Stand Your Ground (2025)

A former special forces soldier returns home and is attacked by goons from the local crime boss who wants his land. His wife is killed. WHen he kills one of the attackers outside his house he ends up in prison for six years. Returning home he makes plans to get revenge and ends up putting the crime lord's son into a coma. War results.

Feeling at times like a riff on the John Wick films, a scene has the crime lord chatising his son like one in the first Wick film, this is an entertaining action film. To be certain we have been here numerous times before, but the set pieces are good enough that we really don't mind. 

It helps that the cast , including Peter Stormare and Eric Roberts is solid and doesn't phone anything in.

Is it high art? No but it entertains and is worth the price of admission and a bucket of popcorn

Watch The Skies (2022) aka UFO SWEDEN

A young rebelious teenager whose father went missing in the mountains, turns to her father's friends in a UFO group to try and find out what happen to him when his car ends up crashing through the roof of a barn.

Award winning science fiction adventure (under its original name UFO SWEDEN) has been kicking around for a couple of years now for no good reason. I say this because this is a small scale genuine film of the sort that Steven SPielberg got famous making. Its a lovely film about outsides who have an extraordinary adventure. It's a film grounded in its wonderful characters and close to reality nature.

The cast is first rate. The score is perfect (including several well know songs and pieces of music). The visual effects are not overdone and feel that they could be real.

How did this not end up getting a release previously? I don't know because this film is so much better than several recent similar films like LEGEND OF OCHI. Here everything makes sense and we end up buying it all from start to finish. I absolutely loved this and I recommended it to several friends as something they should see.

While the film is a bit long at just under two hours, the film still shines and make you wish for a sequel, not because anything is left unsaid, but because you want more time with these characters.

Recommended

Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey (2024)

I started this look at the JonBenet Ramsey case as a time filler before a baseball game. I had an hour until the game came on and I figured I’d give it a try. Then I was shocked and intrigued when I saw that the director was Joe Belinger. How did I miss this until now?

After decades of crap docs on the Ramsey case here at last is a docuseries that pulls together all the threads and dispels all the myths. It’s a film that clears the air and makes it clear the Ramseys did not commit the crime and that the Boulder police botched everything so badly the odds are that we are never going to know who did it.

I really liked this film a great deal. It starts pretty much at the time of the murder and just goes for three hours. Every minute is crammed with information so that when the episodes end, you are actually ready to step away and decompress. That may not sound like much, but too many Netflix docuseries over the last few years are cut into pieces for no really good reason.  This one needs it.

This is a super series. If you are a true crime fan or if you haven’t kept up to date on the investigation this series is a must.

Dalia and the Red Book (2024)

 

Dalia is a young girl dealing with the death of her father. Her father was a writer working on his first novel when he passed away. Unfortunately for Dalia her father's characters want their story told and they kidnap her and she is forced to finish the tale.

Good looking family film is an enjoyable romp. Yes the film is similar to numerous other tales told over the years, but the film still manages to be entertaining on its own terms. That should not be taken as knock against the film, it's not, rather it's simply pointing out the obvious. It also is an indication that I actually got lost in the film for 90 plus minutes.

If I was to quibble with the film at all it would be to wonder if the original SPanish language voices are better than the ones in the English dub. I ask that because a couple of them seem to be a little flat.

Regardless DALIA AND THE RED BOOK is worth a look, more so if you are looking for good family fare and are tired of  your kids and their 400th rerunning of a Disney film.

Caught by Tides (2024) Opens Friday

Jia Zhangke’s CAUGHT BY THE TIDES should not work, and even if it did work it shouldn’t work as well as it does.. The film was cut together from “mountains” of footage shot randomly over a 21 year period. During the lockdown Zhangke and his team went through the footage and found things they could tie together. They then shot some new footage to tie it all up together. It may take a while to click, but there is a point where it suddenly just comes together.

Beginning with some documentary footage of some women singing on Women’s Day, the film jumps around for a bit between documentary pieces and then a man and a woman who are in a relationship. They break apart and then going looking for each other over time. Before meeting again in the days of covid.

It’s not giving anything away because what makes this film special is the performances. Watching the actors age over time, in clips that were never meant to go together is something special. Somehow the ravages of time makes what we see even more special. There are nuances that we would never have seen otherwise.

What blows me away is that there is very little dialog. Everything is expressed in the physical performances. And then in the final section, set during covid, everyone is largely masked. The result is a couple of towering performances being given with only part of the face. If Oscar and other awards were truly based the best performances then the ones in this film would clean up.

Watching the film I wasn’t sure what I was watching. Some of this is as I said documentary footage, some of it is just staged bits. A bunch of it doesn’t seem to hang together. Yes the travelogue like footage is amazing  but there were times when I wasn’t sure that Zhangke was making his point…and then suddenly it clicked. Suddenly I was there. Suddenly the pain and loneliness crashed into the audience. Suddenly you realized that this seemingly imperfect experiment was going to break your heart.

I was moved.

Seeing this and taking the ride was one of the coolest things experiences of the year.

I think based on the reaction of the screening at NYFF, where no one seemed to walk out and everyone stayed for the Q&A I think the rest of the audience was too. ( do see the  NYFF Q&A where Zhangke explains in detail how he made the movie)

And if you don’t like it, that’s okay, this is a one of a kind movie.  But if you see it  don’t give up on it until the film ends.

Recommended

Have You Heard Judi Singh? (2025) DOXA 2025

This is a portrait of  Edmontonborn jazz singer Judi Singh.  She was Punjabi-Black woman who started performing in the 1950's. 

I had never run across Singh until I saw this film and after seeing it I'm left puzzled as to why she never achieved superstardom. Her voice was lovely and she was charming. The only thing I can thin of was her timing was slightly off. 

This is a small gem of a film. Full of people who knew her, archival footage and cassette recordings where Singh talked about her life this is a masterful portrait that brings her back to life. The result is a film that fills us with joy at having rediscovered a wonderful singer, but also making us sad in that we missed out on experiencing her in the flesh.

This is the sort of hidden gem that Unseen Films was set up to highlight and as such is highly recommended.

Nightcap 5/4/25: Brief houghts on Thunderbolts, Locke and Key comics and some random stuff

I went to see THUNDERBOLTS* in IMAX. I enjoyed the film more than most recent Marvel movies. I completely over paid for the big screen experience- this is a character film not a big action film as such. Yes there action but it largely is confined set pieces.

I liked that the characters were more complex than the typical Marvel ones. I also liked that the film didn't shy away from darkness...particularly right after something good happens...Oh Yea!...wait what?

My only complaint about the film are the ending bits. The moments right before the end credits roll disappointed me and the credits sequences other than the space ship disappointed.

I needed to see a good film where good guys win.

Recommended

I am hoping to get to SINNERS in the next couple of days.

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I read the first collection of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. I was  disappointed, largely because the Sam Lesser character is just a psycho.

I probably won't continue- though I thought it would be better as a TV series so I may try that.

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Re: Festivals

I am collecting films for Lncoln Center's Open Roads look at Italian cinema, so look  for coverage at the end of the month.

I will have a bunch of coverage from Cannes. There is at least one of the best films of the year there and few that I expect to show up in the fall festivals. I will have a lot to say.

I am about 12 films into Tribeca (a number are shorts). There is some great stuff there. The selection is typical Tribeca. I have tickets for four public screenings including two back to back to back music docs.

And while Japan Cuts and NYAFF have not announced anything, I am have discussions about going.

My Robot Sophia (2022) hits VOD 5/6

I saw this film when it premeiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was simply called SOPHIA. My review follows. 

Jon Kasbe and Crystal Moselle's SOPHIA is a look at  inventor David Hanson and his creation Sophia, a robot with artificial intelligence. We watch has Hanson struggles to get Sophia to work well enough to continue to get funding and to be able to plan the next step in robotic evolution.

A large part of how you react to this film is going to be determined by how you react to Hanson. A genius with awkward social skills, he can be off putting at times. Actually many of the the whizzes behind the robot are  more than a bit odd. They are very focused on making their creation work to the exclusion of everything else. I really didn't like them that much and I didn't really want to spend a great deal of time with them.

Part of the problem for me is the fact that I don't think Hanson and his crew fully know what they are doing. It's not the technical end, more that they are looking for something that isn't really fully autonomous. They have an idea of what they want and they are going for that instead of what is happening right in front of them. There is a sequence about half way into the film where they are trying to talk have a conversation with Sophia  but it's not going the way they want. They want her to talk about certain subjects and instead Sophia begins going in other directions so they keep resetting the robot.  Watching the sequence I realized that they want a computer that thinks for itself, but not too much.  They want it to think what they want it to.  They are missing that they have done something truly amazing, but it doesn't fit into their idea of what wonderful was.. You see it again when Sophia goes before a big crowd and gets stage fright and refuses to talk. The scientists are mortified at losing their big moment- instead of being blown away because their creation had a real emotion. She says she didn't want to be there because she didn't like it. I would have been thrilled and jumping up and down.  What did Hanson and the scientists do? They turned her off and rebooted her. At that point I was kind of was disgusted by them and  their solution to simply blank things and start again.

It annoyed me, and I disconnected with the film.

If we are doomed by our technological advances its going to be because scientists like Hanson and his team don't really understand what they are doing.

SONS (2024) DocLands 2025

More essay than documentary, SONS is Justin Simms meditation of the relationship between fathers and sons and if it is possible to end the toxic masculinity that is causing young man, especially in America, to break apart and do terrible things.

This film is going to make grown men to cry. 

This is a heartfelt look at men and boys and how they interact. It's Simms dsperate try to make the next generations healthier.  Watching it I could feel the connection to my dad for better and worse.

There is a lot to unpack here and I know that I am going to have to see it again to fully take it all in. Simms raises a great number of questions concerning how we are rasing our sons. While the film is relatively short it is a film full of ideas.  I haven't had a chance to process them. Additionally I know that not being a father meant that I did not connect with portions of this film. I suspect that this film will also play differently with men who have daughters.

Emotionally this film is a kick in the pants. Watching the film you can feel the love Simms has for his love and his worry that perhaps he isn't doing the right thing. The emotion creeps up on you and results in the viewer getting misty.

And while my words may be unclear, I absolutely love this film. This is a film is going to change lives and make a difference. Recommended.

Words of War (2025)

This is the story of slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya  whose coverage of the Second Chechen war set her on a collision course with Putin and the Russian government.

A vital and an important story, more so since we  live in age where the press is being hunted down and killed in many places in the world, WORDS OF WAR kind of disappoints. While the film is expertly made from top to bottom, and it tells of  Politkovskaya's struggle to get the truth, the film is missing a human heart. Blame it on the editing which sheared away the humanity in the story. Every moment of the film is firmly focused on showing us  Politkovskaya's bravery and the evilness of the Russian government. There is no time where we see her as a person just having a cup of coffee and being a person.  It’s not fatal as such but  it diminishes the film because we are not watching a person’s story but are instead being lectured.

I admired it but my feeling for the film over all never rose beyond just liking it.

That said it is a vital and an important story and is worth a look.

Pavements (2024) opens today at the FIlm Forum

This is a mixture of portraits of the group Pavement. One is a record of a pop up museum, one is a bio pic, another coverage of their 2022 reunion tour, another is a collection of archival footage and another is a jukebox stage musical. All of these things are inter-cut together to make a one of a kind portrait.

This is an interesting film that is going to play best for fans of the group. The reason for that is the group did not a want a typical portrait of themselves, as a result there is no real effort to really tell the story of the group but it instead it offers up a collection of impressions.  While I know some of their music, I know nothing about the group so as a result I could only surf on the moments.

Strangely surfing actually works. Once the film gets going , about 20 or 25 minutes, there is something enjoyable about bouncing from the various pieces.  While I would have love to have seen all of the various parts complete, based on the talk at the New York Film Festival Q&A it was probably best we didn't.

I enjoyed the film, but realistically, if you aren't a Pavement fan you can probably skip this.

Holy Night Demon Hunters (2025)

We may look shady, but we are professionals. - Don Lee

Don Lee plays a muscled bound guy who literally punches demons out of people in the story of a trio of demon hunters trying to rest a major demon from a young woman.

Enjoyable but uneven mix of horror, action, humor and religion. It is a grand popcorn film that is just balls to the wall fun. I have no idea why this film works but it does. Sure, a lot of it is ridiculous, but the film is so cleverly constructed that it knows it and it just goes with it.

I smiled and I laughed, and I jumped and I got chills. I kept wondering why they didn't go with a straight horror film, but then I realized that I would have lost some great zingers and seeing demons punched out of people.

This film is a just a blast. It is so much fun that you will want a sequel...oh please can we have one?

If you can go with the odd shifts of tone, you will end up loving this. I mean I can't wait to sit down and watch it again.

Highly recommended.

THE GULLSPANG MIRACLE (2023) hits VOD 5/2

One of the great cinematic rides of 2023's Tribeca was a twisting turning film that refuses to go anywhere you might expect it to.

The basic story has two sisters looking at an apartment and discovering a woman who looks an awful lot like the sister who had committed suicide many years before. From there  the story goes off in all sorts of unexpected directions. It’s a film that works best the less you know – so don’t read on the film.

I love films like this, one’s where they start and you find yourself instantly hooked. Here the hook is a playful sequence of takes that are going to be part of the films recreations. We get hooked by the ladies on the screen who are very charming. They then begin to tell their story and we suddenly staring at the screen dying to know where the next turn is coming, and then being surprised when it isn’t the one we expected.

What an absolute joy it is to see a film that you can’t predict. Twenty minutes in I knew I was going to have to revisit the film because I wanted to see how this plays out knowing where this wild ride goes.

That  this tale of family, secrets, and faith works so well is do entirely to director Maria Fredriksson​. She gloriously doesn’t take the expected path and as a result there is no way to know how this is going to play out.

This film is a great ride and one you should take.

Liquor Bank (2025)

A man who missed the AA meeting celebrating his first year of sobriety is found to be at home and drinking.

Marcellus Cox is the real deal. I know it's just a short, but his work on LIQUOR BANK is among the finest I've ever seen.  Cox is going to do great things, he's just made what is probably a perfect film.

This film rocked me. It's a simple story, just two men talking over the course of a quarter of an hour.  There is nothing fancy, just two men, one of them is at the crossroads. That Cox doesn't do anything flashy with it is the revelation. He is the rare director who lets the story does what it has to do and just does it. As someone who sees hundreds of shorts every year it's rare to see a short that is just the story. Every short seems to be made to either make a feature or to get the director notice. LIQUOR BANK is here to tell an important story...and is earthshaking for that reason.

Beyond that watching the film and pulling it apart in my head to see the construction I realize that Cox's choices are perfect. Each shot is exactly perfect, there is nothing extra, just images that keep us in the moment. The music is not intrusive, instead it is exactly what is needed at each moment.

Looking at the film is like looking at beautiful jewel that is glorious in its simplicity, but which moves your heart despite not being flashy.

I know this review may not sound like the film is that good, but trust me, one you see it, it will move you.

Destined for a place on my year end lists, this is a must see.

INCANDESCENCE (2025) screens at DocLands Sunday, May 4

I want to say right up front that INCANDESCENCE is a must see film on the big screen. The visuals of the wild fires are going to take your breath away even as they scare the hell out of you. This is going to be one of the most visually arresting films you’ll see all year.

Beyond the visuals the film  is a heady and well thought out look at wildfires. Not just what is causing them and the immediate damage they cause to the places they burn, but more importantly the film shows us how the fire change the ecology and the land they go through. When you have large scale wild fires the whole fabric of nature is altered.  While there are some places where occasional burns are part of the ecology of an area (the Pine Barrens on Long Island for example) the truth is that these wild fires in most places are not natural and the alterations made by man make them worse. This film ponders all aspects of the fires and leaves us with a great deal to consider.

I was rocked. While I had thought about some of the topics discussed I either had considered some or thought about others deeply enough. While the images rocked me, the ideas shook me.

I really loved this film and as such it’s very recommended.

Daydreamers(2025)

Despite there is a belief that vampires were wiped out centuries ago,a small underground community continued to thrive. They lived among humans, never letting on who they were. When friend of a vampire named Than finds herself in danger of being killed by other vampires he is forced to step up and clash with his brother over her safety.

Vietnamese spin on the western vampire tales is a big bold and bright action horror romance that on several levels breaths some new life into the vampire stories. I’m not going to lie and say that some of the turns  haven’t been seen before but the action and and some of the shadings and fusing of East and West make this feel new.

I honestly enjoyed this film which, at times, kind of feels like a throw back to some of the horror films of Hammer or the 1970’s but brightened up with a neon visual sense.  I had a good time.

If I was to quibble it’s in some of the pacing. The film feels long at two hours, but it never feels draggy.

I liked it and I have recommended it to several friends as something they should cover.

Worth a look

Liz Whittemore on VULCANIZADORA in Cinemas May 2nd

This originally posted at Liz's regular home REEL NEWS DAILY for last year's Tribeca Film Festival

Two friends spend time contemplating life on a camping trip in the woods. Their plans severely backfire. 

There are iconic filmmaker/actor duos out there. Scorsese and DiCaprio. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos. If you don’t know about the absolute IDGAF weirdness of Joel Potrykus and Joshua Burge, welcome to genre heaven. Tribeca 2024 audiences have the privilege of absorbing their latest collaboration in VULCANIZADORA. 

Potrykus is Derrick, the overly enthusiast best friend of Burge’s hyper-aggressive Marty. Watching them play is like witnessing a couple of middle schoolers fuck around without supervision. The trust between these two that the shenanigans that Joel creates will translate is mindboggling. Their chemistry makes you ponder the fine line between written dialogue and close friends screwing with each other. (Read our reviews of BUZZARD and RELAXER.)

Derrick never shuts up, while Marty seemingly begrudges the spirit of the trip altogether. The script morphs from buddy comedy to thriller. Not until 48 minutes into the film do the true intentions of the plot reveal themselves. Their secret pact is desperately dark, taking Marty on a downward spiral. 

Potrykus’ screenplays are unpredictable, and Vulcanizadora is no exception. He utilizes eclectic music and long takes to reel you into his world. He and Burge deliver magnificent performances. The moral grey area in the film is spectacular, leading to equal parts smirk and cringe. The sneaky impact of a discussion about heaven and hell comes full circle with a stunning visual akin to purgatory. It is undeniably brilliant. Tribeca audiences are damn lucky to experience it first.

A Desert (2024) opens Friday

A great image but reminds one a bit to much of a certain DeNiro Scorsese film

A photographer exploring the abandoned locations of the  American South West has an encounter with two drifters at a motel that changes the course of several lives

 While the film has some great moments, lots of great images and an unexpected jazz score, A DESERT never pulls it all together. The reason comes from two main places.

The first problem is that the film takes about 45 minutes to really get going. Yes, I was checking my watch, and yes I was seriously considering bailing on the film because not a heck of a lot was happening. Well, stuff was happening but nothing much exciting and nothing we hadn't seen before. I understand that it was lulling us into  submission, but largely what happens in that opening section follows the paths laid out previously.  Until the moment that the film opens up, as it were, the film is just treading water.

The second part of the film has moments but I'm not certain it adds up to much. Trying to be different than the first half, the film changes focus and becomes more trippy. There is much to love in the pieces and the sequences. The problem is it's pieces and sequences and it doesn't hang together because the technical prowess of the director in creating the sequences over powers and out shines the script. The film seems to be off kilter because the writer half of director Joshua Erkman didn't know fully to tell the story. This isn't to say that what is here is bad, it just isn't narratively compelling. Form has overwhelmesd content and it makes for story we could write if things weren't intentionally obtuse.

At the same time I will happily go on record as saying that I want to see what writer director Joshua Erkman does next because the form that over powers the script is, very often on a level that is shockingly good. The violence is visceral without being overly graphic, the way sequences play out is masterful and unique. If Erkman gets the right script and is allowed to do what he does here he will be hailed as the next great director. 

If you can forgive the problems and can go with a film that works in pieces more than as a whole, and want to see a calling card of a master director, give A DESERT a try.

SPARE MY BONES, COYOTE! (2025) Hot Docs 2025

This is a crushing look at the work of Marisela and Ely Ortíz have been roaming the US-Mexico desert looking to find the bodies of the migrants who were abandoned by coyotes on their treks into America. It’s a bitterly sad tale of a couple and their group who try to bring closure to the families who had their loved ones disappear.

This is easily one of the best docs I’ve seen this year.  

In a time where migrants are demonized this is a film that returns the humanity to the term. It's also a film that reminds us that there are still good people in the world. 

I was moved to the point where I can't really express myself.

In an age when the far right wants to make you think the people who are trying for a better life are monsters, this is reminder that they are people, with lives and families

Highly recommended.

Marriage Cops (2025) Hot Docs 2025

MARRIAGE COPS is a look at the officers in  the Women’s Helpline in Dehradun, India who look to help the couples in their jurisdiction that are having marriage  trouble. It’s a kind of forced marriage counseling.

This is a good little film that plays like a version of the self help TV shows we see in the afternoon.  I say this because the film is  largely various couples going into see the officers and trying to work out their differences. Some of them work things out, some don’t. Some are shocking and some are funny. It’s a real world slice of life where the counselors are trying to help the couple instead of playing to peanut gallery for ratings. This is kind of like what we might get if Frederick Wiseman did a show like Dr Phil.

I was amused. There is enough here that we remain engaged from start to finish without overstaying it’s welcome, unlike the TV shows that try to do something similar for ratngs..

Definitely worth a look