There exists no alternative in critiquing James Steven Sadwith’s Coming Through the Rye without first discussing the novel which both its title and story derives from. Personally speaking, I never finished reading The Catcher in the Rye. Despite the national uproar that the novel stirred by its addition to school curriculums in the United States,…
The lyrical lad of film-making, in the form of Irish writer-director John Carney (who gave us the wonderfully musical drama in 2007’s “Once”), is at it again as he brings the continued inspiration of music and motivation in the engagingly festive coming-of-age musical melodrama Sing Street. Carney, the former member of the Irish rock group…
Jason Bateman seems a pretty likable guy, despite his penchant for sharp, sarcastic characters. Gone are the days of the sweet, nurturing, unassuming hero; we as a society are deeply entrenched in the era of the sarcastic everyman — the guy who doesn’t simply turn the other cheek. This is the guy who reminds you…
The unimaginable horror of school shootings has been the subject of several searing cinematic works to date, so anytime a filmmaker steps into the terrifying fray, it seems imperative that they’re aware of what others have done before them. Tim McCann’s White Rabbit appears to begin rather naively in that respect. As the young director…
The Girl on the Roof, Skeet Ulrich’s directorial debut, is perhaps better when viewed as such than as a short film overall. Telling the dark story of a young girl, Lila (Naiia Ulrich), who receives only negative attention from bullies at school and hardly any attention from her family at home, which consists of a…
The social and psychological effects of bullying are graphically observed in Emir Baigazin’s remarkable first feature Harmony Lessons. Honored at Tribeca and Seattle, the Kazakh-German co-feature also won a Silver Bear for best artistic contribution at the Berlinale, honoring the cinematography of Aziz Zhambakiyev who brilliantly captures the stark beauty of the desolate Kazakhstan landscape….
In this world of commercialistic glitz and glamor, it’s hard to come across a truly riveting story these days. But in Disconnect, viewers get just that, and it happens (surprisingly) to revolve around a social criticism of the crazily convoluted, always plugged-in world we live in. The film begins with a glimpse into the life…
