Category: Festivals

By Jan Hamilton  Two teen girls, Jessie and Angela (Camila Morrone and Mala Mitchel), live with Jessie’s slightly older brother and his roommate after the two girls dropped out of high school.  They both work at a restaurant, like to party and take the occasional recreational drug, and are in love with each other.  Jessie… Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: NEVER GOIN’ BACK

By Jan Hamilton  Joy is a lovely Asian-American girl who works with her nice boyfriend on a kids TV show.  Her problem is that she is a sex-addict, often getting drunk and having sex she doesn’t even remember the next day.  After much patience, her boyfriend throws her out, and she loses her job because… Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: UNLOVABLE

By Jan Hamilton  A priest goes door-to-door in a low income (mostly SSI recipients), Oklahoma trailer park, listening to the inhabitants’ stories. They don’t exhibit a great deal of self-pity, but it seems that poverty and circumstance have set them upfor failure since birth. The priest also goes to a near-by prison to visit inmates,… Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: THY KINGDOM COME

By Jan Hamilton As grandma (June Squibb) lies dying in her hospital room, her relatives each have a private moment with her, and she devastates each of them with little nuggets of truth that she has saved for this time.  She then dies and leaves the whole family in turmoil,  each with his own new problem. … Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: SUMMER ’03

By Jan Hamilton  As the film opens, Elliot (Jeremy Allen White), a 23 year old Brooklyn man, parties and randomly beds various females.  He doesn’t seem to have a care. Later in the subway he approaches Mia, (Maika Monroe), a nice looking young blonde woman who is listening to a pod cast.  He reminds her… Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: SHOTGUN

By Jan Hamilton The title might translate to : Contact me when you are a grown up decent human being.  Ruth Duffy (Rachel Keller) and Jonny Collins (Finn Wittrock) were high school sweethearts who gave up their baby and went their separate ways years ago. Ruth has done okay for herself, as an assistant at a… Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: WRITE WHEN YOU GET WORK

By Jan Hamilton As the story begins, a young black South African, Randall (Irshaad Ally) has just had to use a loan shark to purchase a supply of drugs he and his partner hope to sell and make a bunch of cash. The loan shark,  Emmie, (Danny Ross) is known to be treacherous and deadly.  We… Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: NUMBER 37

By Jan Hamilton Sadie (Sophia Mitri Schloss) seems like a normal kid, she lives in a trailer park with her mom, a nurse, while her dad is overseas in the army.  He writes to her every two weeks, but we learn he hasn’t communicated with the mom, Rae, (Melanie Lynskey) in three years. Sadie thinks everything… Continue reading SXSW 2018 Review: SADIE