REVIEW: Let Him Go [2020]

I’m sharing it now. With three generations of Blackledge men at the center of Thomas Bezucha‘s Let Him Go (adapted from Larry Watson‘s novel) come three potential readings for the title. Is Margaret (Diane Lane) letting go of the memory of her late son James? Is she letting go of the hope she has to bring her grandson Jimmy back from the clutches of her widowed daughter-in-law’s (Kayli Carter‘s Lorna) abusive new husband Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain)? Or is she meant to accept the fact that her husband (Kevin Costner‘s…

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REVIEW: Clementine [2020]

Don’t do anything stupid. We’re introduced to Karen (Otmara Marrero) in bed as her older girlfriend D. (Sonya Walger) wakes her. While the former wants to sleep in, the latter seeks inspiration for a new canvas and wants her prized possession to be a willing participant towards that need. This is why D. tells her lover that her youth scares her by ruminating aloud about how Karen will inevitably break her heart. Rather than say it out of belief, however, she speaks those words to sink her claws in deeper.…

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FANTASIA17 REVIEW: The Honor Farm [2017]

“Make a choice” If Karen Skloss‘ feature narrative debut The Honor Farm possesses anything it’s an abundance of style. This is a gorgeously shot prom night turned mushroom trip romp of millennial excess caught in the throes of dream. We meet Lucy (Olivia Grace Applegate) walking through the woods in her dress—trees covered in toilet paper and forests of white light and ribbons manifesting a border between danger and safety. The evil (assumedly) arrives in the form of a person adorned by a stag’s head (the eyes blink); her salvation…

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REVIEW: A Teacher [2013]

“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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