a variety of musings
When all hope is lost, sometimes all it takes is to jump on a minibus with five complete strangers and trust the journey. Sweet As, written and directed by debut filmmaker Jub Clerc, is an endearing coming-of-age story about navigating hardship, maintaining resilience, and foraging human connections.
Continue reading “Jub Clerc’s ‘Sweet As’ Is a Candy-Coated Coming-of-Age Tale”
From a sexy and seductive conniving soccer coach in HBO’s The Sex Lives of College Girls to an awkward and suicidal young adult on the outs with his father, writer-director-actor James Morosini is out to prove that he’s got range. I Love My Dad is a heartwarming cringe-comedy tale based on a true story from Morosini’s life involving his father (played by Patton Oswalt) catfishing him out of concern for his wellbeing.
Continue reading “Master of All Trades: An Interview with ‘I Love My Dad’ Director, Writer, and Star James Morosini”
Accepted directed by Dan Chen is an educational and heartfelt documentary that focuses on the nearly perfect success rate of the Louisana-based T.M. Landry College Preparatory, which boasts of closing the educational inequality gap faced by minority students in search of higher education past high school. Despite not having proper teaching credentials, the school’s namesake founder Mike Landry, alongside his wife (the T stands for Tracey, Mike’s wife), was able to get kids into top-tier colleges such as Cornell University, Harvard University, and New York University.
Continue reading “How ‘Accepted’ Director Dan Chen Shines A Light On Students Amidst A Broken System: Interview”
“It was really important to us to present diversity and queer characters out there without making any of those things an issue,” says Stacey Maltin, who co-wrote, directed, and starred in Triple Threat, a progressive musical romance drama. “These are people who are living their lives, who are falling in love—or out of love—and who have dreams just like everybody else.”
Triple Threat is a heartwarming story that follows the tireless journey of three vivacious best friends, Chloe (Maltin), Maggie (Margarita Zhitnikova), and Gus (co-writer Jay DeYoker) who have dreams to make it big on Broadway. Now in their 30s, when the trio’s Broadway show Firefly becomes a smash hit 10 years later, they suddenly find themselves at a crossroads between fame or putting their careers on hold to try and start a family. It’s an inspirational movie that could ring true for many aspiring artists who think they might have to proverbially throw in the towel and put their biological clocks on hold in lieu of their careers, or vice versa.
Continue reading “Of Fireflies and Friends: An Interview With the Creators Behind ‘Triple Threat’ A Queer Millenial Musical”
Director Rodrigo Garcia has nearly perfected the balance between tragedy and humor in his latest film Raymond and Ray. Equal parts grim, chaotic, and laugh-out-loud funny, Raymond and Ray is a wonderful dark comedy-drama about coping with trauma passed down to us from our parents.
Continue reading “‘Raymond and Ray’ Thoughtfully Explores the Bonds Between Humor and Trauma”
A loving glance under beautifully thick eyelashes here, a dash of murderous tendencies there, and a whole lot of that undisguisable raspy Long Island accent everywhere, these are just some of the components that make up a classic Chris Messina performance. Looking through the credits of Messina’s nearly three-decade career, he has an actor’s filmography equivalent best described by the phrase: “always the bridesmaid, never the bride.” And in another multiverse, Messina would already be the go-to Hollywood leading man (and Italian short king) we deserve.
Continue reading “The Best Chris Messina Roles in Movies and Television”
Move over diamonds; it seems ratings are a girl’s best friend. No stranger to controversy since the film’s announcement in 2019, Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde,” starring Ana de Armas as the infamous actress-socialite Marylin Monroe, continues to make waves in the industry for a myriad of reasons, but none more so than its controversial NC-17 rating. As more trailers invoke hype and behind-the-scenes photos showcase an impressively high-quality production value for a Netflix joint, combined with the impeccable talents of “Knives Out” and “No Time To Die” star de Armas, it’s clear that “Blonde” has all the makings of an Oscar contender.
But will its nuanced NC-17 rating prevent it from even entering the ceremony?
Not necessarily…
Continue reading “Will An NC-17 Rating For ‘Blonde’ Hurt Oscar Chances?”
How long can you protect your heart, especially when all you’ve known is isolation? This is a question both figuratively and literally posed upon Kya Clark (played as a young girl by Jojo Regina and as a young woman by Daisy Edgar-Jones), who finds herself abandoned by her family in a dilapidated shack hidden deep within the marshes of North Carolina. Considered an outcast by the neighboring well-to-do and working-class town of Barkley Cove because of her ‘wild’ upbringing, Kya doesn’t have any friends. Not until Tate Walker (played as a young boy by Luke David Blumm and a young man by Taylor John Smith) comes along and teaches Kya how to read and write and to properly identify the creatures and air fowl that reside on the banks of the marsh. Where the Crawdads Sing is both a beautiful and haunting southern coming-of-age tale told using two intermingling timelines that primarily focus on how Kya learns to navigate the harsh realities of life all while accepting the complications of love in the process. And with Tate by her side, Kya seemingly cannot fail.
Continue reading “How to Build a Southern Gentleman: An Interview with ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ Star Taylor John Smith”
[originally published on Medium]
Signe Baumane’s My Love Affair with Marriage is not your standard children’s animation. Though it does feature adults spewing lessons about purity, “Be a virgin until you’re married,” or how a young girl’s sole responsibility is to find love “Marriage is your destiny. You should patiently wait, you’re not a complete person without your soulmate.” Baumane’s feature is not here to reinforce those archaic and sexist ideologies, but instead, she’s here to examine and dismantle them, almost like an anti-patriarchal Sherlock Holmes.
Continue reading “Tribeca 2022: ‘My Love Affair With Marriage’ Interview with Director Signe Baumane and Actor Dagmara Dominczyk”
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, it’s a witch?… and oh look! It’s also Doctor Daddy Salt-N-Pepa Strange, back at it again with the stolen sling rings and sorcery!
In what feels like the 3,000th entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially now that we’ve all got the Television Universe to worry about, the latest movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness at least added some good ol’ fashioned B-movie horror to the franchise. (And so you’ll have to excuse me while I make a horror-tinged comparison.) Like a haunted house, the movie is full of fun-filled surprises, genuine scares, and long dark corridors that not only the character, but the audience too, have to travel to get to the menial plot on the other side. What I’m trying to say is; that though we’ve all paid the price of admission for some twenty-odd years now, not all haunted houses are worth the price of admission. And unfortunately, the titular Multiverse lacks not in frights, entertainment, or villainy but instead coherent theming. Something akin to asking: why was the haunted house built in the first place?
Continue reading “‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a ‘Goddamn Haunted House’ [spoiler review]”
Destiny Delights 