REVIEW: Wander Darkly [2020]

And one for tomorrow. The thing about living for the future is that it often neglects the past. While a necessary coping mechanism to move forward after traumatic loss, forgetting also risks our ability to heal through the memories of what came before. It’s why we’re nothing without where we’ve been for better and worse. Those experiences shape our identity and strength as each struggle pushes us on a path towards something greater than their devastating parts. So when Adrienne (Sienna Miller) awakens to find her body lying motionless on…

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REVIEW: Jackie [2016]

“When something’s written down—does that make it true?” It’s rather intriguing how we feel we know our presidents. They represent us as a leader of the free world and we in turn love them enough to mourn their passing even when it’s decades after their run in the Oval Office ceased. But what is it that we really know? We only see what they allow. We see the aftermath of important moments—good and bad—but not the decisions themselves. Everything that we know without reading a book comes from what they’ve…

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REVIEW: Faults [2015]

“What did you lose?” There’s an inherent paradox to the universally held idea of cults being destructive. So quick to deem what occurs within them unnatural—namely a leader using his charisma to indoctrinate the weak into a “family” that understands them—we forget to acknowledge how much of our own lives follow the same pattern. As children we look up to our parents, grandparents, role models, etc. As adults we seek validation from bosses, peers, and spouses, measuring our success on a scale built upon what a public we hold as…

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BNFF10 REVIEW: Hot Tamale [2006]

“You better know so Wonderbread” Between the serious faces portrayed on the poster and the heist gone wrong plot synopsis, I had no idea Hot Tamale was going to be as much of a comedy as it is. Beginning with the bizarre death of lead Harlan Woodriff’s father, the kooky family is huddled around the frozen corpse while the son stays in the background wondering if he’d ended up in the wrong family. It all has an air of drama—besides the inclusion of actors Harland Williams and Beth Grant—as we…

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