Here are our capsule reviews of four new releases we recommend you seek out!
How to Have Sex – directed by Molly Manning Walker (Feb. 9) | review by Rebecca Martin
“Scrapper” cinematographer Molly Manning Walker’s directorial feature debut premiered at Cannes last year. I’ve been waiting for a film like this one to emerge. Your 20s often consist of you stumbling into adulthood, feeling the pressure to reach bench markers to belong, and to mature. There is that daydream fantasy when you are a teenager that Sofia Coppola captures so well in her films of one day being in love, and having an independent life of your own, but also the yearning to break free and have fun. Walker’s film shows us teenagers in the midst of their adolescence while grappling with their approaching adulthood. “How to Have Sex” shows that when the daydream dissolves in the cold shower of reality, we’re left with merely ourselves, and our need to move on. Traditionally a cinematographer for music videos, Walker captures the colors, the lights, and the spirit of being a teenager in motion. Without giving anything away, when we reach the end of the film, you feel like you’ve been through so much with Tara, the main character played by a revelatory Mia McKenna-Bruce, that when she has a near-breakdown for a moment, it is her girlfriend who is there to support her at her side. I couldn’t help also thinking of Céline Sciamma’s “Girlhood” when I was watching this film, another indelible portrait of what happens when we find our people.
The film opens in Chicago, Friday, February 9th at Alamo Drafthouse in Wrigleyville.
Tótem – Lila Avilés (Feb. 9) | review by Matt Fagerholm
Mexico’s official Oscar submission for this year warrants comparison with Jonathan Demme’s magnum opus, “Rachel Getting Married,” in how it fully immerses us in the communal warmth and underlying tensions of a large family gathering—in this case, a party celebrating the birthday of a terminally ill man, Tonatiuh (Mateo Garcia). Writer/director Lila Avilés observes the build up to the climactic lighting of birthday candles from various perspectives, particularly that of Tonatiuh’s seven-year-old daughter, Sol (Naíma Sentíes), whose prolonged stare into the camera, as she feels the weight of the sadness amidst the smiles, will haunt you long after the final fade-out. Yet this film is anything but a mournful dirge, as it expresses the vitality of savoring every moment to which we are blessed, and to not—as Sol’s cousin tenderly advises—let something as trivial as a burned cake ruin our whole day. It is at once naturalistic, charming, heartrending and sneakily profound.
Originally published in Matt Fagerholm’s Top 20 Films of 2023: https://indie-outlook.com/2023/12/14/top-20-films-of-2023/
“Tótem” has it’s theatrical release at the Siskel Film Center on Friday, February 9th. Read our review with the director next week!
Departing Seniors – Clare Cooney (Feb. 2) | review by Emily Jacobson
The final week of senior year of high school can be full of surprises. Memories of the times you’ve had flood the halls you’ve walked for four years. Fear and excitement for an unknown future linger over you. However, a series of deaths under suspicious circumstances is probably unlikely. Unfortunately for the protagonists of Clare Cooney’s “Departing Seniors,” this is their reality. Screened at the Music Box Theatre for the 59th Chicago International Film Festival, Cooney’s film is a fun blend of classic slasher movies and representation, resulting in a thrill ride of laughs and scares.
Javier (Ignacio Diaz-Silverio), a queer Mexican-American senior, is counting down the days to his graduation. After persistent bullying by the swimming team, Javier is eager to leave his high school days behind. His quick-witted best friend Bianca (Ireon Roach) is always at his side cracking jokes as a form of comfort. After a series of apparent suicides, the class of 2019 is rattled as they enter their final week of school. When Javier is dangerously injured after an unexpected meeting with his bullies, he winds up in the hospital with a head wound. This triggers hereditary psychic powers that allow him to see who is going to die next, revealing that suicide may not be the cause of the rising body count.
Read full CIFF review here. The film comes to theaters today, and will be screening at the Music Box Theatre this weekend.
Fitting In – directed by Molly McGlynn (Feb. 2) | review by Matt Fagerholm
On the heels of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” two films that brilliantly deconstructed societal perceptions of what it means to be a woman, here arrives Molly McGlynn’s “Fitting In,” a film that in striking ways completes a trifecta with the previous two titles, all the way down to its poignant use of Aqua’s “Barbie World.” Maddie Ziegler finally gets the opportunity to deliver on the promise of her astonishing work—both physically and emotionally—in Sia music videos such as “Big Girls Cry” with her achingly beautiful and deftly nuanced portrayal of Lindy, a 16-year-old girl whose eagerness to sleep with her boyfriend is halted when she is diagnosed with MRKH Syndrome, a disorder in which a person assigned female at birth is born with an underdeveloped reproductive system. This semi-autobiographical sophomore feature effort from writer/director McGlynn is as essential as my favorite film of 2023, Kelly Fremon Craig’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”, in how it de-stigmatizes aspects of the human experience that have long been cloaked in shame. McGlynn’s homages to Karyn Kusama’s “Jennifer Body” and one of that cult favorite’s key inspirations, John Fawcett’s “Ginger Snaps,” are entirely apt, considering that “Fitting In” shares their biting wit, bracing honesty and profound understanding of the hell endured by teenage girls. With stellar supporting work from “Schitt’s Creek” scene-stealer Emily Hampshire as Lindy’s mom who is harboring her own pain, this wise and cathartic gem is not to be missed.
“Fitting In” comes to select theaters today.
