Regarding Us, Veronica (Alexandra Grey), a trans woman, spirals into a state of depression and feels suicidal after getting fired from her job as a Catholic school teacher. When she meets Denny (David Beck) and befriends his young daughter, Isabel (Andrea Rosa Guzman), while babysitting her, they both impact each other's lives. Isabel suspects that her new classmate, Kyle (Hudson Paul), might be trans, so she encourages him to feel comfortable about crossdressing and putting on makeup which angers his mother, Constance (Abigail Hawk), and his abusive, transphobic older brother, Matt (Jacob Moran). Meanwhile, Denny has broken up with his boyfriend, Adrian (Eliud Garcia), and lies to Isabel that he's currently overseas in France for work.
      The premise sounds like it could lead to yet another overstuffed and undercooked drama because of so many characters and subplots. However, the screenplay by writers/directors David Beck and Jennifer Bobbi assembles the characters and subplots in a way that feels honest, captivating and genuinely heartfelt without making the audience feel the wheels of the screenplay turning. Veronica comes across as a smart, compassionate and strong trans woman who has clearly experienced a lot of emotional pain and trauma. She had a rocky relationship with her recently deceased estranged father which means that she's grieving him as well as the father that she never had concurrently. She gradually heals from her own trauma while bonding with Isabel, Denny and Kyle each of whom is going through his or her own struggles as well.
      Kudos to Beck and Bobbi for seeing and treating everyone as complex human beings which makes them more relatable. Most importantly, they should be commended for finding the right balance between Truth and Spectacle while finding plenty of Spectacle within the film's many Truths. Movies don't need car chases, explosions, gun fights or an abundance of CGI effects to be entertaining. There are no villains, melodrama or schmaltz, so Regarding Us remains refreshingly un-Hollywood. It's sweet without being cloying, poignant without being emotionally devastating or maudlin, uplifting without being cheesy, and wise without being preachy or heavy-handed.
      Within despair, there's always hope. As poet Pablo Neruda once wrote, "They can cut all of the flowers, but they can't stop the spring from coming." It's inspiring to watch how Veronica changes innately as the garden of her soul starts to blossom throughout the film. She experiences epiphanies that make her stronger because she's learning to love true herself, warts-and-all. In a way, Regarding Us can be seen as a love story about a trans woman who learns how to romance herself. Her full character arc feels truly earned. Moreover, the performances by the ensemble cast are all superb, especially Alexandra Grey and the child actors, Andrea Rosa Guzman, Hudson Paul and Jacob Moran. At a running time of 1 hour and 38 minutes, Regarding Us opens on December 6th, 2024 at Cinema Village via Gravitas Ventures.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
      After quitting his job as a barista, Khalid (Derrick B. Harden) travels from Brooklyn to a small coastal town in Bulgaria to meet an older woman who hires him for sex work in The Black Sea. She dies before he arrives and his passport ends up stolen, so he's now stranded in Bulgaria. Soon enough, he befriends and romances Ina (Irmena Chichikova), a travel agent who helps him to find a job before he gathers enough money to open his own shop with her selling macha and toasted sandwiches. Co-writers/directors Crystal Moselle and Derrick B. Harden have woven a captivating, funny and heartfelt story brimming with warmth, tenderness and wit. Sure, most of the plot can be easily predicted and requires some suspension of disbelief because of a few contrived events, i.e. how quickly Khalid bonds with the townspeople and charms them. Those are forgivable flaws, though. At its core, The Black Sea is about a man who conquers adversity through his determination, lively personality and compassion for others. It's uplifting to watch as he finds a sense of community in the small town and makes the most out of his tough financial situation.
      Derrick B. Harden and Irmena Chichikova have palpable chemistry together which makes you want to root for Khalid and Ina to be together as a romantic couple. Moreover, the scenery is often picturesque with a few instances of visual poetry. The town eventually becomes a character in itself. Will Kalid want to return to the US or stay in Bulgaria? The ending won't be spoiled here, but it's worth mentioning that it's satisfying and sweet without being schmaltzy. At a running time of only 1 hour and 36 minutes, The Black Sea opens on November 22nd, 2024 at Metrograph via Metrograph Pictures. It's better than Anora while dealing with the topics of culture clash, class, love and happiness with much more depth.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
      A cat seeks shelter when a giant flood displaces it in Flow. Throughout its desperate struggle to survive, it meets a dog, a capybara, a lemur and a crane. Writer/director Gints Zilbalodis and co-writer Matiss Kaza have made a bold, heartwarming, poetic and exhilarating journey without one single line of dialogue. Instead of words, the filmmakers provide the audience with facial expressions and music to convey and capture many different emotions. The deceptively simple story becomes increasingly complex and like a roller-coaster ride of emotions in the sense that the audience experiences joy, sadness, despair and hope just like the cat on-screen does. If you're a cat-lover, that's an added bonus, but there's also a dog which will please dog-lovers, so hopefully you're either one or the other or, better yet, both. Exposition is kept at a very bare minimum without a sense of where the cat is within the world and how or why the giant flood occurs. The CGI animation looks dazzling albeit not always photo-realistic; at times it looks more like painted CGI. There are many sequences that are so awe-inspiring that they transcend beyond words and might even bring you tears of sadness and joy. That's a testament to the film's power and, above all, to its palpable humanism, a truly special effect. At a running time of only 1 hour and 24 minutes, Flow opens November 22nd, 2024 at Angelika Film Center via Sideshow and Janus Films.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
      In Memoir of a Snail, Gracie (voice of Sarah Snook) recalls the memories of her childhood to her beloved pet snail, Sylvia. She talks about how she formed an emotional bond with her supportive twin brother, Gilbert (voice of Kodi Smit-McPhee), how they ended up separated and how she met her elderly friends, Pinky (voice of Jacki Weaver). The screenplay by writer/director Adam Elliot is a refreshingly witty, poignant and empowering story about self-discovery, conquering adversity and embracing life. Gracie has suffered through a lot including bullying and an abusive relationship while dealing with loneliness and low self esteem. She's eccentric, candid and maintains a dry, occasionally darkly comedic sense of humor. Memoir of a Snail gets darker and darker as it progresses, but it also gets increasingly profound. It's a roller coaster ride of emotions that's full of surprises and aphorisms that you'll be able to apply to your own life. Beyond that, it's also beautifully animated in claymation and includes some provocative symbolism. At a running time of only 1 hour and 34 minutes, Memoir of a Snail is now playing at IFC Center and other select theaters via IFC Films. It would be a great double feature with Pixar's Up.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
      In The Wild Robot, Rozzum Unit 7134, a.k.a. Roz (voice of Lupita Nyong'o), a robot, ends up stranded on an island after a shipwreck and believes that her directive is to teach a young orphaned goose, Brightbill (voice of Kit Connor) how to eat, swim and fly. Fink (voice of Pedro Pascal), a fox, helps her to complete her tasks. Writer/director Chris Sanders has managed to create an exhilarating, wise, funny, poignant and uplifting adventure well worth taking. The first fifteen minutes or so are hilarious as you're introduced to Roz who's searching for the one who requested her services only to be rejected by every animal including a squirrel. An egg hatches, Brightbill emerges, and now she has a client. Teaching him how to eat, swim and fly becomes difficult tasks, though.
      The Wild Robot, based on the book by Peter Brown, has a deceptively simple, easy-to-follow plot, but that's just on the surface. Beneath the surface, there's a warm, beating heart and profound, inspirational messages that might remind you of animated classics like The Iron Giant and Wall-E. It avoids turning into a schmaltzy, preachy, heavy-handed, tedious or dull experience, though. The dialogue and even some of the sight gags sparkle with wit without catering to the lowest common denominator or pandering to younger audiences. In other words, The Wild Robot entertains adults and children equally. Interestingly, the animation style appears to be a combo of photo-realistic CGI and painted CGI, like in the character design of Fink the fox. The use of music is also worth mentioning, especially the song "Kiss the Sky" by Maren Morris which deserves to be nominated for Best Original Song. At a running time of 1 hours and 41 minutes, The Wild Robot is destined to become an animated classic. It's now playing nationwide via Universal Pictures.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
      Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), an aging Hollywood actress whose stardom has faded, gets fired from hosting an aerobics show in The Substance. She decides to secretly take a mysterious substance that creates a younger version of herself named Sue (Margaret Qualley) which ejects from her back. There are a few rules that she has to abide by, such as going back to her older body every 7 days, feeding the older body intravenously, and to remember that her younger and older self are one and the same. Meanwhile, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), the smarmy producer of Elizabeth's show, wants to replace her with Sue. Little does Elizabeth know that the substance is a Faustian bargain. Writer/director Coralie Fargeat has created a wickedly funny, audacious, razor-sharp and poetic blend of horror, dark comedy and satire. The Substance manages to be a thoroughly entertaining, refreshingly unpredictable and electrifying ride. It's blunt, grotesque, shocking, disturbing, unflinchingly honest and scathing in its commentary on beauty, aging and fame. Poetry is often a form of protest which makes The Substance a loud, indignant and powerful protest against shallowness, and a protest for recognizing the intrinsic value of one's inner beauty and self worth in a world's that's dehumanizing, materialistic and misogynistic.
      Demi Moore shines in a bravura, Oscar-worthy performance, the best performance of her entire career. She sinks her teeth into Elizabeth's strengths and her vulnerabilities lurking beneath the surface. Margaret Qualley is also superb while Dennis Quaid hams it up with his somewhat campy, over-the-top performance. The cinematography adds plenty of visual style which becomes parts of the film's substance starting with the foreboding opening shot of an egg being injected by the titular substance before a smaller yolk ejects from the yolk. The pacing, use of music, editing, costume and set designs are also exceptional. If you can imagine the sardonic humor and wit of Triangle of Sadness with the creepiness of The Fly, the brilliance and craziness of Being John Malkovich, and the depth of Sunset Boulevard, you'll get a sense of what it's like to watch The Substance. At a running time of 2 hours and 20 minutes, The Substance is now playing nationwide via MUBI.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
      In Red Rooms, Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy), a young woman, obsesses over the trial of Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), a man accused of being a serial killer who kidnaps, sexually abuses and tortures his underage victims. She takes the investigation into her own hands by going into the dark web to find a key piece of missing evidence that could prove his guilt or exonerate him. Writer/director Pascal Plante has made one of the most spellbinding, taut and provocative crime thrillers since The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He begins with both the prosecutor and the defense stating their sides of the case. The prosecutor claims that there's enough evidence that incriminates Ludovic while the defense urges the jury to keep an open mind for reasonable doubt. Suddenly, the plot focuses on Kelly-Anne and her determination to find important evidence, a tape of the death of one of the serial killer's victims. She uses her computer skills to try to find the missing tape and figure out what happened to it with her detective skills. It's great to watch a movie with an intelligent, brave female protagonist who's a critical thinker. Kelly-Anne also comes across as somewhat unhinged and unpredictable. She's cut from the same cloth as Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Red Rooms doesn't judge her, though, nor does it ask the audience to judge her. The deeper she goes into the dark web, the more she puts her life in jeopardy. Kudos to writer/director Pascal Plante for trusting the audience's imagination and intelligence without dumbing the film down by spoon-feeding the audience. He grasps that true horror can be found inside the audience's mind. There's no blood or gore to be found throughout the film, surprisingly, so Plante wisely chooses not to rely on shocking and disturbing the audience to entertain them like most movies about serial killers tend to do----yes, I'm looking at you, Seven and Zodiac. At a running time of 1 hour and 58 minutes, Red Rooms is now on VOD via Utopia.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
      In Longlegs, Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), an FBI agent with psychic abilities, joins Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), to investigate serial killings that are linked to a mysterious killer who goes by the name of Longlegs (Nicolas Cage). Meanwhile, she deals with her emotionally abusive mother, Ruth (Alicia Witt), who's very religious. The less you know about the plot of Longlegs beforehand, the better, because it's best watching it going in cold so that the beats land more strongly during its twists and turns. If you haven't watched the trailer yet, don't. It gives too much away. Writer/director Oz Perkins does an impeccable job of maintaining suspense and intrigue from the very first scene, a brief prologue that flashes back to Lee's childhood. It's a scene that sets the film's foreboding tone without giving away too much. Perkins should also be commended for knowing how and when to incorporate exposition while allowing the audience to be on the same page as Lee. Is there something supernatural going on? What's Longleg's motive? Could someone be helping him? Those are among the provocative questions that you'll ponder along with Lee. She's an interesting character because she's intelligent and brave, yet vulnerable and flawed. Maika Monroe gives a heartfelt and raw performance. It's the best performance of her career. Nicolas Cage is barely recognizable behind a lot of prosthetics and makeup that, along with Cage's wild performance, makes Longlegs look effectively creepy and unhinged.
      The cinematography offers plenty of style in terms of the camera work, lighting, and use of color which, together with the sound design and production design, becomes an integral part of the film's substance concurrently. A seemingly simple scene like Lee sitting in a room with a red carpet brims with visual poetry while contributing to the eerie atmosphere. There are some very grisly images and violent scenes, but some of the graphic violence actually remains off-screen. The third act, refreshingly, doesn't tie everything up neatly in a bow and leaves room for interpretation. So, kudos to writer/director Oz Perkins for trusting the audience's intelligence. At a running time of 1 hour and 41 minutes, Longlegs is a spellbinding, taut and intriguing psychological horror thriller. It's now streaming on VOD via NEON.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
      Colman Domingo, one of the best actors of our time, gives yet another Oscar-worthy performance in Sing Sing. He portrays Divine G., an innocent man who's wrongfully imprisoned in Sing Sing Correctional Facility. While repeatedly trying to appeal his conviction, he joins a theater group where he writes plays and stars with his fellow inmates. The theater group is part of a program called Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA). Writer/director Greg Kwedar and co-writer Clint Bentley have created a genuinely engrossing, understated and inspirational emotional journey with just the right amount of poignancy and levity while avoiding clunkiness and an uneven tone. Much of the film will make you feel like you're watching a documentary because the camera merely follows Diving G. and his theater group with little to no music score. The raw, convincingly moving and nuanced performances and the natural dialogue help to further ground the film in authenticity. Not a single scene feels contrived, maudlin or heavy-handed. Most of the inmates in the theater group are actually played by the real-life members of the group who were formerly incarcerated. Paul Raci rounds out the cast as Brent, who serves as the programs advisor/director.
      Interestingly, Sing Sing doesn't spend too much time on what led to Divine G.'s wrongful imprisonment or on his struggles to prove his innocence. There are no flashbacks and very little exposition about his past, but just enough to humanize him. Much of the film's emotional resonance come from Colman Domingo's bravura performance. He manages to find the emotional truth of his role and to open the window into Divine G.'s heart, mind and soul from start to finish. At a running time of 1 hour and 45 minutes, Sing Sing, based on a true story, is now playing in select theaters nationwide via A24 before expanding to more theaters. It would be a great double feature with Ghostlight.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
Sting
Directed by Kiah Roache-Turner
      12-year-old Charlotte (Alyla Browne) lives with her mother, Heather (Penelope Mitchell), stepfather, Ethan (Ryan Corr), in an NYC apartment. One night, she finds a small spider, names it Sting, and keeps it as her pet. Little does she know that the more she feeds it, the more it'll grow into a giant deadly spider that terrorizes the residents of the apartment building.
      Writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner has made an enormously entertaining crowd-pleaser with a perfect blend of horror, comedy and thrills. In the prologue, an exterminator, Frank (Jermaine Fowler), arrives to investigate the source of loud noises in the walls of the apartment building. A mysterious creature soon drags him before the film flashes back to the moment when a spider egg falls from outer space and crashes through a window in Charlotte's apartment building. The hatches, Charlotte finds it and keeps it in her room while feeding it cockroaches. Where did the spider egg come from? How is it able to make sounds that mimic Charlotte like a parrot? Why does Charlotte choose "Sting" out of all other possible names for the spider? Those questions aren't answered, but that's fine. The screenplay remains lean and light on exposition which is beneficial because it allows the plot to remain tight, focused and uncomplicated. Kiah Roache-Turner does an effective job of establishing the bond between Charlotte and Sting as well as her rocky relationship with her stepfather. Those scenes are surprisingly moving without being cloying or clunky.
      As Hitchcock once wisely observed, logic is dull; imagination is more important than logic. Fortunately, Sting doesn't run out of neither imagination nor ideas as it presents different ways for the spider to scare and excite the audience including it crawling on the ceiling like in the film's theatrical poster. Arachnophobic audience members need not worry, though, because the spider isn't so scary that they'll be shielding their eyes. There are some very intense scenes, though, especially one that will be talked about and referenced because of how it pushes the envelope while tipping its hat to Alien. Erik (Danny Kim), a scientist who lives in the building, and the exterminator, Frank, provide some much-needed comic relief. Some jump scares are used in amusing ways. One of Frank's zingers, which involves the mention of sex with a blender to describe what he's seeing, is laugh-out-loud funny. The third act escalates the action and thrills without becoming exhausting or tedious.
      Sting has pretty solid performances, especially from Alyla Browne who gives a breakthrough performance. Everyone from the major roles to the supporting roles, like Helga (Noni Hazlehurst), Heather's mother, is well-cast. The film also boasts a very clever and creative opening credits sequence with a well-chosen song that sets the tone. A song with very appropriate lyrics that plays over the end credits is unexpected which makes it all the more refreshing. Hint: it's the same song that plays over the opening credits of the underrated 90's cult classic Blast From the Past. The production design makes the most out of the low budget without looking cheap. There are actually some very well-shot sequences with practical effects and not too much CGI. The spider's design looks much less scary than Hanus, the giant spider from Spaceman. Sting doesn't rely heavily on blood and gore, but when those moments do arrive, they're quite shocking, so audiences looking for some cool kills will be pleased and might even exclaim, "Holy shit!" during one particular kill. The pace moves briskly enough, and the film doesn't overstay its welcome at a running time of 1 hour and 31 minutes. Ultimately, Sting is scary, funny and suspenseful. It’s one of the best horror comedies films in years, and it's destined to become a cult classic.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1 Released by Well Go USA. Now on VOD.
Love Lies Bleeding