Miles Away (2025) Austin FIlm Festival

Jackie Quinones writes directs and stars in MILES AWAY about a ride share driver named Jess' day as she deals with passenger, friends and family.

When you see MILES AWAY you need to stay with it to the end. The reason I say that is because the film is not a perfectly flowing narrative. It's made up of moments from Jess'] day that are seemingly random.  They are linked by Jess and the phone calls to the people close to her. Actually, it isn't until we are deep into the film that the pieces begin to knit together, and we see what Quinones is getting at, a wonderful portrait of a young woman at an important moment in her life (though she doesn't realize it.)

This is a super film. It's a film that plays better the more you see it because you see how things link up. That's the power of Quinones construction, but it isn't clear immediately. The first time through you see the film as little episodes. The later trips through you do not, it's not episodes but a well-constructed whole that grows on you.

The cast sells the film. Yes, the various passengers, including Luis Guzman and Andre Royo who executive produced, are wonderful. They create actual people and not characters. But holding it all together is Quinones. We like her and we feel for her plight. If she weren't as good as she is this would never have worked. It's a tricky role since she is at the film's center, she has to remain real, and kind of underplay things because everyone around her has to shine. She has to be the normal one and yet be unique. She pulls it off perfectly.

I really like this film a great deal. While I have seen it a couple of times I need to see it again away from the festival crush, when I can see it for itself and when I don't have to write about it or worry about taking notes for an interview.

This is a small gem of a film.

Recommended.

I interviewed star/writer/director Jackie Quinones and executive producer Andre Royo, that interview can be found here

MILES AWAY plays October 30 at the Urban World Film Festival in NYC.

(I Don't Know) How to Be aka (No Se) Como Ser (2025) Austin Film Fest 2025

There is a story here.

I was in the middle of covering the September film festivals and I was being offered a number of films but because of the way things were falling I was having to say no to a number of things. As part of it I was going back and forth with a certain PR guy about a dark thriller, and then out of the blue he sent me the screener for this film saying it was after the fests and that I should try it. I said I would try and fit it in. 

Then the NYFF wave started to go away so I decided to watch the film... which I thought was a dark thriller... and instead I got something else, something wonderfully unexpected

The film is the story of a young woman who goes home with her boyfriend and things happen.

I was kind of blown away by this film. A comedy drama that doesn't go as you expected, this is something special.  Told in long scenes that play out way beyond the normal cinematic ones this film is closer to theater except that its actually closer to life because many of  the discussions are real and not forved drama. Films don't play out this way and it is enlightening because this is a film that gives us a real sense of people.

While the film isn't perfect, some of the turns are a bit odd, there is a wonderful sense of life in it. There is a realness to the relationships that feels closer to the people we meet in real life as opposed to the carefully constructed people we normally see in films.

This film is a gem. See it.(I've watched it a couple of times now)