Month: May 2023

This film reimagines the Mary and Joseph story with some nice supernatural and twenty-first-century twists. We first meet Maria, an innocent teen in Belize who inexplicably finds herself pregnant. A menacing stranger arrives to kill her, but she escapes after he slays her friends and family. The stranger tells people he is Baal, a biblical… Continue reading SXSW 2023: HAIL MARY

We pick up our story two years after the first film, Becky, left off. Now an orphan, sixteen-year-old Becky lives with an elderly black woman who took her in. She works at a diner, and no one wonders why she’s not in school. Becky seems to be doing okay until she encounters rude jerks at… Continue reading SXSW 2023: THE WRATH OF BECKY

The film starts with the interview of a presumed pedophile by Deena and Amos, two government agents. Their subject, Gareth, has worked worldwide for various computer and CGI companies. The agents believe he has something to do with a child porn site of a young girl named Cherry; they think he knows where the girl… Continue reading SXSW 2023: THE ARTIFICE GIRL

This film gives a new slant to horror films, with a Hindu back story. Sam (Megan Suri) is a modern American teen of Hindu descent. At the same time, her mom is a housewife who wears beautiful saris, cooks excellent ethnic dishes (that Sam barely eats), and clings to her religion and old superstitions. In… Continue reading SXSW 2023: IT LIVES INSIDE

Diego and Elena, an unmarried couple from Spain, arrive at the Newark airport hoping to see Diego’s brother before their connecting flight to Miami. Instead, they are pulled from some tense questioning at the customs and immigration counter and made to wait hours for additional screening. They are put through more tough interviews, first from… Continue reading SXSW 2023: UPON ENTRY

Native American teen Roki lives with her mother and aunt Jax. They get along by questionable means and think nothing of shoplifting to “save money.” Roki’s mom has been missing for two weeks, and Jax is angry that the police have made no real effort to locate her. Jax, a lesbian, had previous drug trouble… Continue reading SXSW 2023: FANCY DANCE

Rita is devoted to volunteering long hours to keep her church clean and beautiful. She and a small group in her Argentinian town are competitive in their efforts, but Rita is more competitive than the others. She is an outcast in the group, while the other three women are not as diligent and look down… Continue reading SXSW 2023: CHRONICLES OF A WANDERING SAINT

Our hero Ilyas is a thirteen-year-old Pakistani-American boy living in the U.S. who attends a private Islamic school where he stands out, much to his embarrassment. He is growing a very visible mustache that his parents won’t let him shave, and he is the brunt of many jokes and teasing at school. The boys and… Continue reading SXSW 2023: MUSTACHE

Benny is an eleven-year-old Navajo “city boy” spending the summer at his grandmother’s Arizona sheep ranch. While his parents are going through marital difficulties, Benny’s primary concern is attending the Fleetwood Mac concert he was promised. His dad thinks he is too soft and feels that the ranch will “make a man” of him. His… Continue reading SXSW 2023: FRYBREAD FACE AND ME

You might not see the twist coming in the documentary film Citizen Sleuth because I didn’t. It’s a seemingly simple story of a young podcaster in West Virginia digging into a local death that occurred some years earlier. A young attractive Black woman was killed along a stretch of highway near mile marker 181. Although… Continue reading SXSW 2023: CITIZEN SLEUTH