Karren LaLonde Alenier
A good comedic film is much harder to create than a dramatic one. The distributor for Jonathan Smith, a 2004 graduate of Yale University’s Film Studies, releases Smith’s third feature film Batsh*t Bride for which he wrote the script ...
Andrew OsborneAustin,
Amazon recently announced that it will be streaming movies from this year's canceled SXSW festival free for 10 days in late April -- and while the exact dates and line-up are both unknown as of this posting, here are ...
Once Upon a Time in Uganda, The Donut King & My Darling Vivian
Andrew OsborneAustin,
Though SXSW 2020 was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, a digital sampler plate of the festival's scheduled lineup nevertheless yielded three amazing documentaries to watch out for via a screening service (or, hopefully, eventually maybe even a theater) ...
Best Films of the SXSW 2020 Narrative Feature Competition
Andrew OsborneAustin,
Full disclosure: after covering the jam-packed South-by-Southwest line-up for more than a decade, 2020 is the first and only time I've ever managed to see EVERY film in the festival's narrative feature competition because THIS ...
Andrew OsborneAustin,
True crime tales are an evergreen genre (whether in tabloid, podcast, or mini-series form) because they tap into primal human emotions, including a basic need to know whodunit, while the best ones -- a distinction which certainly applies to ...
Andrew OsborneAustin,
Depending on your political leanings and/or the culture in which you were raised, you might feel many of the world's problems are caused either by (a) Islamic fundamentalists, (b) black/Latinx gang members, and/or (c) toxic white incel (or "involuntarily ...
Andrew Osborne's annual SXSW coverage turns surreal
Andrew OsborneAustin,
South-by-Southwest (a.k.a. SXSW) began in Austin, TX as a music festival in 1987, continuously expanding in the years since to feature movies, TV, comedy, games, art, podcasting, and conferences/exhibits on everything from education and sports to politics and cutting ...
Paula Farmer
At the intersection of Noir mystery thriller and art appreciation is the film, “The Burnt Orange Heresy,” by director Giuseppe Capotondi. When an ambitious, but fallen-from-professional-grace art critic, James Figueras (Claes Bang) gets approached to steal a painting ...
Andrew OsborneAustin,
Forget the weather: everyone knows the worst parts of winter are the cinematic dregs dumped into cineplexes this time of year while the art houses are clogged with awards show leftovers from 2019. But spring is just around the ...
Paula Farmer
Real-life hero lawyer Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), and an advocate for death row inmates and others unfairly incarcerated, comes to life on the big screen in “Just Mercy.” Adapted from Stevenson’s memoir of the ...