Directed by Aristotle Torres from a screenplay in partnership with Bonsu Thompson, Story Ave is elevated by the special relationship crafted between its main characters. It doesn’t tell a fresh story, but in Torres and Thompson’s capable hands, the narrative…
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SXSW Film Festival 2023 REVIEW! Pay Or Die, directed by Rachael Dyer and Scott Alexander Ruderman, is about the impossible dilemma many Americans face: pay exorbitant prices for insulin regularly and risk financial ruin, or pay higher hospital bills when sick…
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What is your life’s potential? Not your job, not your hobbies, but your potential. It is an existential question in an almost cosmic sense that carries with it a great weight. In The Big Door Prize, the new Apple TV+…
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In the late ‘80s, writer Don Mancini came up with a strange script about a friendly-looking doll coming to life and terrorizing a family. That story would be used by director Tom Holland to create Child’s Play, one of history's…
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Last year, I had the thrilling opportunity to remedy a major faux pas in my film enthusiast journey: I finally watched and reviewed Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. How it took me so long to watch such an iconic and frankly perfect…
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Joshua Charperrin Woodard’s short film, I Call On You My Friends, tells the story of four friends gathering for the first time in seven years by a campfire. Jim (Jordan Dean Foster) is the one who called the meeting and already…
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Although Jeremy Irons’ presence made for an unintentionally hilarious watch, 2000’s Dungeons & Dragons otherwise took itself too seriously. That’s not to say players don’t take D&D campaigns seriously. When your character dies in a campaign, it can feel like…
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In Derek Rosenfeld’s short film, Pothole, a couple is stranded on a dark roadside with a flat tire. Of course, Betty (Sam Simone) is hopelessly fixing the tire while Clyde (Matt Algozzini) figures out their next move… inside the car. Then,…
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At first glance, Michael Wynn’s short film, Malcolm Speaks, appears to be simply actor Micahel Wynn (credited as Michael X) reenacting Malcolm X’s famous House Negro Field Negro speech. But Wynn is able to connect Malcolm’s words from 1963 to…
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Guanglin Yu is an 11-year-old Go prodigy living in mainland China. However, Guanglin’s skill in the classic strategy game is unique because he is almost entirely blind. After placing second in a significant Go tournament, Guaglin’s single father sees him…
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Bheed (2023): Starring Rajkumar Rao as police inspector Surya Kumar SinghThe socio-political drama unfolds. It was March 24, 2020. The honorable Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a.k.a “PM Modi”, made an abrupt announcement at around 8 PM that the entire…
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Blue-collar science fiction is a time-honored tradition. Silent Running, Dark Star, Outland, and Moon all demonstrate a conceit wherein corporate overlords screw over the working man. Oftentimes, these films take place around the orbit of the Moon or somewhere we haven’t yet been in the…
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