Author: Jan Hamilton

Louise is a screw-up. She drinks too much and stalks her ex-boyfriend, who has moved on to a new relationship. While trying to climb to a window to see his new apartment, Louise slips, falls to the sidewalk, and breaks her hip. In the hospital, she is roommates with Antonia, an older Polish woman who… Continue reading SXSW 2023: LATE BLOOMERS

Two astronauts are on a mission stretched to three years because they have lost their navigation and communication systems. Adam and Jane can be relatively self-sufficient, with hens that provide eggs, a goat for milk, and a sustainable garden. Adam is sad because he is down to his last few pop-tarts. They get along well,… Continue reading SXSW 2023: IF YOU WERE THE LAST

When you hear the film’s premise, you might assume, “lecherous youth pastor seduces innocent teen,” but that’s not quite the case here. Seventeen-year-old Jem Starling has had a crush on a youth pastor named Owen for a while. He and his wife have just returned from a mission to Puerto Rico that lasted a year,… Continue reading SXSW 2023: THE STARLING GIRL

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