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Sundance Film Festival: ‘Peter Hujar’s Day’ is a Surprisingly Interesting Dramatization of a Rather Banal Conversation

©Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival. In 1974, photographer Peter Hujar sat down with his friend, writer Linda Rosenkrantz, to tell her everything he did the day before, part of a planned book by Rosenkrantz speaking with all her well-connected friends about their daily lives. The book didn’t end up happening and apparently the tape of…

Sundance Film Festival: ‘LUZ’ is a Visually Hypnotic Tale About Our Disconnected World

©Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival Twelve years after her first-feature film bends, the director Flora Lau brought at the Sundance Film Festival – World Cinema Dramatic Competition – LUZ, another psychological drama set in Chongqing and Paris. The main story follows two completely different people: Wei (Xiadong Guo) is trying to reconnect with the daughter…

Sundance Film Festival: ‘The Perfect Neighbor’ Recounts the Consequences of Self-Defense Legislation

©Sundance Film Festival Police procedurals have long garnered attention and intrigue among audiences for the extreme measures characters take to protect the way of existence they have grown accustomed to – or feel entitled to – in their lives. The new documentary, The Perfect Neighbor explores the extreme measures some people, including Marion County resident…

2025 Sundance Recap Pt 1: ‘Atropia,’ ‘André is an Idiot,’ ‘Ricky,’ ‘East of Wall,’ ’Train Dreams’

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival will be wrapping up this weekend, although for those of us covering it virtually, we’ve gotten a bit of a late start. There have been quite a few themes with the movies at this year’s festival, including many films written and directed by actors starring in their own films, as…

Sundance Film Festival: ‘The Dating Game’ is an Amusing Look at Romance in China That’s Best When It Gets Serious

It’s not always easy to find a partner, but there can be exacerbating circumstances that make it even more difficult. As a result of China’s one child’s policy, which was ended a decade ago, there are 30 million more men than women. Those odds aren’t great even for the most socially well-adjusted individuals with unlimited…

“Dog Man” : Dav Pilkey Offers Amusing, Low-Stress Entertainment!

©Courtesy of Universal Pictures  The catalyst for this comic book character’s conception was sort of like The Breakfast Club. Technically, he was created by author-illustrator Dav (No “E”) Pilkey, through his fictional school children, George Beard and Harold Hutchins, who dreamed up the crime-fighting canine while serving detention together. (The creative duo also supposedly “invented”…

Sundance Film Festival: ‘Plainclothes’ / Tom Blyth Explodes Inside the Character’s Mind & Soul

@Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Ethan Palme The ‘90 have been most likely one of the most controversial decades for gay rights in the United States. The optimism and liberalism of the Bill Clinton presidency clashed in many ways with the homophobia still reigning in many parts of the United States, especially far…

Sundance Film Festival: ‘The Alabama Solution’ is a Vital, Urgent Call for Prison Reform in a Very Broken System

Conditions within prison facilities aren’t known to be great, and they’re not invitations that many in positions of power believe to be most deserving of resources. Some argue that criminal offenders need to be kept in line and shouldn’t be treated with kindness, and therefore their needs should be at the bottom of any priority…

Sundance Film Festival: ‘Touch Me’ is a Weird, Appealing Story of Cross-Species Attraction

©Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival There are plenty of theories about the existence of extraterrestrial life, and theatrical first contact experiences like the one depicted in Star Trek are hardly the only way in which humanity could become aware of them. Touch Me offers a truly unique method of undeniable confirmation for one human that…

Steven Soderbergh’s Presence Video Review by Matthew Schuchman

©Courtesy of Neon Matthew Schuchman : In the early 90s, while at the video store with his friends who wanted to rent Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead, Matthew asked the clerk if they had any copies of Naked Lunch available. A film buff from an early age, he would turn his fascination into his…

Sundance Film Festival: ‘Omaha’ is a Heartbreaking Family Portrait with Terrific Performances

It’s hard for many people to imagine what it really means to be out of options. There are so many things that would have to go wrong and fall apart for those who live in relative affluence to lose their homes and be forced to live either on the street or out of their cars….