A Bunch of Amateurs (2022) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

Portrait of the Bradford Movie Makers who have been together for roughly a hundred years. The group, like dozens of others across England, was formed by film fans who got together to watch and make films themselves. However as time has gone on and people’s viewing habits have changed the group has lost members and is now struggling to remain together.

Sweet loving portrait of a group of people who truly love film. They love everything about it and they love the like minded people they hang out with.  A low key verite portrait of the group and several of it’s members the film makes clear that the way of this film club maybe numbered as people age out.

Being a rabid film fan I loved this film and everyone on screen. About half way in I wanted to book a flight to England so I could meet the people in the film. Actually I really just wanted to go to their club house and watch movies with them.

While the film might be a bit too low key for some, true film fans are going to eat this film up like popcorn.

Recommended.

Go On, Be Brave (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

 A portrait of Andrea Lytle Peet who was diagnosed with ALS. Given a 2 to 5 year life expectancy she decided to do one more triathlon and call it a life. And then while she waited to die she decided that instead of waiting she would participate in 50 marathons one in each state.

Portrait of a woman who decided to live rather than die.  Following Andrea as she makes a run for 50, we watch as she makes friends raises money and struggles to make it up that big hill. It's a glorious tale about what can happen if we all decide to go out there instead of waiting for the darkness to come get us.

I loved this film. Sure I could quibble about a few things in the film, but few films in the last few years reduced me to a blubbering mess repeatedly. Andrea may have problems but she is also very clearly and very loudly not going down without a fight. It's a joyous trip we all need to take because we all need to see that life is what we make of it.

One of thegreat discoveries of 2023, it is very recommended 

Locals Only (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

 

LOCALS ONLY is great.

The film is a portrait of The Press Room, a local pub in Santa Barbara that became a meeting place for football (soccer) fans and others over the last 30 year. Told by its owner it’s a loving portrait of the pub and the community it created…as well as the danger it faces. It seems local developers want to raze  the building for the best interest of the community either a high end apartment block or boutique hotel.

This film is an absolute joy. It’s a film about a great guy and the place he runs and it puts a smile on your face. It’s a film where when it’s don you want to run out and visit it. It’s a film that makes you instantly realize that the place be for locals, but the reality its for anyone who wants to come in and be part of the huge family.

And it is a huge family since petitions to save the place have garnered almost three times the number of signature as votes for the Santa Barbara Mayor.

This film is highly recommended- and based on this film so is The Press Room itself.

Know Your Place (2022) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

A young man is tasked by his mother to get an suitcase full of medicine and other items across Seattle so a family friend can bring it to a relative in Eritea.

My first thought when I finished watching KNOW YOUR PLACE was I wish I had screened it in a room full of other writers at a festival. I wanted to watch the audience go silent as the end credits role before the room exploded into discussions of the gem we had just seen. I say this because there is a feeling that is unlike anything else I've experienced when a small group of people realize they have just discovered a treasure.

My second thought was that despite this film premiering last year at the Seattle Film Festival and playing at several other fests, there has been no buzz about the film. Why? I know there are too many films to stay on top of all of them, however this is the exactly the sort of film that normally breaks out of a festival and becomes a year end awards contender. That didn't happen with KNOW YOUR PLACE and I don't know why.

My third thought was I need to see this film again. I need to drop back in and really see what is going on this film. There is so much here, themes of loss, of coming to a new country, of leaving an old country, of the gentrification of American cities and how anyone without money, particularly people of color are being pushed out. I need to see the film again so I can see the various connections of plot that run through the film. There are echoes all through the film that will give you "ah ha" moments.

I don't know what else to say other than see this film, it will stay with you long after the credits have rolled.

One of the great finds of this year's Santa Barbara International Film Festival and of 2023.

House Band (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival (2023)

 THE HOUSE BAND of the title are a bunch of guys living on the street in Venice California. They come together to play music outside one of The Waterfront one of the boardwalks swankier  eateries. Things are forced to change when the city decides that they want to do something about homeless people and they force people from their camp sites.

One of the best films I’ve seen on the homeless problem, HOUSE BAND really makes you ponder what officials think they are doing. While it’s true none of the guys want to be homeless, its clear that the city doesn’t know what to do to help them. All they know is that they have to go and they clear them to make pretty sight lines for the super wealthy.

The film scores a huge amount of points by letting us really get to know the guys and the people they interact with. Yes other films have brought us into the lives of homeless people, but there was always a distance. There no distance here we are in the middle of everything and we feel  part of the community. More importantly because we get to know a lot of people we have a stake in what is happening. We not only want the guys in the band to be okay, we appreciate the people who reach out a hand to actually help them (the owner of The Waterfront for example)

This film kicked my ass, not because it told me anything I didn’t know or suspected before, but rather it was the first time where the whole question of how to help people without homes truly stopped be abstract or at arms’ length. This is the tale of people who are friends so want a solution.

I don’t know what to say.

One of the best films at The Santa Barbara International Film Festival and a film I will still be thinking about at the end of the year

See it and open your eyes.

The Baby Daddy (2022) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

Baby Daddy is the story of Ari Nagel, who is acting a sperm donor to dozens of women. He travels the world fathering children for women who don’t have the money to go through official channels. As a result he has fathered over 100 kids, many of which he is still in contact with. At the same time the need to spread his seed has put tension into his relationship with his family and his son in particular, who is not happy about his father’s reputation.

This a film where your first thought about it’s subject is going to be “what an asshole”. This will be followed by a desire to haul off and smack him until he gets some sense. He is an egotistical twit who really doesn’t see what his nonsense is doing to the people around him. Yes some of it is funny, but a lot of this is not, even if the filmmakers try to put a humorous spin on it.

Jerk of a subject aside this is actually a good film. I say this because normally where we have a jerk for a subject I tend to bail. I don’t want to spend time with him. In this case I wanted to hang with the people around him. I liked the women interviewed and I liked Nagel‘s son whose situation broke my heart.

Definitely worth a look.

Sam Kronish of Reel News Daily on THE INTEGRITY OF JOSEPH CHAMBERS (2022)

 Sam Kronish of Reel News Daily returns with his thoughts on THE INTEGRITY OF JOSEPH CHAMBERS

I’ve only shot a gun once in my life. I’ll remember it forever. It was 2008, a hot summer day in Idaho. We were on one of those aimless teenage road trips, far from San Francisco and still without any real responsibilities, so when one of our group had a local friend who was willing to take us shooting – well, then hey, why not?! I remember the giddy feeling as we drove out to a dusty side road, and that the pistol I picked up had the Punisher logo carved onto the grip. I couldn’t quite make out the targets we were to aim for, so I gestured with the pistol, seeking confirmation. Suddenly, the fingers of this local friend were clamped vice-like on my wrist, his voice like fire in my ear. “Don’t point. Not a toy.” That giddy feeling? Gone.

This teenage memory caused me to sympathize deeply with The Integrity of Joseph Chambers, which also centers on a goofy man who is both overwhelmed and armed with a deadly weapon. Joe (Clayne Crawford) is an insurance salesman who envisions himself as a survivalist. He leaves his wife and children at dawn to hunt deer. Time to bring home the bacon (or, well, venison.)

The problem is, the emperor has no clothes. Joe is a total fraud. He is basically performing the character of a hunter – shaving his beard into a macho mustache, dressing up in an outfit straight out of a hunting catalog, and trading his shiny BMW in for a mud-flecked truck. The fact that Joe is also hunting on a friend’s private land only adds to the charade. He uses his rifle as a makeshift machete to clear a path through the underbrush. We are not surprised when things go wrong.

Despite what might seem like low stakes, I’m happy to report that The Integrity of Joseph Chambers is one creepy movie! Cinematographer Oscar Ignacio Jiménez and sound designer Peter Albrechtsen deserve tremendous credit for creating this uncomfortable atmosphere, and for sustaining it during the long middle stretch of the film where Crawford is the only human onscreen.

This is the second collaboration between Clayne Crawford and director Robert Machoian (following 2020’s The Killing of Two Lovers.) That collaborative familiarity provides the foundation for a wonderful Clayne Crawford performance. Joe is alone most of the film; the supporting characters are mostly thin after-thoughts. Crawford shines conveying his inner desires and struggles. I loved how deliberate he was with his movements, and the way he ensures Joe often serves as a visual gag against the background of the woods. We manage to learn a lot about Joe despite not knowing him very well by the end of the film.

It is impossible to consider The Integrity of Joseph Chambers without acknowledging the national tragedies and anxieties surrounding the topic of gun control. Here we are presented with a family man whose life is twisted in knots over the course of a single day. Surely, it is not the fault of his rifle? This is not an anti-gun film, but it speaks loudly regarding the power these weapons hold over the male psyche.

Jane Campion The Cinema Woman (2022) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

 

It begins with Jane Campion sitting on the stage with all the directors at what looks to be the Cannes film festival.  She is the only woman. It’s a telling moment that says a great deal both about Campion’s status in world cinema as well as the state of world cinema in that she is the only woman in the bunch.

A look at the life and career of the great director made up of largely interview footage from TV interviews and festival Q&A’s is a glorious exploration.  Frankly the method of weaving together so many bits makes this into the sort of doc that conventional docs can match because the filmmakers actually have her on camera saying everything that needs to be said.

At the same time the piece meal nature of the assembly creates an odd feeling because there are times it feels like this is a paste up job. It might  be technically that but the truth is the insight out ways any notion of that. This is kind of like the cinematic equivalent of the Filmmaker on filmmaker book series which collects interviews.

Quibble aside if you love film this is a must, more so if you are a Campion fan.

Bringing Back Our Wetland (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

 

This is the story of the -Devereaux Slough near Santa Barbara which was filled in and turned into Ocen Meadows Golf Course, which flooded because the builders didn't take into account the drainage problem that is built into a wetland. When residents nearby heard the property was going up for sale they took steps to buy the land and restore it as close to it's original state as possible.

This is a really good film about how it is possible to reverse the damage we are doing to the world around us. To be certain with the Slough there was a certain amount of luck in that the land wasn't built on, however with in the film there is the possibility that other places can be changed back for the better. The fact that the film shows that things can be reclaimed is what is going to make this film have a long life.

I have to say that this is a gorgeous looking film, it should be seen as big as possible. All hail director Michael Love and DP Elliot Lowdnes who have fashioned a film that puts us into the land it is showcasing. It's a trip to the estuary without ever leaving the theater.

If you love films where nature wins this is for you.

A must see, especially when projected on a huge screen.

YOUNG ARSONISTS (2022) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

 

In 1987 four young women retreat into their own world  by moving into the rundown former home of one of their number. As the future keeps intruding, the house keeps getting boarded up with warnings that it is private property, their lives and emotions collide.

This is a great looking film. Feeling at times like a half remembered dream the perfectly cast young ladies pull us into the on screen drama.

As good as the cast and technical aspects of the film are, I wish the script had been a bit tighter. It rambles a bit too much often in directions that seem much too random even by real life standards.

That said, the cast and the feel are enough to make this film worth a look.

I like it Here (2022) Redux Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

 

This is a case of why you need to revisit film  even if it doesn't ring your bell.

I saw this for the New York Jewish Film Festival a few weeks back and the film made almost no impression on me.  I reviewed it but it was more a throw away review rather than a real one. I wrote  what I wrote, posted it and complete forgot it before going on to the next thing in the queue. It was so forgotten I didn't repost the review because I blocked out that I had seen it.

Getting the film a second time, having asked for it based on the write up in the Santa Barbara Film Festival program book, I sat down to watch the film and was blown away. It was only after about 20 minutes did I realize that I had seen the film before. Clearly mood or expectations had changed things. (Actually the SBIFF write up sounded better with it sounding about more than just one person)

The film is a reflection of filmmaker Ralph Arlyck looking back on his life and work. Its a look also into the life of the people around him. It's a film, on second viewing, that really hit home for me. It's a film about life as we live it and how things change as we get older. I was entranced.

What a great film.

Deep and meaningful the film now haunts me like a ghost.

See it.

Ibiza Blue (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

During the pandemic Carlos leaves the city and goes to Ibiza to visit his friend, Julio. Carlos is trying to get over the death of his daughter. Meanwhile Julio has been hiding out since the suicide of his brother  seven years before.  The two men meet and become friends with Alba who is there getting over the death of her father during the pandemic.

More than a week after seeing Jesus Lloveras‘ film I’m still pondering it.  The film is very good, Lloveras has created a film with these small moments that rock your world. The opening sequence set in 2014 when Julio races to try and save his brother is crushing. Told in longer shots that allow the emotion of the situation to become real and earned we are rocked by what we are seeing.  

Lloveras‘  use of the longer takes is what hooked me on the film. I like that we get to watch things play out in something that isn’t movie time but something closer to real time. Where many directors are moving away from rapid cuts to long takes, Lloveras splits the difference here, letting things play out  and then cutting to another shot when it’s dramatically appropriate. Its simple but brilliant move that give the emotional high points real weight.  This why I am still pondering the film, I can’t shake the moments.

This is a really good film and is recommended.

Three Nights A Week (2022) SBIFF 2023 and Rendezvous With French Cinema 2023

 

Photographer  Baptiste is in a mostly good relationship with Samia when he first meets drag queen Cookie Kunty. Intrigued and then smitten he begins to drift closer to Cookie and the young man under the drag, Quentin.

Absolutely lovely film about finding the one you love in unexpected places. This is a glorious film about lovely people that is largely devoid of the typical twists and turns that you see in most films.  This is a film where the characters act like adults and the drama comes from the interaction of real people rather than the pen of a writer. The result is a warm and charming film where we fall in love with the characters and we want to hang out with them just because they are so cool.

I smiled all through the film and when the final shots came I got misty.

What a lovely film.

I’m sure I could talk about deeper meaning, but I don’t care about that, I just care that I found a film full of characters I want tot revisit.

Recommended.

Three Nights A Week plays at SIBFF again today and Rendezvous with French Cinema in NYC March 11 and 12

Lamb (2022) Santa Barbara International FIlm Festival

While a mother and her baby are having breakfast a menacing young man enters.

When LAMB ended I yelped "You can't stop now!" I was so shocked at the ending I scanned through the end credits to see if director Sinéad O'Loughlin put in anything to indicate what happens next.  She did not, with the result that I was left twisting in the wind.

All hail a director who understands the power of suggestion and allowing our minds to fill in the blanks.

Dear god what a film. I mean seriously, this small little poisoned pill packs a punch. This is the sort of a thing that gets a director noticed.

Hello Sinéad O'Loughlin, I have taken notice, what are you doing next?

This is a lean mean film that grips you as tightly as a psycho's arm grasping yours as he leads you out the backdoor to the slaughter.

Highly recommended both as film unto itself and as a calling card of a director to reckon with.

WHO ARE THE MARCUSES? (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

Portrait of Howard and Lottie Marcus who quietly gave a 500-million-dollar charitable donation to Israel in order to assure that there would be clean water for everyone. Their plan was that if we preserve water now there will not be a conflict down the road.  The couple was not anyone had really heard of, and the donation took a lot of people by surprise. The film is a look at the couple, who survived the Holocaust and worked to build a better life in America after the war.

Good, but very by the numbers look at the Marcus family. It is aimed at assuring the legacy of the couple who did what they thought was the right thing. The film explains their story and why they thought they had to do this. It’s an interesting story but at the same time it never is full compelling. The problem is the presentation, which is an overabundance of talking heads who all seem to be in the same room. It seems to me more like an infomercial selling something than a documentary.

That said, it’s worth a look for those who are interested

Rachel 1:1 (2022) hits VOD tomorrow

 

Rachel and her dad move to a new city and set up a grocery shop. They are escaping their old home, where Rachel’s mother died under violent circumstances and her father’s business failed.  As her father works to make a living for them she loses her self into religious fervor. She joins a local church and makes friends with several of the young women attending services. When a trip to a near by lake leaves her seeing signs and desire to rewrite the bible putting women on an equal footing with men things begin to boil.

Slow burn mystery/religious thriller is a creepy affair. Not a film to lay it all out at the start this is a film that gets more intense and creepier as it goes on. It’s not that that its playing coy, rather its just that what happens triggers things. The result is a film that gets more intense as it goes on.

This is a solid  little thriller that should be on more people’s radar. 

One of the hidden gems at last year's SXSW

The Museum of the Moving Image has announced the slate for the FIRST LOOK FEST March 15-19

Astoria, New York, February 10, 2023 — Museum of the Moving Image is pleased to announce the complete lineup for the 12th edition of First Look, the Museum’s festival of new and innovative international cinema, which will take place March 15–19, 2023. The festival introduces New York audiences to formally inventive works that seek to redefine the art form while engaging in a wide range of subjects and styles. The 2023 lineup includes both nonfiction and fiction, features and shorts, as well as forms that fall outside the boundaries of traditional theatrical distribution. This year, the festival will premiere 38 works, including 19 features representing more than 22 countries.

 Tickets & Passes are on sale now: movingimage.us/series/first-look-2023/

Among the highlights of the 2023 edition are Tori and Lokita, the newest from Belgian masters Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and recipient of a Special 75th Anniversary Award at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, as well as numerous debut films and early career works. Of the five showcase screenings—Babak Jalali’s Fremont, the Opening Night selection; Lola Quivoron’s Rodeo; Chloe Abrahams’s The Taste of Mango; Artemis Shaw and Prashanth Kamalakanthan’s New Strains, winner of a Special Jury Award in the IFFR 2023 Tiger Competition; and C.J. "Fiery" Obasi’s Mami Wata, winner of the Sundance 2023 World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Cinematography, which closes the festival—only Jalali has directed more than two features. Several features received world premieres earlier this year at the Sundance and Rotterdam festivals, and some will debut at the upcoming True/False festival; others entered the world in 2022 through Berlin, Visions du Réel, Cannes, Locarno, Venice, IDFA, and beyond. First Look will be the first time any of them have played for an audience in New York.

 First Look also features exciting new works from established filmmakers, including the U.S. premiere of Koji Fukada’s Love Life; the New York premiere of Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s 2022 Cannes Jury Prize recipient The Eight Mountains; the North American premiere of avant-garde master Robert Beavers’s The Sparrow Dream, presented as part of an all-16mm program with five previous shorts; as well as Rose Lowder’s La source de la loire, screening as part of a special First Look edition of MoMI’s recurring experimental showcase Persistent Visions; Maid, a new short from Lucrecia Martel; Mary Helena Clark and Mike Gibisser’s A Common Sequence; and Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package.

 An unprecedented four films will be presented under the banner of Science on Screen, MoMI’s year-round series that showcases science or technology-themed works. All of these films—Terra Jean Long’s Feet in Water, Head on Fire; Mary Helena Clark and Mike Gibisser’s A Common Sequence; Gerard Ortín Castellví’s Agrilogistics; and Leandro Listorti’s Herbaria— speak to the precarious state of the world, showing plants seeking stable ground, while human agents of the Anthropocene are displaced.

 Several other festival films speak to the current moment, including films centered on Ukraine (Three Women, Away), resisting colonization (The River Is Not a Border, Mami Wata, R 21 aka Restoring Solidarity), the global refugee crisis (Tori and Lokita, Fremont), and women’s and LGBTQ+ issues (The Taste of Mango, Silent Love, Joan d’Arc, It’s What Each Person Needs).

 Filmmakers appearing in person will be announced later, along with the lineup for this year’s fourth annual Working on It program, daytime sessions March 15–17 open to the public in which filmmakers, critics, and students engage in conversations about the creative process via workshops and work-in-progress presentations. This year, First Look launches the Reverse Shot Emerging Critics Workshop, with an inaugural cohort of six early-career writers. This year also begins a collaboration with Polish documentary festival Millennium Docs Against Gravity, with Artistic Director Karol Piekarczyk presenting two selections from their Warsaw showcase and engaging in the Working on It sessions. As in previous years, student work from both the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism and the BFA Film Department, School of Visual Arts will be presented both officially in the festival program and as works in progress.

 MoMI Curator of Film Eric Hynes said, “The guiding ethos of First Look is discovery, aiming to introduce audiences to new films, filmmakers to new audiences, and everyone to different methods, perspectives, interrogations, and encounters. For these five consecutive days First Look takes over our two theaters as well as other rooms and galleries throughout the Museum. Artists appearing with their work, watching one another’s work, and continuing a dialogue throughout the festival is integral to what we’ve envisioned.”

 First Look 2023 was programmed by Hynes; Edo Choi, Associate Curator of Film; and Sonia Epstein, Curator of Science and Technology; with assistance from Becca Keating, Deputy Director of Development; Beatrice Bankauskaite, Film Department Assistant; and Eynar Pineda, First Look Artist Liaison.

 The programming team would like to acknowledge the following people for their guidance, support, advocacy, and generosity: Chris Boeckmann, Caitlin Mae Burke, Michelle Carey, Phil Coldiron, Charlotte Cooke, Joost Daamen, Wojciech Diduszko, Kamil Dobrowolski, Kristin Feeley, Ben Fowlie, Robert Greene, Mary Lee Grisanti, Laura van Halsema, La Frances Hui, Dorota Lech, Artur Liebhart, Elise McCave, Ross Meckfessel, Alla Rachkov, Tiff Rekem, Charlie Shackleton, Tomek Smolarski, Merrill Sterritt, Abby Sun, Chloé Trayner, Ryan Werner, and Alan Wertz.

 Sponsors: First Look is presented with support from lead sponsors MUBI; BFA Film Department, School of Visual Arts; and Lismore Road; and additional sponsors The Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism, The Harriman Institute at Columbia University, Polish Cultural Institute New York, Kickstarter, Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, The Paper Factory Hotel, Topo Chico, Pig Beach, Tacuba, Sac's Place, and Captain Lawrence Brewing Company.

 This project is supported by a grant awarded to Museum of the Moving Image by Empire State Development and I LOVE NY/New York State's Division of Tourism through the Regional Economic Development Council initiative. Additional support was provided by the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

 Tickets & Passes are on sale now: movingimage.us/series/first-look-2023/

Unless otherwise noted, tickets for individual screening programs are $15 ($11 seniors and students / $9 youth / free for MoMI members starting at the Senior & Student levels ($7 Classic members). Tickets for Opening and Closing Night are $20 ($15 for MoMI Members). An All-Festival Pass (incl. Opening and Closing night, and Working on It) is $120 (Weekend Pass: $60).

FIRST LOOK 2023 PROGRAM:

THE OTHER FELLOW (2023)

If you ever wanted to be James Bond this film might change your mind. THE OTHER FELLOW Is a look at all the guys in the world who carry the name of James Bond and how it effected their lives.  It’s a funny and bracing look at the men who are not the world’s best secret agent.

There isn’t much I can say about this film, but it’s an absolute delight. It’s a light hearted look at the pain of sharing the name of the coolest man in cinema. What I love about the film is all of the different ways the film effected people. There are the parents who thought their kids would be fine, after the first film, because everyone would have forgotten the movie, and the  gay theater director who flummoxed the newspaper reporter who was looking for a real life womanizing counterpart in New York. There are many many others as well and all of them delightful.

What a joy.

It doesn’t matter if you like the Bond films or not, you just have to know about one of the most famous fictional characters in the world.

A must see.

The horror romance Swallowed (2022) hits VOD Valentines Day

 

I am going to be very curious what the reaction of audiences to SWALLOWED is going to be. I know that’s a weird way to begin the review, but once you see the film you’ll know what I mean.  The reason I say this is because the film is being billed asa horror film, but it’s not that, its that in the first part of the film, then it morphs into a survival thriller, but the reality it’s a killer bittersweet love story, with one of the most gutting expressions of love I have ever seen on screen in any film.

The film is the story of two friends best friends Ben and Dom. Ben is love with Dom, who is straight. Ben  is also looking to run off and become a porn star in Los Angeles. In order to give Ben a cushion of money Dom as agreed  to carry illicit materials over the US Canandian border. They thought it was just going to be in their car but it’s a job that will involve Dom acting as a mule with the substance inside him. Not long after crossing the border Dom begins to feel ill. When one of the packages falls out they realize that whatever they are transporting is not drugs because its moving.

A gloriously one of a kind film, this is a film that is constantly reinventing itself. The shifts don’t always work, the shift from body horror to survival thriller is a bit abrupt,  it still allows for the film to keep us watching to see where it’s going.

For me the relationship between Ben and Dom is the main reason  to see the film. One of the greatest screen romances it’s a pairing that bleeds heat off the screen. It’s the caring between the two that drives the film forward. I don’t care how you identify, the love between the two is what we all would like to find. A late in the game sequence in a stream had me tearing up because in all the gestures we see the depth of caring.

SWALLOWED is an often tense thriller that is definitely worth a look.

More Than Hair (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

This is hands down one of the best films at the Santa Barbara Film Festival  and of the year so far. The film is a staggering film about finding a place and one’s self in an unexpected place.

Told as a memory piece MORE THAN HAIR has a black man remembering back to when he went to a barbar for the first time as a child and how being in a place where he could be who he was and choose how he looked changed his life.

I truly don’t know what to say. There is something about this film, the perfect marriage of sound and image and past and present rocked me. Somewhere toward the end the emotion of finding a place filled me with so  much emotion I started to tear up.

This film is pure magic. This is exactly the sort of thing that films are supposed to do, tell us a story that move us on a basic human level.

Filmmaking does not get better than this.

Highly recommended.