An Editor’s Dream: Lori Eschler and Scott Ryan on “Always Music in the Air: The Sounds of Twin Peaks”
In April of 2022, I attended the most euphoric moviegoing marathon of my life when curator Daniel Knox hosted “David Lynch: A Complete Retrospective—The Return” at Chicago’s own Club Silencio, the Music Box Theatre. Scott Ryan, the managing editor of The Blue Rose Magazine, moderated all of the Q&As, and I subsequently interviewed him twice […]
Disrupt the Dopamine: Lily McInerny on “Bonjour Tristesse”
Throughout human history, few things have discomforted patriarchal societies quite like the candid thoughts of women. French author Françoise Sagan was only 18 when she published her wildly popular 1954 debut novel, Bonjour Tristesse, which translates as Hello Sadness. Her tale of a teenage girl, Cécile, whose freedom she enjoys with her widowed father, Raymond, […]
This Was the Fight: Emily Sheskin on “JessZilla”
One of my favorite films I saw in 2024 is finally kicking off its limited theatrical run before arriving on VOD. Last year, I had the privilege of serving on the documentary nomination committee for Slamdance’s inaugural awards ceremony, The Indies. As a result, I screened numerous magnificent pictures, yet none delivered a knockout punch […]
A Sense of Authenticity: Olivia Edward on “Better Things”
When Pamela Adlon released her marvelous directorial feature debut, “Babes,” earlier this year, my husband Matt and I had not yet been acquainted with the filmmaker’s Peabody Award-winning FX series, “Better Things.” Adlon plays a fictionalized version of herself named Sam, and loosely based the series on her own experience of raising three daughters while […]
CIFF 2024: Screen Legend Valeria Golino on Her Exhilarating Miniseries, “The Art of Joy”
Valeria Golino was 18 years old when she filmed Italian director Francesco Maselli’s “Storia d’amore,” the movie that would make her an international star. She earned the Best Actress prize in Venice, and went on to be cast in such major Hollywood releases as “Rain Man,” “Big Top Pee-Wee,” “Hot Shots!”, “Leaving Las Vegas” and […]
A Different Conversation: Maia Scalia on Her Stunning Directorial Debut, “His Mother”
If only people had listened to her. She saw the warning signs while others kept repeatedly turning a blind eye, and now her only child is on the brink of committing an unspeakable act. For thirteen agonizing minutes, Julie (played by a shattering Bethany Anne Lind), races through traffic, frantically making calls that she hopes […]
This is Our Family: Tara Mallen, Keith Kupferer and Katherine Mallen Kupferer on “Ghostlight”
When it comes to monumentally euphoric moviegoing experiences in 2024, Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson have set a mightily high bar with their latest crowd-pleaser, “Ghostlight.” Five years after helming one of my all-time favorite films, 2019’s “Saint Frances,” writer/co-director O’Sullivan and co-director/producer Thompson have done it again with this phenomenally powerful ode to the […]
Attracted to the Darkness: Sophia Adler on Her Pivotal Role in “Harlan Coben’s Shelter”
If there were any justice in the realm of film distribution, every member of the #MeToo movement would currently be the proud owner of a boxed set featuring four movies written and directed by New York-based auteur Deborah Kampmeier. Her 2003 debut, “Virgin,” starred Elisabeth Moss in a breakthrough performance as a teen who believes […]
The Poetry of Everyday Life: Brooke Westphal on “Young People”
A film lasting only a few minutes has the potential to impact viewers in a way that is tantamount to a feature, and that is certainly the case with “Young People,” which marks the directorial debut of Brooke Westphal, a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). It was made for the college’s […]
The Birth of a Heroine: Afrin Khanom and Angelos Rallis on “Mighty Afrin: in the time of floods”
At the 2017 installment of Hot Docs in Toronto, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a documentary so devastating and essential that it made my top ten list of the year. Angelo Rallis’ “Shingal, Where Are You?” centers on a family of Yezidis who were displaced after their titular town was attacked by ISIS. […]
Rebecca Harrell Tickell on “Prancer,” “Regenerate Ojai” and “On Sacred Ground”
With over two feet of snow piled upon the driveway, I spent this past Christmas Eve with my wife, Cinema Femme founder Rebecca Martin Fagerholm, binging holiday perennials at her parents’ cozy home in Holland, Michigan. Well into the evening, we decided to watch a picture that I hadn’t seen since my childhood, John D. […]
Slamdance 2023: Wendy McColm on Their Audacious Triumph, “Fuzzy Head”
“To understand my work,” David Lynch once told a bewildered moviegoer in Chicago, “you must follow the emotion. Because if you follow the buttermilk, you’ll end up going to the dairy.” The same rule of thumb could be applied to writer/director Wendy McColm’s sophomore feature effort, “Fuzzy Head,” the first thoroughly captivating cinematic work I’ve […]