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ohstephany-29039
Reviews
Skinamarink (2022)
This should be a short movie
This movie is approximately 90 minutes too long. I'm all for an avante grade film but this heavily relied on distorted shots and bad sound mixing to replace an actual plot.
What's really confusing is there were a few truly scary moments! Hence why I think it would have been a fantastic short film.
It had about 17 endings and by that point in the movie I was checked out.
My husband and I were really excited to see this advanced screening and we're generally confused on how to rate and react to it. Obviously after a discussion we landed on not great.
I think this had definite potential but was too caught up in being artsy and different to pay attention to the important things like pacing and plot.
Fire of Love (2022)
This is the documentary I have ever seen
This is more then a movie about volcanos. It's a beautiful stunning and emotional journey about what life is. This is a beautifully put together archival story about one couples love and life. It looks at life through the lens of a scientist and does great job exploring what not only earth is made of, but life.
The imagery is beyond words and moving on its own. This documentary lets viewers see and understand the world as legendary volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft did. Did I know who they were before this film? Barely. But I know consider them important figureheads in the way we have been able to understand how not only volcanos work, but earth as well.
Watcher (2022)
Incredible psychological thriller
I'm blown away by the acting and the story in this film.
Happy to have seen this during Sundance 2022.
Just as you were pretty sure it might have been in her head, through extensive gaslighting of course, it twists. The narrative being completely from a women's perspective, through isolation and loneliness was further pushed by most of the Romanian being untranslated.
You as the viewer were just as confused and driven into the dread and anxiety the the character itself feels.
Speak No Evil (2022)
Gruesome and unnerving
This is a slow burn that ends in such an explosion of tension and awkwardness, shaded by the fear of danger.
As a very committed horror fan, the way the tension builds carried from screen to mind inducing a state of anxiety well within me.
Only a true understanding of human emotion can create something so dreadful and anxiety inducing.
Definitely recommend but probably not right before bed!
You Won't Be Alone (2022)
Transformative narrative on the matter of life's meaning
When picking out my Sundance festival lineup, this was one of my top two picks.
This film is so much more then horror. It's a deep dive into what it is to exist.
In the very beginning a mothers child is tainted by a witch, out of fear she hides her daughter into some sort of cavelike rock formation.
I found the beginning to be a metaphor for Plato's cave. Living your most impressionable years in a rock formation unable to leave, only learning from the limited scope of your world.
Eventually the witch who tainted the child returns to free her from her mothers rule.
Through various lenses, (a mother/wife, a dog, a man, a child who grows into an adult) she learns what it is to exist. What love, anger, fear, and exhaustion are. She learns of the discrimination of women and what sisterhood is. Then as a man tries to help understand the inherited misogyny.
However the film really takes off when she transforms into the child. She is able to help inhabit this child's body until early adulthood. It's then that she learns that there was always more for her then what was provided. She learns curiosity, playfulness, and the importance of family. But most of all she learns of love.
However lurking in the background of her experiences is the witch, foreboding that all of these attempts will fail.
However one's experience is not the others. We learn of a folklore tale that is actually the true story of how the witch came to be. It is full of betrayal and brutality.
The end climaxes in a standoff with the women and the witch. The witch asks how it was so easy for her (with a home, a (recently murdered by the witch) husband and a child). She doesn't answer, but the answer is clear.
She used her powers to understand life. The witch used hers for revenge and torment.
A metaphor to me of how good triumphs evil through the power of empathy and understanding.
Riotsville, U.S.A. (2022)
Welcome to Riotsville
An in depth review of the true nature of police escalation during civil unrest. All of which is remains painfully relevant even to this day.
I was able to view this during the virtual Sundance Festival.
The blatant and heavily institutionalized discrimination that exists from of birth of police is well displayed throughout this film.
It's unfortunate that this is still a problem today.
Only critique is the editing did feel a bit choppy intermixed with the quotes. Maybe could use another round of editing before wide distribution.
Master (2022)
Nuanced film on racism
I'm not sure what the other reviewer is talking about but this is an impactful film about inherited trauma and the continued racism today that you cannot escape.