REVIEW: Dinner in America [2022]

You better tame that tone. Born from the decision to combine two sketches written in the aughts that weren’t quite working on their own, filmed in 2018 (stewarded with the help of Danny Leiner, who passed during production), and debuted in 2020 at Sundance, writer/director Adam Rehmeier would be forgiven for just being happy Dinner in America is finally hitting the public. The result is more than the culmination of a lengthy artistic gestation, though, because its content, humor, and heart all merge to deliver a piece with the potential…

Read More

REVIEW: The Year of Spectacular Men [2018]

My path is a squiggle. The time has come to see the “manic pixie dream girl” trope from the other side. We’ve viewed countless depictions of attractively quirky women serving as plot points pushing their male lead counterparts over whatever hump they find themselves struggling to conquer, each a one-dimensional prop used before being discarded or thanked upon figuring out the solution. We don’t catch even a glimpse of their motivations, emotions, or psychology because their identities are non-existent. Whether they remain in the protagonist’s life or not is inconsequential…

Read More

BNFF10 PREVIEW: The 4th Annual Buffalo Niagara Film Festival

Year four is here for the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival taking place at both Dipson’s Market Arcade Centre downtown and the Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda. I’ve attended the past two entries and have been impressed by the quality of films and improvements made. 2009 saw the world premiere of Steve Coogan and Hillary Duff’s What Goes Up, a sub-par movie with only lackluster guests in attendance, but a cool event to be a part of anyway. To date, 2008’s The Cake Eaters and last year’s Boppin’ at the Glue…

Read More