Slamdance 2026: Jessica Barr and Ryan Simpkins on Their Stunning Single-Take Film, “The Plan”
The sun is just beginning to set as the twenty-something characters in Jessica’s Barr’s mesmerizing new film, “The Plan,” start to congregate in an East LA apartment. The calmness of the setting gradually proves to be deceptive, as the mounting tension within these friends—particularly Evan (Ryan Simpkins)—threatens to erupt. With the helicopter blades of an […]
Sundancing on My Own: My Four Extraordinary Days in Park City
Sundance has always been a festival I had admired at a distance. How Robert Redford had gone about using his platform to launch the careers of countless filmmakers for over four decades had always left me in awe. So many of my favorite films had premiered at Redford’s festival nestled in the snow-capped mountains of […]
Being Fully Present: Alicia Witt on David Lynch, “Longlegs,” Her New Concert Tour and More
A longtime holiday wish of mine will be granted this month when I finally get to see one of my favorite actors perform in person. As part of her “Spending Christmas” tour, Alicia Witt will be putting on a holiday concert at Evanston SPACE, featuring tunes from her wonderful album, “I Think I’m Spending Christmas […]
Look for the Signs: Christy Salters Martin and Lisa Holewyne on “Christy”
I went into David Michôd’s biopic “Christy” knowing nothing about its titular boxer. I knew I would be interviewing the film’s real-life subject, Christy Salters Martin, the following morning, and was delighted to see her in attendance at the press screening. She was accompanied by her wife, Lisa Holewyne, who had formerly been her adversary […]
A Profound Experience of Rewriting: Eva Victor on “Sorry, Baby”
As annoyed as I was about Barry Jenkins, one of the greatest filmmakers working today, recently helming a prequel to the worst Disney remake in history, the Oscar-winning director of “Moonlight” has also been helping launch some of the most exciting careers in modern cinema over the past few years. I’m thinking specifically of Charlotte […]
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, […]
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 […]
Shelter from the World: Iliana Zabeth on “House of Pleasures,” #MeToo in France and More
One of the finest female ensembles in recent years can be found in Bertrand Bonello’s 2011 masterwork, “House of Pleasures,” originally titled “L’Apollonide” in France, the name of the Parisian brothel where nearly every scene in the film takes place. “In a way, Bonello’s film is about the end of an era in turn-of-the-century France, […]
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. […]