Robert Sodmak
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SXSW Review: Grappling with ‘The Truth vs. Alex Jones’

There are few public personalities alive today who seem to relish being despised as much as Alex Jones. The longtime host of InfoWars, a news program that wholeheartedly embraces fringe conspiracy theories as irrefutable truth, believes that he is doing the public a great service by sharing all the things he believes to be wrong…

‘Tendaberry’: A Gritty Drama Celebrates Resilience and Survival

Directed by emerging filmmaker Haley Elizabeth Anderson and starring Kota Johan in her feature-film debut, Tendaberry is a gritty but touching drama about a young woman’s determination to survive and thrive amidst hostile surroundings. It is impossible not to like Dakota, the twentysomething woman at the heart of this captivating coming-of-age narrative about a life…

SXSW Review – The Scary Truth of ‘How to Build a Truth Engine’

It’s hard to know what’s true anymore. Universal access to information has not always been the gift it should have been, since it’s possible for an image or video that’s either entirely false or simply miscaptioned to reach millions of eyes and ears in a matter of seconds before any correction can be made. Perhaps…

SXSW Review – Grand Jury Prize Winner ‘Bob Trevino Likes It’

Not everyone is meant to be a parent. Children, on the other hand, don’t have any choice in the matter, and there can be very toxic relationships and dynamics that develop when a parent makes their child feel as if they owe them something for all they had to give up in order to raise…

Lois Patiño’s ‘Samsara’: a Mindful Meditation on Life and Death

Debuting this week as part of the New Look showcase at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image, Samsara is an impressive new film by Spanish director Lois Patiño. As I watched it, I could not help but think of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “Crossing the Bar” with its depiction of death as a passage…

SXSW Review – Finding Love in ‘A Nice Indian Boy’

Who doesn’t want to find the perfect person to spend their life with and have a dream wedding? That desire can be complicated by factors like family and cultural traditions, which may not, for instance, be nearly as accepting of two men getting married as they are of a groom kissing his bride. A Nice…

SXSW Review – ‘Backspot’ Shows the Side Effects of Success

The world of competitive sports is filled with extremely motivated people and a great deal of pressure to succeed. Those two elements can combine to create a toxic, unhealthy environment in which the safety and mental well-being of athletes is not adequately considered and monitored. Playing sports while in high school can increase that tension…

‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’ Satirizes Racist Tropes

Kobi Libii’s feature directorial debut, The American Society of Magical Negroes, takes a light-hearted, satirical look at a cultural phenomenon that has recently been denigrated by filmmakers like Spike Lee, among others. The term itself refers to a cinematic or literary trope governing the strategic inclusion of Black characters in American cinematic or literary works….

‘Knit’s Island,’ Cinema And Video Games Become One And Clash

This film comes to life out of a fascinating artistic exercise that three directors have set themselves. Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse and Quentin L’helgoualc’h have discovered that there is an internet community where you simulate a survivalist fiction. Thus, they decided to use the animated technique to show how a film crew enters this place,…

‘Little Girl Blue,’ A Docudrama Becomes A Journey Of Healing

The film directed by Mona Achache is a love letter to her mother and a tribute to her intellectual lineage that includes the likes of Henri Bergson and Marcel Proust, although they are not mentioned here. Little Girl Blue was presented at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in the Special Screenings section and was well…

SXSW Review – ‘The Hobby’ Celebrates Board Games

Games are fun to play, but not everyone approaches them with the same mindset. What can be a mandatory family activity or a great way to relax for some can be the most serious of activities for those who devote extraordinary amounts of time to learning rules and honing their skills in board game play….