TIFF19 REVIEW: Just Mercy [2019]

Trees swaying in the breeze. The story of Walter McMillian’s incarceration and subsequent time on death row is a powerful one with themes spanning police corruption, Southern racism, and justice itself as a means of finding truth rather than convenience. This is an innocent man with a concrete alibi sentenced to death because of coerced testimony and everyone intimately involved with the case knows. Since the victim was a white teenager and McMillian (Johnny D.) a black man caught having an affair with a white woman in the past, none…

Read More

REVIEW: SiREN [2016]

“You can’t miss a memory you’ll never remember” Adapted from the segment “Amateur Night” from anthology film V/H/S, Gregg Bishop‘s SiREN intrigued me mainly because he didn’t create the original. That’s how impactful producers felt this vignette proved, enough to spark interest for an expansion beyond its creative team. David Bruckner—the source material’s director and co-writer with Nicholas Tecosky—stayed on as an executive producer while working second unit, ultimately passing the baton to Bishop in order to focus on his own feature Southbound. In that respect this project could be…

Read More