Author: Mark Saldana

By Jan Hamilton This Australian film starts off slowly with two middle-aged, bearded brothers biking down country roads in the pre-dawn hours toward their childhood home.  They are disguised and make sure no one sees them.  Their plan, which soon becomes apparent, is to murder their step-father, so that he doesn’t inherit the family farm… Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: BROTHERS’ NEST

By Jan Hamilton In an enjoyable, but somewhat predictable thriller, a hit man, Roy Cady (Ben Foster), is sent by his boss (Beau Bridges) to dispatch an attorney.  However, Roy and his partner are jumped by a second hit squad at the attorney’s home.  Roy is able to escape with a teen prostitute named Rocky… Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: GALVESTON

By Jan Hamilton When the audience first meets Richie Wincott (Tye Sheridan), he has just turned eighteen and has aged out of his residence with Child Protective Services.  His is not interested in any further education and doesn’t even have a GED.  When one first sees him, the first thought is, “This is where the… Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: FRIDAY’S CHILD

By Jan Hamilton The audience first sees Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) as she awakes from a nightmare.  In her dream, she is in the middle of an earthquake, with water rising around her bed.  Awake, she realizes it was no dream and she is the one causing the earthquake.  Now on the run, the only place… Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: FAST COLOR

By Jan Hamilton In a slow-moving, but satisfying film, Armie Hammer plays James Lord, an American who visits Paris in 1964.  He is friends with artist Alberto Giacometti (Geoffrey Rush) and agrees to sit for a portrait, although due to leave for the States within days.  Alberto has told him the painting will only take… Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: FINAL PORTRAIT

By  Jan Hamilton On their first anniversary, Jackie (Hannah Emily Anderson) and Jules (Brittany Allen), an attractive female couple, visits Jackie’s childhood home.  The place is a beautiful old house on a wooded lakeside with the the only other house across the lake.  Therefore, Jackie and Jules have total privacy.  As Jules sees it for… Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: WHAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE