Cinema

​Zhu’s debut feature “Bunnylovr” premieres at Sundance

March 4th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Writer/director/performer Katarina Zhu’s feature debut “Bunnylovr” premiered to mixed reviews in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Despite the lack of critical consensus, the movie succeeds as a portrait of loneliness and isolation intensified by our reliance on the technology that is supposed to facilitate connection, but only alienates us from the warmth and intimacy we desire and need. Several of the…

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​Joseph Tunes In with Vital Film Experience: ‘BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions’

February 24th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Of the sixteen features I saw during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, none left as big an impression as filmmaker/artist Kahlil Joseph’s astonishing “BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions.” Behind-the-scenes controversy, documented more thoroughly elsewhere, confirms the kind of drama worthy of a movie plot — the film was briefly removed from the schedule, only to return at what seemed like the last minute following a buyout by Rich Spirit and BN Media…

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​Fargo Film Festival 25

February 19th, 2025

By Lizzie Allan

The silver anniversary of the annual Fargo Film Festival will take place from March 18 to 22 at the Fargo Theatre. From its beginnings a quarter of a century ago, the showcase of cinematic talent across multiple categories promises something for every film lover. More than 100 movies will be shown from Tuesday to Saturday, with many visiting filmmakers in attendance.

Tickets and a variety of pass options will be available at the Fargo Theatre. In addition to animation,…

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​Victor’s ‘Sorry, Baby’ stands out at Sundance

February 18th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Writer/director/performer Eva Victor’s feature debut “Sorry, Baby” was one of the big 2025 Sundance success stories. Audiences connected with the film’s perfect blend of acidity and tenderness. Victor received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for the movie’s fantastic script. And following serious interest from Searchlight, Neon, and others, worldwide distribution rights were acquired by A24 for a sum reportedly in the neighborhood of 8…

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​Drew Hancock finds a ‘Companion’

February 10th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

To write with any degree of detail about filmmaker Drew Hancock’s “Companion” requires a spoiler alert. So if you have not seen the movie and hope to wring maximum enjoyment from the experience, I would strongly recommend that you stop reading and buy a ticket to the next available showing. With its diabolical, pitch-perfect marketing campaign to whet the appetite for what looks like artsy A24 or Neon-styled head games (the movie belongs to…

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​Sankey’s spellbinding “Witches”

February 3rd, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Now streaming on MUBIElizabeth Sankey’s essay film “Witches” morphs from what at first appears to be a feminist deconstruction of movie and television representations of the title figures into a wrenching and penetrating examination of the way that centuries of cultural expectations revolving around motherhood have taken an unfair toll on women. Presenting her arguments through a series of chapter headings enumerated as a series of ancient…

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​Ferguson Looks at a Movie Icon

January 27th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

In a little more than a quarter of the 20th century spanning the 1930s, 1940s and part of the 1950s, Humphrey Bogart built one of the quintessential American filmographies. Stubborn, tenacious, and devoted to his craft, the actor played plenty of thugs and toughs before the eventual turn that would establish leading man bona fides and open the door to a more satisfying range of roles. Belfast-born filmmaker Kathryn Ferguson, whose excellent…

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​We danced with the dream man

January 20th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

For so many of us, the news announcing the death of the brilliant David Keith Lynch — who died just a few days short of his 79th birthday — interrupted beautiful blue skies and golden sunshine all along the way. Close followers and fans were shocked but not necessarily surprised. In August of 2024, Lynch addressed concerns about his declining health, issuing a statement that read in part, “I have to say that I enjoyed smoking very much, and I do…

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​King Ghezo’s homecoming: Mati Diop’s excellent documentary ‘Dahomey’ among Best of 2024

January 13th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

The Paris-born filmmaker Mati Diop made a major splash in 2019 with the fascinating feature “Atlantics,” which received the Grand Prix at Cannes. A supernatural reimagining inspired by her 2009 nonfiction short, Diop’s movie also marked the first time a film directed by a Black woman played in competition at the famous festival. Diop’s father is the Senegalese musician Wasis Diop and her late uncle Djibril Diop Mambéty directed the landmark…

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​Kapadia’s City Song: ‘All We Imagine as Light’

January 6th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s narrative fiction feature debut “All We Imagine as Light” is, among other things, a cinematic consideration of place. The movie begins but does not end in Mumbai, and the viewer hears multiple languages spoken throughout the deceptively simple and seductive story. Like Varda’s Paris in “Cléo From 5 to 7” (1962), Wong’s Hong Kong in “Chungking Express” (1994), and the titular Rio suburb in Meirelles…

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