Author: amfmstudios

There’s fun at the screening and then there’s Zola fun at a screening. Based on a series of tweets from 2015, the Janicza Brazo comedy opens with the line “you wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense.” I mean, it’s not really that full of suspense, and it certainly doesn’t feel long as it’s zips by with pure enjoyment. Of course, a different attention span is needed to watch a movie than to read a series of 144  tweets. Now, when Trump sends out 144 tweets in…

It would be basically impossible to write anything about BLACK BEAR without giving away the central twist that happens midway through the film so be warned. The film, which changes tactics halfway through, gives me an easy opportunity to write a review completely divided in half, because I equally loved and hated itW In BLACK BEAR, written and directed by Lawrence Michael Levine, Allison (Aubrey Plaza) arrives at a cabin bed and breakfast’retreat on a gorgeous lake, miles away from anyone else. She’s there to work on her next film, hoping to grab inspiration in this secluded location. However, there…

Every year I see 30-40 movies at Sundance and I only get the chance to write about a few of them. So this year I thought I would capture everything I’m seeing in short capsule reviews. Here’s the first half of the week! CUTIES is a movie about a recent immigrant girl from Senegal who finds herself out of step with her other Middle School classmates. Joining their dance team, she finds herself drawn further and further away from her own traditional culture. This is a solid film with good performances and an interesting set up. However, I was troubled…

Review by Bears Rebecca Fonte Every year it becomes easier to publicly announce my love for Taylor Swift. My initial shock and surprise at the depth, musical complexity and pure pop perfection of her 2014 album ‘1989” has only been deepened by Tay-Tay’s open up her heart on “Reputation,” showing both sadness and rage. Netflix

Sundance is here again, let the snow begin! Or not, actually, because this year I have the unfortunate circumstance of being in a wheelchair. But that wasn’t going to stop me from kicking my year off as I normally do. This year there were 15,100 submissions, which whittled down to 244 Accepted Projects, 128 Features, 74 Short Films, 13 Episodic Projects, and 32 New Frontier Projects. Today started with Sundance Institute President Robert Redford’s opening remarks, which are worth reading in full: “Writers, directors, actors, critics, volunteers, patrons of the arts—we all file into the theaters here at the Sundance…

I saw a lot of great films in Park City this year at Sundance, but once again, one of the ones that stuck with me the most, that had its own singular style and voice screened at Renegade rival Slamdance, THE VAST OF NIGHT, from first time director Andrew Patterson.  Set in the late 1950’s, a time when science and reporting had not caught up to mystery, the film follows the events of small New Mexico town and two bight kids who stumble upon an unexplained frequency.  Spanning a single evening, the subtle yet engrossing thriller feels like a…

DREADOUT from Indonesian director Kimo Stamboel has to be one of the true standouts of the festival. Following the live stream of six students who break into an abandoned apartment building where a ritualistic exorcism happened years ago, the film takes the characters from a decrepit Urban setting into a fantasy world. Accidentally opening a portal to a zombie infested jungle mansion, Linda (Caitlin Halderman) unlocks a memory of her childhood and the death of her mother. Here, in a cursed alternate reality she seems to be the only one who has power to defeat the demoness who wants nothing…

One of the strongest films of Fantasia, a film that works for exactly what it is, is the Canadian thriller HOMEWRECKER directed by Zach Gayne. Co-Written with its two co-stars, Homewrecker is another simple story that draws in the audience and tortures them in much the same way its lead actress tortures her victim. And no, this is not the typical torture that you can imagine when we’re discussing horror films, this is the torture of an awkward friendship where one half is trying to desperately to pull the other half into her world. A casual encounter in yoga class…

Gints Zilbalodis’ masterpiece journey AWAY captures everything that word suggests. A simple story of a young boy who finds himself on a strange island after a plane crash, the animated film from Latvia fills every second of it 75 minute running time with beautiful visual mysteries. Splashing a color palette of luxurious greens and blues to capture a place that lives only in our imagination, Away follows the boy from one side of the island to the other in hopes of finding civilization, all the while pursued by a dark shadow of a colossal man who seems to represent death…

It’s been a great Fantasia. The films I’ve seen have varied in their flavor from intensely action-packed to slow burn and have highlighted parts of the world with cinematic perspectives I rarely get to check in on. The thing I notice most at Fantasia films is the bold artistic drive of most of the filmmakers. They are not always perfectly structured like a Hollywood script that is been turned over 14 times through several different writers, but they have a uniformity of vision that holds them together uncompromisingly. It’s always an honor to find films that you know someone put…