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Director Laurel Parmet’s debut feature film, The Starling Girl, premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival (I saw it at SXSW 2023 and just reviewed it for its May 12 release), where it secured distribution from Bleecker Street Media. It follows the story of Jem Starling, a young woman on the cusp of adulthood who lives in a patriarchal religious community in Kentucky. Despite her strict upbringing, she has a rebellious streak that comes to the fore when she develops feelings for the twentysomething…

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INFINITY POOL hammertonail.com

BRAVO, BURKINA! hammertonail.com

GODLAND hammertonail.com

A Conversation with Helen Hood Scheer & Kristy Guevara-Flanagan hammertonail.com

KOKOMO CITY/THE STROLL hammertonail.com

MUTT hammertonail.com

PAST LIVES hammertonail.com

BEYOND UTOPIA hammertonail.com

Lists

CANNES 2022 RANKED 26 films

Jack Schenker's ranking of all the films he saw at Cannes 2022.

JACK SCHENKER'S TOP 25 OF THE 2010s 25 films

Honorable mentions: INCEPTION, LA LA Land, UNDER THE SHADOW, LADY BIRD, MOONLIGHT, BEASTS OF NO NATION, INCENDIES, DRIVE, THE GIRL…

HAMMER TO NAIL'S 20 FAVORITE FILMS OF 2021 20 films

HtN’s 20 Most Anticipated Films for Sundance 2022 20 films

CHRISTOPHER LLEWELLYN REED BEST FILMS OF 2021 10 films

MORE TOP 10s

BEARS REBECCA FONTE's TOP 10 OF 2021 10 films

MORE TOP 10s

Liked lists

2010S RANKED

jack Schenker 25 films 5 9

Recent reviews

Director Laura Poitras’ searing 2022 documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed told the story of how artist Nan Goldin has made it her mission to confront the Sackler family over its role in the nation’s opioid crisis. Their company, Purdue Pharma, manufactured—and, even more egregiously, aggressively marketed—the “blockbuster drug” (as they called it) OxyContin. Given the vast number of people affected by the ravages of addiction, there are clearly many more narratives out there, each one worthy of our…

Religion can be a vital force for good in the world, inspiring the faithful to tremendous acts of service. It can also be divisive, leading adherents of a particular sect to believe they are more anointed by the divine than others. Frequently, religion is used as a tool for power, as well, working hand in hand with government to promote an ideology favorable to the established order.

– Christopher Llewellyn Reed (@ChrisReedFilm)

READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

Continuing the searing, cinematic examination of sexual assault that she began with her 2018 feature documentary Roll Red Roll, director Nancy Schwartzman now trains her lens on the way that the police all too often incarcerate victims, rather than perpetrators. You would be forgiven for scratching your head in disbelief at that last phrase, but in Victim/Suspect, the unthinkable happens with alarming frequency. When faced with the prospect of doing their jobs the hard way through rigorous investigation or choosing…

Growing older is never easy, especially if one is filled with sorrow over things undone, or not yet done. Women can have it harder than men if they want children. There’s nothing wrong with deciding not to procreate, but sometimes an unexpected event, or encounter, can suddenly flip the script on choices previously made. That’s when regret rears its unpleasant head.

– Christopher Llewellyn Reed (@ChrisReedFilm)

READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE

Liked reviews

remarkable in never losing its balance of wall-to-wall laughs and battery acidity, remarkably perceptive and genuinely lived-in in its suburban malaise ("Lady Bird through the lenses of Krisha and Funny Pages" if you need an A24-centric elevator pitch), with a perfect cast and boundless inner and outer empathy. can't wait to watch what Alex Heller does next. also a joy to watch pals excel at their crafts here; absolute delight to watch Harrison Atkins' razorwire editing rhythms applied to a full-on comedy (with my dude Creston on the assist), and you know I'm going Point Mode when I see/hear David, Izzy, Luke & Katy

Channing Tatum is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors. I expected this one to be just a good old time w a good old doggo....but no this was a tear-jerker....a good one at that. It has its comedic moments, but honestly, those are the weakest/most predictable/cliche. Its the darker side of this film that rly interested me. It puts a smile on your face for most of the run time, hinting at something darker, when it reaches that emotional…

Sundance 2022: Film #15

During the height of quarantine in 2020, there were quite a few micro budget films that got widespread attention due to a lack of blockbusters saturating the market. The best of those was a film called “Shithouse” by a 23 year old (my age) director named Cooper Raiff. When it was released, I had just graduated university, but because of when the pandemic hit, I felt like I never got closure and had a difficult time…

This was soo good. This is not a horror movie, however, only a couple of films have given me the creeps like this one did. In every sequence, it's hard to put your finger on but there's just something off about it. You can't figure out what it is and it just eats at u. It's all in the brilliant atmosphere that is created through set design, sound design, cinematography, and performance. All of these things build an atmosphere more…