Starring: Janel Tsai, Ma Shih-yuan, Nina Ye, Brando Huang, Alvin Lin, Blaire Chang
Grade: B+
Recent four-time Oscar winner Sean Baker may be the carrot at the end of the stick that is Left-Handed Girl for cinephiles, but he’s a secondary force in director Shih-Ching Tsou’s delightful family dramedy. It’s easy to understand the duo’s collaboration; they co-directed Take Out in 2004, and have had a working relationship together on most of Baker’s projects in the intervening years. Baker’s sensibilities can be seen within the story (he’s the co-writer of the screenplay along with Tsou, and serves as the film’s editor), but the film is more than a triumph of good editing and writing.
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, Charles Dance
Grade: B-
Netflix has multiple auteur-driven films set to release throughout the rest of the year. From Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly to Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite and even the Sundance breakout Train Dreams, the streaming studio has numerous films gunning for Oscar nominations. Arguably the biggest contender is Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, a $120 million spectacle that adapts one of the most foundational horror novels of all time.
Films made by children of beloved filmmakers can run the gamut in quality and style. From critical failures like Ishana Shyamalan’s The Watchers or Oscar darlings like Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, it is almost impossible to tell how well films from nepo babies will turn out. Tina Romero’s Queens of the Dead is the latest debut from a child of an iconic filmmaker —in this case, horror director George A. Romero. Seeing Tina Romero take on the horror subgenre that cemented her father as an all-time horror director could lead to deadly consequences if it turned out poorly, but luckily, her film takes a unique spin on the zombie flick, making for an entertaining experience from start to finish.
It’s always nice to see actors challenging themselves after more family-friendly fare, and this is the case with Pearce Joza’s starring turn in Under the Lights. Viewers may recognize the actor from Disney’s Zombies franchise, but here he’s given the room to show his depth. Miles Levin, who writes and directs, expands on his short film of the same name, about a high schooler named Sam (Joza) with epilepsy who desperately wants to attend his prom. The story is full of mostly standard stuff, with Sam finding the courage, accepting his limitations, and finding his true friends, but Levin’s heart is in the right place.
The cast list is unusually stacked, with Randall Park, Nick Offerman, Mary Holland, and Mark Duplass making cameo appearances, plus Lake Bell playing Sam’s overly protective mother. Joza’s performance stands up to scrutiny, as he plays into Sam’s teenage naivety but bullish determination. After all, what teenager doesn’t feel deathly determined to prove their doubters wrong, regardless of their own potential health issues? I don’t know if any version of the film exists which scratches deeper beneath the surface, but Under the Lights is the kind of regional film festival title which comes and goes without much further investigation. Of course, it’s great to see accurate representation of little-seen disabilities on film, and Joza proves that he can easily break from the Disney mold, so Levin’s film is ultimately a mild net positive.
Another Heartland film featuring recognizable faces comes in the form of Elena Oxman’s Outerlands, starring Orange is the New Black star Asia Kate Dillon. The film is one of the few purely adult-oriented offerings at Heartland, as it explores a number of difficult topics without reservation. Though there are some rough edges in some areas, Dillon shines in a difficult role.
The film follows Cass (Dillon), a restaurant server who has a brief fling with Kalli (Louisa Krause), a new server with a shady past. Before long, Kalli asks Cass to take care of her tween daughter Ari (Ridley Asha Bateman) while she goes out of town for a job. Cass can barely take care of herself, but the added responsibility of a young girl who could care less about her or her problems. There isn’t much, dramatically speaking, to sustain the 100 minute runtime, but Oxman doesn’t go down unnecessary avenues, nor do characters behave like they’re in a movie. Outerlands may not be the standout film of the festival, but it’s not a total downer either.
Virtually every film festival, every year, contains some version of Adult Children, an indie comedy featuring overly qualified stars in overly written situations. Director Rich Newey’s still young career is full of Hallmark-esque holiday rom-coms, and screenwriter Annika Marks’ script sets up the major conflict – such as it is – not unlike those same films. Morgan (Ella Rubin) has to write a college application essay, but struggles for inspiration. The plot kicks in when her older half-brother Josh (Thomas Sadoski) relapses and comes to live with her and her parents.
Her other half-siblings Dahlia (Aya Cash) and Lisa (Betsy Brandt) have their own existential issues, but they come together to support him. The film succeeds more on the interpersonal relationships between them, and less when they’re on their own. Lisa is the type-A neurotic wife and mother in a loveless marriage, and now she’s dealing with a possible unplanned pregnancy. Dahlia is a directionless nude model between relationships, strapped for cash and needing a place to live. Josh is reeling from a break-up, but there’s not much more to him that this. Everyone is cast to perfection and Newey utilizes their strengths (Rubin is especially strong in the second half), but Adult Children plays out mostly how you’d expect once the plot is set up. There are dramatic contrivances between the siblings – not to mention the casual hostility towards sobriety and addicts – but there’s a level of nuance that comes into focus. In spite of its issues, I left the film mostly feeling warmer towards the interpersonal dynamics and performances overall.
Below is my conversation with Lauren Z. Ray, the director of Winter Fantasy, a documentary about the small town of Logansport, Indiana, and the theater program that forms a kind of backbone throughout the community for its young artists. The film is making its World Premiere at the Heartland Film Festival. We discuss her thought process behind inserting herself in the film, the universality of small-town theater programs, and life in the arts post-high school. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Ben Sears: Logansport is such a unique place, and the film really captures that nicely.
Lauren Z. Ray: That was part of the goal. I always wanted to showcase Winter Fantasy, but I wanted to make this film very Logansport and very Hoosier as well. I kind of had this bucket list of items that I wanted to include, whether it’s a quick B-roll shot or a scene, just to give that texture and vibe to everything. In Indiana, I always think they have fantastic sunsets, so I wanted to include that, or a bonfire, which were very special to me when I was growing up.
BS: Did you have a goal in mind when you first conceived of the film, besides featuring the program? Did the story change at all throughout production?
LR: Totally, the initial idea was a micro-doc, under 20 minutes. I just wanted to showcase what Winter Fantasy is, and that’s it. But I hadn’t really been back to my high school, or talked to anybody in 10 years. But upon arriving, as I started setting up interviews and going through all my old things, I didn’t even really think of myself at first, but I started getting nostalgic.
My first interview is with the manager of McHale, and after that interview, I wanted to just explore everything with high school and Winter Fantasy, so I went through everything in my bedroom. That’s when I realized how much of my story needed to be included in this story in order for it to make sense. From there, I also wanted to include the stories of people who went on to become professionals after going through Winter Fantasy. Every documentary I’ve done is like detective work, it’s journalism. You learn more about the story through the interviews you do; it became a lot longer in the process of all the interviews and learning everyone’s stories. I initially wanted it to be just about Winter Fantasy, but it ended up being about my acting career, Winter Fantasy, and all the decades of people who have done the show.
BS: It’s interesting that you never even considered inserting yourself into the story because it helps to ground the story through your eyes.
LR: That’s how it felt at the time. It became more of a first-person documentary, which I had never done before. That really challenged me because I didn’t know how I could make it happen. Normally I’m the one behind the camera, so I knew I’d have to allow someone else behind the camera and help them to understand my vision. I hadn’t seen too many first-person documentaries, so I watched a lot, and I had to learn how this style is done. It was definitely a big process.
BS: You stay focused on Logansport and this specific program, but do you see this program as a microcosm of similar small town arts programs? Do you think there are similar stories like this across the country?
LR: I think so, I think it’s totally relatable. I remember when I did my first documentary, which was about a small town in Indiana, and I thought ‘this town’s really quirky and unique.’ And then everyone who saw it had a relationship to a small town across America somewhere, and it was relatable to a lot of people, even if they weren’t from this particular town. I think with this one, it was the same thing. People had either gone through their own musical theater program, or someone they knew went on to become someone from their theater program. Any time I’ve explained to someone what I was working on, people say they relate to it and they tell me stories about their programs, or their experiences with it. People totally understand that theater kids and staff tend to be very quirky by design, so I definitely think it’s a relatable topic, even though it’s just about Logansport, Indiana.
BS: You also have, later in the film, the experiences from you and your friend in Chicago, and the struggles with finding work in the arts after high school. Was that another avenue that was unplanned as well?
LR: Yes, actually, I was hoping I could get a hold of Dannie Smith. She didn’t know who I was, but I knew who she was because I went to all of her Winter Fantasy shows. I was absolutely obsessed! [laughs] I had never met her before, and the conversation we had on her couch was so crazy because of how similarly our stories had aligned. I had no idea, when I had called her initially, that she had retired from acting; I thought she was still acting. To learn that it was for similar reasons to me was really interesting.
BS: A development like that could be seen as a kind of mood killer, but in Winter Fantasy, it’s kind of hopeful, and a celebration of theater, and what people can do when they work together.
LR: I think a lot of people can relate to that as well. I know a lot of people that pursued theater after high school but couldn’t find any success, so I hope they can find something relatable in that. I think, accidentally, I always try to make my stories a feel-good story of some type. Those are the types of stories that I prefer to see, myself.
BS: Have you shown the film to the Logansport community at large yet?
LR: I haven’t. I’m very excited to do that, though. In January of this year, literally a week after I had finished, I had the cast come and see the film. Heartland is taking place during the school’s fall break, so that didn’t work out for them to screen it. But on November 8th, I’m going back to Logansport again, and I’ll do a public screening at McHale auditorium. I’m very excited, and this year’s Winter Fantasy is the following weekend, so I’m hoping it’ll hype up the town to show up and support that show this year.
Winter Fantasy will have in-person screenings at the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis, and will be available to stream online throughout the festival.Buy tickets here.
Starring: Idris Elba, Rebecca Fergason, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Greta Lee, Jason Clarke, Kaitlyn Dever
Grade: B
Since beginning her career as an action director, Kathryn Bigelow has garnered considerable acclaim with recent films that delve into more dramatic territory. Since becoming the first woman ever to win the Best Director award at the Academy Awards for The Hurt Locker, she has become a filmmaker whose films are on the Oscars’ radar. Seven years after her last feature film, Detroit, her upcoming movie, A House of Dynamite, appears to be her next film aiming for Oscar nominations, and focuses on the dangers of nuclear weapons in a fast-paced and digestible manner.
As an actress, Scarlett Johansson has proven to be a visionary in film throughout the past couple of decades. With roles in movies like Marriage Story and Her, she has shown herself to push film to emotional heights that not many other actors could achieve, so it is no surprise that she has finally taken on the role of director in her debut, Eleanor the Great.
Perhaps it’s just a coincidence that I watched Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud as the internet pivoted once again to the worst, when X (formerly Twitter) essentially became a safe-haven for Nazism, and Elmo’s account was hacked to spew anti-Semitic hate. The long-time Japanese auteur has made a career out of psychological horrors that explore our modern anxieties around technology and manipulation, and his latest film touches on how the internet warps our reality. It’s a subject that Kurosawa used almost 25 years ago, but Cloud feels like a modern update to those sentiments.
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, Mahershala Ali, Rupert Friend
Grade: C-
The Jurassic Park franchise has slowly become one of the most stale and lifeless franchises in the current blockbuster era. Entries like Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World: Dominion have failed to recapture the magic of the original film with some of the worst screenplays ever written for a major blockbuster. Despite the poor critical reception, the series manages to rack up billions of dollars. Although Dominion was perceived to be the final entry, the box office would not let the franchise die.
Starring: Theo James, Elijah Wood, Tatiana Maslany, Rohan Campbell, Christian Convery, Sarah Levy
Grade: B
Last year, Osgood Perkins broke into the mainstream with the box-office hit Longlegs. Not only did the film find success at the theater, but critics praised it for its atmospheric tension and gorgeous visuals. Less than a year later, Perkins teams with James Wan to adapt Stephen King’s short story “The Monkey.” Unlike his last film, The Monkey has a drastically different tone, delving deep into satire and absurdist humor, making this a riot from start to finish.
The Movie State 