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Film Review – The Magician’s Elephant
The Magician’s Elephant (2023) is an animated fantasy that operates by the numbers. It’s colorful, bright, and has a strong central message about never giving up. Characters believe that anything is possible if we push beyond our comfort zones. There’s nothing egregious about the film –…
READ MORESXSW Review – If You Were the Last
Sometimes a SXSW screening is chosen just because you love the actors involved, regardless of everything else. The choices do not always work out, and you see a not-so-great film. In the case of If You Were the Last (2023), the opposite happens, and it…
READ MORESXSW TV Review – The Big Door Prize
The Big Door Prize is a new television series on Apple TV+, premiering March 29th—the first three episodes screened at SXSW. The trailer reveals an intriguing premise, with the source material coming from a novel of the same name written by M.O. Walsh. The Big…
READ MORESXSW Review – Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Dungeons & Dragons has long been a game played by kids who grew into adults or just adults who fell in love with the gameplay and imaginative scenarios. Personally, I never played the game; my only exposure is through films and television shows. For some…
READ MOREFilm Review – Scream VI
When the first Scream (1996) was released, it revitalized and recontextualized the horror/slasher genre. It was a self-aware send up, upending the tropes established in the 1980s. The result was such a surprise that it felt like anything could happen – no one was safe, the killer…
READ MOREFilm Review – One Fine Morning
For many, life is not made up of big sweeping moments, but of small intimate struggles. Going to work, making money, taking care of our loved ones – these are the responsibilities that make up our daily existence. But the small things can eventually build…
READ MOREFilm Review – The Strays
We all want a better life, but what lengths should we go to obtain it? Is wealth and privilege worth suppressing our very souls? That is at the heart of writer/director Nathaniel Martello-White’s feature length debut, The Strays (2023). He weaves a tale that has beats of the horror…
READ MOREFilm Review – Hidden Blade
There are few films that evoke atmosphere and mood as well as Er Cheng’s Hidden Blade (2023). A spy thriller set in Japanese-occupied China during the height of WWII, the tone and visuals have such rich textures that every frame looks like an oil painting. Compositions place characters…
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