#SXSW: “YOU CAN CALL ME BILL” REVIEW

By David Baldwin If I were to ask you who William Shatner is, you may have a different answer depending on when you were born. Most will always him as the original Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek, while others may just know him as the Priceline guy who appears regularly at fan conventions around the world. But who is the real William Shatner when he is not on the screen or stage in front of us? Writer/Director Alexandre O. Philippe sets-out to answer this question in his latest ... Read more

SXSW: “FREMONT” REVIEW

By David Baldwin Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) has been living in the US for 8 months. In Afghanistan, she was a translator for American troops. Now she is working in a fortune cookie factory either packaging the cookies or writing the fortunes. She is struggling to adapt to her new life in America, and has trouble coming out of her traumatized shell. So she sets out to change that. Co-Writer/Director Babak Jalali’s portrait of this young woman living in an Afghan diaspora is not going to ... Read more

SXSW: “NORTHERN COMFORT” REVIEW

By David Baldwin Sarah (Lydia Leonard) is a successful building developer in London with a well-guarded secret: she is deathly afraid of flying. To overcome her crippling fear, she joins the ‘Fearless Flyers’ course alongside other individuals suffering from Aerophobia. The final test is a trip on a real plane, which happens to coincide with the day Sarah is supposed to be going on vacation with her boyfriend and his daughter. And what should be a simple trip to Iceland becomes an ... Read more

SXSW: “TETRIS” REVIEW

By David Baldwin It is the late 1980s and Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) is looking for a hit. The Video Game Designer and salesman is hemorrhaging money, but may have found his salvation in a game called Tetris. He is not the only one who wants a piece of it though, and once he learns that the IP rights belong to the Soviet Union, Henk decides he is going to travel behind the Iron Curtain and negotiate for them himself. Did that sound convoluted? Well, there are a whole lot more ... Read more

SXSW: “PAY OR DIE” REVIEW

By David Baldwin PAY OR DIE follows the stories of three families who have a connection to Type 1 Diabetes and are struggling with the price of insulin in the United States. More specifically, it centers around Nicole Smith-Holt, her activism, and her lobbying to get a new health bill passed in Minnesota – named Alec’s Law after her late son who died from diabetes complications – that would force pharmacies and insulin makers to provide emergency supplies of insulin to diabetics in ... Read more

#SXSW: “BEEF” TRAILER

Premiering at SXSW '23 in its Film & TV program this Saturday, we get a new look at BEEF! Synopsis: BEEF follows the aftermath of a road rage incident between two strangers. Danny Cho (Steven Yeun), a failing contractor with a chip on his shoulder, goes head-to-head with Amy Lau (Ali Wong), a self-made entrepreneur with a picturesque life. The increasing stakes of their feud unravel their lives and relationships in this darkly comedic and deeply moving ... Read more

#SXSW: “THE LADY BIRD DIARIES” REVIEW

By Amanda Gilmore Award-Winning Filmmaker Dawn Porter brings us this engrossing Documentary about one of the most influential and least understood First Ladies, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson. Porter uses all-archival footage and the 123 hours of personal and revealing audio diaries that Lady Bird recorded during her husband’s administration. Through Lady Bird’s audio diaries, we get a look into many pivotal events throughout US history. That’s because LBJ’s time in ... Read more

#SXSW: “THE DADS”REVIEW

By Mr. Will Wong Luchina Fisher's THE DADS is timely and important. The 11-minute Documentary Short brings six fathers together for a fishing trip in Oklahoma, but this is far from just a dudes' getaway flick. We learn these men are actually fathers to trans and LGBTQ+ children. Together, they swap stories of their biggest fears, including one of them whose son is black and trans, worrying every day for his safety. Another is the father of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man who is 1998 ... Read more

#SXSW: “I USED TO BE FUNNY” REVIEW

By Mr. Will Wong Rachel Sennott (also at SXSW '23 with BOTTOMS) continues her ascent, giving us range in Torontonian Ally Pankiw's (The Great, Schitt's Creek) self-penned directorial feature debut, I USED TO BE FUNNY. We meet Comedian Sam (Sennott) who is beginning to carve-out her own space in Comedy, but then suffers a trauma which de-rails her aspirations. All the while, she debates whether or not to reconnect with a missing teen whom she used to nanny, Brooke (Olga Petsa). Upon ... Read more

#SXSW: “UPON ENTRY” REVIEW

By David Baldwin Diego (Alberto Ammann) and Elena (Bruna Cusí) are immigrating from Spain to the United States in the hopes of starting a new life. They have landed in Newark with all the necessary approvals and have three hours before their connecting flight leaves for Miami. That is how UPON ENTRY opens, with the remainder of its 74-minute running time composed of anxiety, confusion and an endlessly grueling interrogation after Diego and Elena are taken to a secondary inspection area ... Read more