have shown me in the past, but now it's time to move on and make other summer plans.

Chao (2025) Fantasia 2025 Japan Cuts 2025

Set in a future Shanghi a reporter tries to find out how the merpeople and humans came together and ends up learning the story of human Stephan and the mer-princes Chao, who met him and declared that she was going to marry him.

Studio 4 C is back with a visually amazing film. It's a film that will make you want to stop the film just so you can look at everything happening in the frame.  I was blown away. It's so amazing that I can't wait to see it again when I can watch it and stop the film periodically to see what is happening in the frame.

As good as the visuals are the problem is the narrative and the story telling are allover the place. As loud as the visuals are some of the sequences are. Bits of the story seem to be missing or overwhelmed by a side bit. This is a problem for Studio 4 C. while they make some of the best visual films, their narratives  and feel scattered if they don't have a director who can hold the reins tightly.

I like this but I didn't love this the way I should have.

Reservations aside the visuals will blow you away and any chance you can get to see this big must be taken.

A pointer toward Angela's Shadow (2025)

In the 1930's a rich couple with a child goe  to visit her nanny in the Cree community. She is harrassed by a dark figure who doesn't want there.

I'm not going to say much about ANGELA'S SHADOW. Not because there is anything wrong with it, but more that I have not been able to distance it from  other films I've seen recently and semi-recently concerning the relationship between the white world and the treatment of the First Nations. There have been a number of films all seeking to come to terms with the how badly people were treated and I have seen too many and at the present time I don't think I can keep the films distant.

In the present case the film is quite good. I like that there is a thriller element to it that makes it stand out from other explorations of the subject. It's good enough that if you are interested in the subject or want a good thriller you should give it a try.

Haunted Mountain: The Yellow Taboo (2025) Fantasia 2025

 Hikers head into the woods and end up in a weird loop of events.

This is not a time loop sort of film but something else entirely. It's a replaying of events and varations and... I really can't explain it simply.

What I can explain simply is that I am torn about this film . The images are truly spectacular, this maybe the best looking horror film I've seen this year. There are moments and sequences that are truly chilling. This film has some images that are now burned into my brain

 On the other hand the narrative and its looping story telling never really comes together. This is always a danger with films that loop, and its a danger most films of this sort fall into. I know that some times with films from outside of the US the narrative is not rigidly controlled, and in most cases it works, but the looping, time shifting, weirdness here keeps the film from truly working. Yes by the time the film ended I knew what was going on, but at the same time I was never connected. Intellectually I knew what happened, but emotionally I felt nothing.

I don't hate this film, I just wish the great visuals and moments had a better narrative thread to hang off of.

HEADCASE (2025) Fantasia 2025

 

Young woman who is a social media influencer ends up in an accident while making content. As she falls apart because she has just killed a man, the call of her life comes in promising to make her rich is she can just get to a meeting.

This is a bleak black comedy about the lengths people will go for money and fame. Its a funny but sad indictment of the state of the world. 

I'm not going to spoil the turns but simply say it is recommended.

JULIET AND THE KING(2025) Fantasia 2025

This poster does no justice to the art in this film.

JULIET AND THE KING is a delightful, animated film about a theatrical troop that is brought to Iran to perform a version of Romeo and Juliet with the Shah as part of the cast.

I had a blast with this film. 

To be certain it isn’t perfect, but at the same time it is so absolutely not Hollywood that you forgive any flaws as you watch some brilliant things transpire before our eyes. The characters on screen are not really like anything that we've seen here in America. The plot does not flow as we expect and there is real danger at times. The hows and whys of it all doesn't feel old hat.

Yes, the animation is wonderful. There are small details everywhere that will make the animation junkies, like me, grin with delight..

I loved this.

As someone who is tired of everything being Disney or 3D computer animated, this film is a breath of fresh air that harkens back to the work of Don Bluth or Richard Williams.

Highly recommended.

A pointer toward Devil's Bride (1974) Fantasia 2025

The Eastern Block nations were making some weird ass films under the rule of the Soviets. I don't mean that in a bad way, more that there are some truly bizarre film that came out during the Cold War, especially in the 60's, 70's and 80's. I mean no one in Hollywood would turn out a musical folk tale about the devil ending up in a romance after getting pitched from heaven. The music is fully of fuzzy guitars and  music thts similar to Jesus Christ Superstar except not up to Andrew Lloyd Webber.

God bless Deaf Crocodile for bringing this film to the masses. This is a one of a kind viewing experience that is going to delight anyone who wants off Hollywood films. This is going to confuse others. And it will annoy the hell out of anyone who wants typical Hollywood product.

I do not know if this qualifies as a good film. I don't know if I like it as a film. I don't know if that matters. I do know that I loved the experience of watching. I loved the weird twists ans turns and not feeling like I knew where this was going. This is an experience and an eye opening film about the world and cinema.

If you want something that isn't like anything you've seen before- give this film a shot.

HELLCAT (2025) Fantasia 2025

Young woman wakes up in a Gulf Stream trailer with a bad wound. She is not certain how she got there. A voice on a speaker tells her to calm down. It warns she must remain calm or else the infection will take over sooner than the one hour she has to get to a doctor.

I can't say more about the plot because there are twists and turns in the offing. Things are not what we are lead to believe at the start. If I say more than that it may end up being spoilers. 

I didn't really care for this film. The events as they play out don't feel natural. We can feel the manipulations of the filmmaker, from the long sequence before anyone speaks as the just awoken girl fumbles around in the trailer, to some of the turns.  I went with it because it's not terrible, but at the same time I kept hoping there would be a wonderful turn that delighted me. It never came.

Worth a look for horror completeists.

Forbidden City (2025) Fantasia 2025

A young woman from China allows herself to be trafficked to Italy so that she can find her sister. When her sister is not where she thought she would be,  she begins her search. Eventually she ends up hooking up with the son of the man  who is supposed to have gone off with the sister.

Atypical mix of Hong Kong martial arts and Euro crime films is something to make you sit up and take notice. The mix of action and crime drama makes for a film that isn’t like anything else out there, and which probably shouldn’t work, yet some how it does. This film hooks you early with an amazing action set piece and then just drags you along.

The reason the film works is the endless drive forward that the search for the siter brings. There is an urgency. We know early on that the bad guys are bad. And some ot the good guys are not so good either. I love that we don't have cookie cutter characters.

Certainly, the martial arts help. They are going to sit up and make you say “hello’ because there is brutality to them that is severely lacking in modern action films, especially those from China. The action is such that I was emailing friends to tell them that they had to see this because the action was going to blow their minds.

I really liked this film a great deal. I like the mix of genres and cultures. I love that some one was thinking outside of the box and was skilled enough to pull it off. Too often mixes like this crash and burn. This one doesn't. Just go with it's seemingly uneven pacing.

Forgive my lack of words  but I need to see this again to really find the words to express how much I liked this film.

A must see.

BLAZING FISTS (2025) Fantasia 2025 Japan Cuts 2025

 Takashi Miike's third project for the year (the others ar Nyaight of the Living Cat and Sham) is based on MMA fighter Mikuru Asakura's autobiography. In it two young men in juvenile detention are inspired by a talk  aby Asakura to try and compete in an upcoming MMA competition. When they get out  they work to make that a reality, but they have to fight gangs, both juvenile and adult to make their dream a reality.

Weakest of the three Miike projects for 2025 isn't bad, but it isn't great. The main problem is the script isn't anything anything we haven't seen before. It kind of spins it's wheels until we get to the fight scenes. The script seems to want to hit every cliche  because it's kind of too lazy to give us a detailed plot. Yes, we know the over all arc, but the details are not all here.  There was a point where if it wasn't a Miike film and if I didn't like the characters as much as I did I might have walked out.

Ultimately the fight scenes are the reason to see the film. The fight scenes are bone crushing and exciting. They are not ones where anyone walks away unhurt. Blood flows. Bones are broken. Nothing is hidden...

Well, until it is. Somehow a film that let it all hangs out ends on a disappointment. Just as the film grabs us, it ends on an anti-climatic moment. I stared at the screen and groaned. Miike ended it there? A couple seconds earlier or later it would have been fine, but something about that final moment doesn't work.

I don't hate the film, the action really is a reason to see it, but this should have been so much better. Maybe it's unfair because since it''s Miike I'm holding it to a higher standard... but I was disappointed.

Loose thoughts on James Gunn's Superman (2025)

James Gunn’s SUPERMAN is a pretty good film. Deeply flawed, the film still manages to generate some real emotions once it gets going.

That I liked SUPERMAN is something of a miracle. I did not expect to like it, I am not a fan of James Gunn's, and to be honest his set up of just dropping us into the fray has problems. The idea works on some level, but the truth is that he leaves too much unexplained and it takes a while to get our feet grounded. While I have no problem coming in mid action, I felt like I was coming in after missing the first film in a series or the first hour of the movie  despite knowing the characters from the comics.

The basic plot has a still green Superman in trouble because he stopped a war. his gets everyone talking-Should the meta-humans be involved in politics? Billionaire Lex Luthor is claiming no and is working on stopping Superman anyway he can, which involves a super armored army, and a guy named Ultraman. Stuff happens, not much of it deep, including the discovery of a message from his birth parents that he is supposed to subjugate humanity (a massive re-write of 80 years of continuity) not help it. Lex is revealed to be the real bad guy.

The problem with the film is the script is really kind of simplistic. I know James Gunn was a fan of the Christopher Reeves films, but God damn they are like a Tolstoy novel compared to this film. Frankly, the simplicity and dumbing down of the writing is akin to some the crappy comics writing in the 50’s and 60’s. This is Superman for pre-schoolers down. I may not have liked some of what Zach Snyder did with the character, but his writing was not on a grade school level. At least the Snyder world made sense, nothing in Gunn’s world does. The character interactions are not really connected to the world the inhabit except to put people in danger.  No one interacts with real people. Whatever the meta humans do is somewhere else unless monsters attack. I kept wanting to stop the film and ask question. Things are either black or white. There is no middle ground. Worse there is no world creation or details of Metropolis.

I won’t even talk about the narrative flow because there is none. Things just happen -because Gunn needs them to. While I don’t mind some of what happens, like the giant monster attack, I don’t like that Gunn’s choices are geared more toward something cool to look at rather than something that makes narrative sense. (the Justice Gang fighting the dimensional sprite is just there for literal background coloring)

Details aren’t there, and neither are some of the characters. I love Hawk Girl, but she is a nonentity, as if Gunn had no idea what to do with her other than have her look cool. Metamorpho is just a deus ex machina. And Ultraman is ultimately a moron? Oh come on.(His inclusion serves zero point other than as a way to get Lex in the Fortress of Solitude)

Do I even want to discuss Lex Luthor? Of course, the far right hates this film Lex is redrawn as a smarter Donald Trump who doesn’t care about anyone or anything. But Lex’s plan makes no sense on any number of levels, and it’s cartoony to the nth degree. And which is Luthor’s goal – to become king or kill Superman- the film ultimately isn’t clear.

And yet the film works on its own broken terms once it gets going. Once there is a forward momentum and we are at the point where we just have to let it go it mostly works. We genuinely have stakes to fight for. Sure, the battle with Ultraman is old hat, but it’s kinda fun. The film has some touching moments, such as Superman with his parents. They may not be earlier incarnations but the amount of love and humanity in them is light years beyond what we have seen in previous films. The superman/Lois romance works. There are times when Gunn actually seems to understand the character and the film soars (though it would have been nice not to reference/ steal/ lift from the Reeve films)

I liked the film, or the second half. I’m curious where he may take the character, but I still expect to be disappointed because Gunn is too intent on controlling the story and infusing it with humor at the wrong time. Gunn speaks of the character with reverence but also treats it without any. (Let's face the choice of Guy Gardner is purely so he can use low brow humor)

It’s an interesting miss fire that I don’t need to see again.

(And this would have been different if I wrote this right after I saw the film but the truth is it isn’t bad enough to have all the wings and legs pulled off it.)

Serpent's Skin (2025) Fantasia 2025

A trans woman who fled her backward hometown ends up in the big city. Falling in love with a tattoo artist, the pair end up unleashing a demon who feed on the people they meet.

This film didn't really work for me. More talk than action the film never fully generated enough suspense or fear for my taste.  While not bad, it just wasn't scary.

Worth a look for forgiving monster fans.

Anna Kiri (2025) Fantasia 2025

I honestly don't know if I like ANNA KIRI but I am reasonably certain that it is one of the best films from 2025.

Yes, I know that makes very little sense but at the same time the cast, the script, and the technical prowess involved in the making of the film all come together to make something special.

The plot of the film has Anna and her brother making money with a gang as low level theives. they make enough to get buy but not much more. When one of their scores ends up going banana shaped she is forced to flee.  In the process she drops her diary which is picked up by a literary person who tracks her down and offers to chage her life. The problem is the old life isn't done with her.

Flashy and deliberately told, this film is very much a calling card. The film uses all sorts of  tricks to move things along and keep us interested. Frankly it tries a little bit too hard and the film feels overly punished with a few florishes (the insertion of film clips) that make me want to hit the director. If the script and the cast weren't so god damn good I'd have written the film off.

But I can't write this film off. There is something incredibly compelling. I keep going back to the film and gushing about how it's put together, how the performances give us more than is in the script, and how the script is way more edgy and raw then the slick presentation suggests. There is an ugly edge under the gloss and the bumps lift it up.

Yea, I know that makes no sense, but the truth is director Francis Bordeleau has made something that shouldn't work but does. He's made a film that is so perfectly put together that it is te times the sum of its parts. Its the sort of film that I could show to people and say don't do that, but watch it because it's so incredible.

This film is a masterpiece- see it

REDUX REDUX (2025) Fantasia 2025

REDUX REDUX is one of the great films of Fantasia and 2025.

The film is the story of a mother who takes revenge on her daughter’s killer by jumping between dimensions and killing him over and over again. But there are complications. I can’t tell you more than that because that’s the first couple of minutes and it becomes complicated after that.

This is a great film on every level, especially the script. The script works and makes sense . Too often multi-dimensional films make zero sense (look at the Marvel Universe films to see the mess), but here things are controlled and for the most part are perfectly plotted. The characters are expertly drawn with more than two dimensions and real arcs.

I was moved.

After spending the better part of the last few weeks liking but not loving any narrative, and getting to the point that I was thinking that there was something wrong with me, here was a film that grabbed me by the neck and forced me to stare at the screen with an intensity that few films have generated.

This film is an absolute masterpiece.

Highly recommended.

Shoshana (2023) opens Friday

 

SHOSHANA is loosely based on the life of Shoshana Borochov who became involved with a member of the British forces watching over Palestine in 1938.

One part thriller and several parts romance SHOSHANA is a solid entertaining drama.  I don’t know if it aspires beyond that, but on a basic level it’s pretty good.

You’ll forgive the lack of wild enthusiasm for the case but there are times the film seems to want to be more than just a romance (it gives us a long set up of the Jewish migration into Palestine as a lead up) but the film always swings around back to just being romantic drama. Yes, there are political over tones and historical significance , but the film feels like a Hollywood romance. As I said it entertains, but I kept feeling like it should give me more.

If you are in the mood for a historical romance with just a hint of modern day politics, give it a shot.

LE TOUR DE CANADA (2025) Fantasia 2025

 Two cyclists battle their way across Canada

This comedy short just marches along at mach speed. A delightful combination of live action and animation that keeps you smiling, and laughing from start to finish.

Delight.

LUCID (2025) Fantasia 2025

A young artist struggles to come up with a work that will please a demanding professor. In the hope of being creative she takes a new drug and things become complicated.

Experimental and avant garde collide in a film that is all image and sound.  This is a film where the trippy presentation over whelm the very thin narrative thread. 

I don't know how to really explain this film other than to say it's a cinematic experience. It's a film where the ride is the thing andyou just have to go with it and not think about the twists and turns and real world connections to what we are seeing (I mean the camera frequently shows us angles of things that we could never see in real life, even if we were in a characters head.)

This is a festival film, one to be seen big and loud and with a like minded audience where the reaction of everyone can feed everyone in the space. This is not to say that this is a good film narratively, I don't think it is, but at the same time it a sonci and visual experience that can only be fully realized in a darkened theater with and audience.

A word about the new restorations of THE MONKEY KING: UPROAR IN HEAVEN and THE LEGEND OF THE SEALED BOOK

I've said this on Twitter and Blue Sky but the new restorations of the classic THE MONKEY KING UPROAR IN HEAVEN and THE LEGEND OF THE SEALED BOOK were done by A.I.. I say this because based upon what I've seen on line the transfers do not look good, the details in the original images are washed out since it appears that the AI was trained on modern TV animation.

 While I admit that the clips and in the case of SEALED BOOK, the whole film, what is on You Tube and elsewhere may not be the transfers at NYAFF, I'm reasonably certain that is the case owing to seeing come complaints on line.

The one advantage to seeing THE MONKEY KING would be to see the entre film, a restoration and 3D conversion in 2012 (which was spectactular) removed 15 or 20 minutes. That may sound like heresy but it was done with input of the original filmmakers who realized that there were problems with the original film. The current restoration was done by the studio with no input from anyone.

I like the films, so I am not going to say don't go, I'm just saying some times a restoration is not a good thing.

HONEKO AKBANE'S BODYGUARDS (2025) Fantasia 2025

I will argue HONEKO AKBANE'S BODYGUARDS is one of the best manga adaptions ever. It's a film that is so perfectly done that even if you don't know the source you can follow it and become caught up in it.

 I will also resport it is one of my most favorite films of 2025.

The plot has a young man named Arakuni to protect a high school girl and internet sensation Honeko Akbane from the killers who want her dead. It seems he biological dad is the head of the Japanese CIA and he wants to keep her safe from the people who hate him. She is not to know anything about it. Actually every person in her class is a bodyguards with a specialty.

This is just great. From top to bottom is a near perfect delight that made me smile. It's not only a film that knows exactly what the job is, but it's one that does so in a couple of important ways that most other similar films, nay most other films period don't ever do.

The first thing the film does is have wonderfully drawn characters.  To be certain the huge cast of characters occassional is short changed in screen time, but by god when they are on screen you know exactly who they are. Everyone has a genuine character to play and they do it.

The other thing the film does is have a bunch of actors who shine. Everyone is fully invested at every moment so we believe what is happening and that people are feeling as they do. The sequence at the end when Honeko's father accidentally meets her,  is masterful. Watch how her dad tries to have a poker face but you can see the emotion welling up in his eyes. Likewise the rapid turn and wonderful smile a few minutes later when he tells one of the bodyguards she did good. I should not be getting misty in movies like this.

And not to sell anything short the fights are great and the sense of humor is spot on at every moment. 

This film is just the best sort of film out there.

A must see.

Brief thoughts on THE WELL (2025) Fantasia 2025

 

After an enviormental disaster has caused the collapse of society, a stranger stumbles on an isolated community has a source of drinkable water.

I don't have a great deal to say about this dystopian tale. There are a couple of problems with this film that made it not work for me. The first problem is that the set up for the world and the conflict as laid out in the early part of the film didn't make a lot of sense. The filmmakers gave us too many details with the result I spent too many times trying to work out if the story they were telling us actually worked. The other problem, which is one of my pet peeves of end of civiliation stories, is that everything doesn't look used. People and things are clean. There isn't a lived in quality to what we see or even how people physically hold themselves. I never connected.

While I was never fully invested I did stay to the end. For post apocalyptic fans this film is worth a look.

AJ Goes to The Dog Park (2025) opens Friday

AJ, mild mannered man who doesn't want much from life except to work his entry level job in the family business, have dinner with his dad and take his dogs to the dog park. However when the dog park becomes a blog park AJ has to right a terrible wrong.

This is a silly comedy with a weird cartoon logic. This isn't surprising since writer/director Toby Junes worked for Cartoon Network. Its a largely a sweet and gentle film with lots of laughs.

I'm going to be honest and say try not to read too much about what happens. I say that because what starts off as a straight forward is slightly off kilter comedy goes completely banana shaped  with magic and weird turns. The less you know the better it is because quite frankly you won't see where this is going. It all strangely makes sense which is an even bigger surprise.

This is a delightful little film that is going to have a long life as a cult film.

A pointer towards Foreigner (2025) Fantasia 2025

A Persian young woman who has just moved to Canada, tries to take steps in order to fit in with a popular click of girls. In the process she awakens a demonic force.

This is a mannered film that gives you a great deal to think about. While the film is being billed as supernatural tale/horror film it is very deliberate to the point of being a black comedy. Events have an uncomfortable humorous edge.

To be honest I don't know if this film worked for me. the problem is that the film seems similar to several other recent films. The trio of  girls that head the clique seems to be a requirement for outsider films. The depiction of demons and family is also similar to other films where demons stalk Persian families. Watching this I felt like I was watching something I had seen befor this. I say this because I know that the films I have seen before have influenced how I reacted by this film. I know that a writer should forget take each film on it's own terms but sometimes it isn't possible. 

Worth a look if you are interested.

(I will say I loved how the end credits were done.)

Samurai Fury (Muromachi Outsiders) (2025) NYAFF 2025

 Yu Irie's epic samurai film is about a band of outsiders who take on the evil shogun.

This film is full of great set pieces and deeply moving moments. It's a film that has some great action and if that's all you need, go for it.  If you need more then this film is going to be a long haul.

The problem with this film is it is crafted to be something other than just a samurai film. In particular this film echoes the spaghetti westerns which were crafted using the rhythms of the samurai films of the late 50's and 60's. The film also lifts the attitudes and smart-ass remarks of the modern Hollywood action films. It would have worked if they had blended it all together better, but they didn't with the result that this feels like a dress up retread.

I never felt connected. Worse once the table was set I kind of knew where this was going to go.

I was disappointed. 

Is this a bad film? No, but I don't know what this is doing at NYAFF. It's nothing remarkable and like a number of other films playing the festival this year which is that it's here to fill a slot or a ticky box (It's this year samurai movie), not because it' anything super spectacular. 

Worth seeing for action fans at the fest, otherwise you can wait.

Random NYAFF Shorts

GOOD MOURNING
A woman who works at a funeral home reflects on life as funeral happens.

Good just sort of there film  seems to exist to have a couple of clever moments but it never pulls it all together.

 

BOY FROM OUTER SPACE
When a boy disappears a detective investigates and finds he maybe an alien.

Okay film feels like to is building up to something greater than it does.  Sound and fury signifying something.

 

STILLS MOVING
A sculptor with ALS has one of her sculptures come to life. This is a sweet little film that is hard to discuss because the film is in the payoff.

Sammi, Who Can Detach His Body Parts
Wildly off kilter film about a mother trying to recover the body parts her son gave away.  Kind of mauldin film is a throw back to the sort of films that NYAFF rarely runs any more. It’s a weird examination of the bits of us that we leave behind.

 

Little Rebels Cinema Club
A bunch of kids decide to make a zombie film with a camcorder.

Love letter to the power of movies and the desire to create them If you were ever a kid and shooting your own films you will fall madly in love with this gem of a film.

Recommended

Ariela Rubin on OH HI(2025) which opens Friday

 

Oh, Hi starts with Iris telling someone off-screen that she’s done something bad. The film then flashes back about 30 hours to cute couple—Iris and Isaac (played by Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman), singing in a car on their way to a weekend getaway.

They stop to get strawberries, dance, fool around, and Isaac cooks Iris a nice dinner. They find handcuffs in a closet (they're at an Airbnb or something similar) and decide to use them for fun. Everything is going well and is fun, until Iris refers to them as a couple, and Isaac basically says, “Huh? We’re not a couple.” Unfortunately for him, he’s still in the handcuffs when this happens.

Iris is shattered, and while I know no woman likes being called crazy... she definitely becomes quite crazy, and Isaac essentially becomes a hostage. Things spiral and become ridiculous, even more so when Iris’s best friend and the friend’s boyfriend arrive at the house.

There were some laughs, but overall, it felt too over the top for me. I've seen people compare it to a modern-day 'Misey', which I can see but it doesn't get nearly as dark.

This movie just wasn’t for me. Iris and her friends were a bit too unhinged and annoying. I did like Isaac, though, I was rooting for him the whole time. I did wonder who the filmmakers were hoping people would side with.

If it ends up on a streaming platform, sure, give it a look, but I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to see it.

GRAND MOCKERY (2025) Fantasia 2025 Scary Movies 2025

 I honestly don’t know what to make of A GRAND MOCKERY.  My confusion is intensified by the fact that the film is playing at both Fantasia currently and next month at Lincoln Center’s Scary Movies. Clearly, they see the film as a horror film and I don’t think it really is. It’s definitely a trip inside the main character’s head and unpleasant things happen but it’s more character study of a disturbed man than anything.

The film was shot in 8mm  using various cinematic techniques and featuring an almost constant voice over. The film feels like a very inde art house film from the 1970’s. Its something that probably should be projected at a drive in at 2am.

The problem for me is I never found a way in. Yes, we are watching a young man spiral and descend into a kind of madness but at the same time I never found a way to care. Yes I love the techniques used and the look of the film but to me the central figure always remained a cypher. I am not going to lie, the desire to walk out on the film was strong, but the people presenting and the supporting the film kept me seated hoping that I would find something meaningful here.

I never did.

Is the film bad? No. But it’s very much for a particular audience. You are either going to get it or not. This plays like a fever dream and a half remembered nightmare, I have a feeling that had I seen this after missing the first couple of minutes (after waking up at 2am) I probably would have liked it more since I could have assumed I missed something at the start but going from first frame to the last I was kind of baffled what this was all about and what I was being asked to wrestle with it.

If you want an off Hollywood, off the beaten path film give it a try. If want something else stay away.

A brief pointer to Les Ecorches - Partie 2 (2025) Fantasia 2025

I can not do a review of this film. The screener I was given did not have Englsh subtitles and I had to use auto generated  ones on the screening platform.  While I could follow the plot the errors and lack of nuance has me not wanting to do a review.

The film is a continuation of a film from last year. In it a bunch of teenagers have to fight an evil that lives in the woods and actually takes one of them over. Here events pick up with the return of the evil force.

This is kind of like a young adult  version of a Stephen King novel or Stranger Things mashed up with a PBS series, but with blood, but nothing that any parent or squimish person would get upset about. It's a low budget film that was clearly made with love which helps it overcome some physical short comings.

I like this film enough that I want to go back and watch the first film and this one again with a better translation. 

If you speak French an love horror give it a shot.

I am Frankelda (2025) Fantasia 2025

Please excuse me I am about to gush uncontrolablly.  This film had me staring at the screen wondering what I had gotten myself into. When it finished I was emailing friends and aquintances to see if they had seen it yet.

Simply Arturo and Roy's Ambriz I AM FRANKELDA (Soy Frankelda) is a cinematic masterpiece. This is a film whose visual wonders are going to make your brain explode.

Billed as the first stop motion film from Mexico, this is light years beyond what most studios are doing. There is so much detail in so many of the frames you are going to need multiple viewings just to catch everything. I completely understand why this film is on so many people's must see lists. 

The plot of the film is about Francisca, a young woman who writes fiction that can open the walls between worlds.  Her words attract the attention of Herneval, a owl prince. As the pair move in their worlds there is a plot afoot in Herneval's world would cause chaos for both worlds. 

While you may sense a similarity to other fantastical tales, what the Ambriz Brother do is to expand the material found elsewhere including their series FRANKELD'S BOOK OF SPOOKS and make it something new and wonderful. With the canvas of a feature film they were able to let things play out and not have to worry about having to end every couple of minutes. Characters are more fleshed out and themes hit home. Everything is allowed to fill out as fully as possible.

I'm going to be honest and say it isn't perfect, there are some clunky moments. There are a couple of times where the Ambrizs don't quite hit their target, but at the same time they are aiming to do infinitely more than any animation studio in America. I will gladly take a film like that this that is full of wonders, heart and idea, but has a couple of burps,  instead of a slick mindless distraction I'm going to forget.  I say this as someone who has been wrestling with how to write this up for a week, while other film have come and gone.

Honestly you don't need me talking about this film, pulling it apart and saying what I think you should see. What you need to do is go out and buy a ticket and find your own wonder and magic.

Recommended.

BEANS (2023) Fantasia 2025

BEANS is the story of the 1990 Oka Crisis at Kanesatake in Canada as seen in through the eyes of a young Mohawk girl. The Crisis was sparked when it was decided that in order to build a bigger golf course the government was going to take over a First Nation burial ground. It sparked a months long stand off that tore open the country as the buried racism and disrespect for the First Nation boiled out.

I had previously caught BEANS earlier this year at another festival. I didn't review the film then because at the time I didn't know what to say. Sometimes when you see a film at a festival words get lost. Some times you need to revisit and reconsider a film.

BEANS is a killer film. There is a reason that the film has won numerous awards, its a moving story. Actually its a vital story in todays world since it lays bare racism. While it specifically speaks of the racism of white Canadians against the First Nation, something we are reminded of with yet another discovery of a mass graveyard of children who were stolen from their parents, the film also speaks of the racism in an America living in a Trump infused world where the right feels its okay to hate. I was chilled by many scenes in BEANS such as the one where or heroine's family has rocks thrown at their car as they pass by.

While the film is a little too neat in it's structure, we are in too many places too conveniently, the film is still moving, and perhaps even shattering. 

One of the most important films of 2021. BEANS is recommended