Tag: Lindsay Burdge

REVIEW: Materna [2021]

Jared Mobarak

You don’t get to decide. Four women connected by an incident on the New York City subway … that’s the pitch courtesy of the synopsis for David Gutnik‘s Materna. Rather than make this “psychological portrait” of their reaction to said experience, however, he and co-writers Assol Abdullina and Jade Eshete flip things upside down to express the emotional struggles these women face en route to that fateful convergence. How have their choices led them to that train car and how will they shape their actions once the powder-keg that is…

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REVIEW: XX [2017]

Jared Mobarak

“Well I have to eat. Don’t I?” The concept is simple: task four female directors to create and film four unrelated shorts in the horror vein—with female-led casts—to be combined into a single compilation in which to show off the talents and voices of artists Hollywood continues to ignore. Tap newcomer Jovanka Vuckovic (whose “The Box” is based on a story by Jack Ketchum), musician Annie ‘St. Vincent’ Clark with her debut behind the camera (“The Birthday Party”), the veteran leadership of V/H/S producer and Southbound helmer Roxanne Benjamin (with…

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REVIEW: The Invitation [2016]

Jared Mobarak

“I’ve been waiting to die since the moment it happened” Death plays a large role in our lives, mortality seemingly out of reach but never forgotten. For some it knocks early—or at least earlier than we’d hope to believe. Disease, accident, and fate remind us how precious our time on Earth is. We grieve, pray, repress, and overcome, the inevitable sorrow bringing as much strength to move on as agony to stop everything. And nothing is more heartbreaking or painful than the passing of a child taken too soon and…

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REVIEW: A Teacher [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“Im trying to tell you something” While we must assume the how of high school English teacher Diana Watts (Lindsay Burdge) and senior Eric Tull’s (Will Brittain) union, it isn’t hard to understand the why. For him lies that carnal fantasy of seducing a mature woman with authority and subverting that dynamic by wresting control of not only the relationship but her professional career too. And for her lies the escape from a reality of familial hardship she ran away from to Austin four years prior. Watching her clam up…

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