By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) From directors Yang Sun and S. Leo Chiang comes this beautiful and heartbreaking documentary about an artist bonding with his beloved father, an elderly man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Our Time Machine gives audiences a look behind the scenes of Chinese artist Maleon’s new passion project.… Continue reading ReelAbilities Film Festival 2020: OUR TIME MACHINE
Category: Reviews
ReelAbilities Film Festival 2020: CODE OF THE FREAKS
By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) My festival coverage continues with an insightful documentary that examines Hollywood’s obsession with the disabled. Featuring candid interviews with intelligent disabled people, director Salome Chasnoff takes a good, hard look at disabled tropes in cinema, some of the various formulaic stories that are often told and… Continue reading ReelAbilities Film Festival 2020: CODE OF THE FREAKS
ReelAbilities Film Festival 2020 Review: OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE
By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) So, this is my first review after a several week break courtesy of COVID-19. To clarify, I have been most fortunate (so far) that I have not fallern ill to the utterly frightening Coronavirus that has spread like wildfire across the globe. Unfortunately, though, the quarantines… Continue reading ReelAbilities Film Festival 2020 Review: OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE
THE DOG DOC
By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) Now available via VOD and Digital platforms is an engrossing and compelling documentary about alternative veterinary medicine. Most people (myself included) have viewed healthcare for pets in rather short-sighted and limited ways. Such is not at all the case for veterinarian Dr. Martin Goldstein and his… Continue reading THE DOG DOC
NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) There are never, ever any easy answers to the questions teenage pregnancy poses, especially when such pregnancy occurs as the result of abuse. Writer/director Eliza Hittman presents this troubling dilemma to her audiences in this heartbreaking and powerful film. Hittman delivers a gut-wrenching and stressful movie… Continue reading NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
I STILL BELIEVE
By Liz Lopez Rating: B-/C+ The faith-based drama, “I Still Believe” is directed by the Erwin Brothers, Andrew and Jon, the filmmaking team behind their successful “I Can Only Imagine” (2018). “I Still Believe” is based on the real events in Contemporary Christian singer-songwriter Jeremy Camp’s life. He was inspired to write a Christian/Gospel song… Continue reading I STILL BELIEVE
THE HUNT
By Liz Lopez Rating: B+ Watching the trailer to a film may be the way someone decides to view a film or skip it as something that is not interesting to them, or they have a pre-conceived notion of what it is about, so they don’t give it a second thought. “The Hunt” is one… Continue reading THE HUNT
BLOODSHOT
By Mark Saldana Rating: 2.5 (Out of 4 Stars) Based on the Valiant Comics, Bloodshot introduces movie audiences to the character of Ray Garrison, an unwitting pawn in a race to create a team of enhanced super soldiers for mostly financial gain and power. The movie serves as a hopeful opportunity to launch another comic-inspired… Continue reading BLOODSHOT
THE TRAITOR
By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) Most American cinephiles have seen plenty of Italian gangster/organized crime films based mostly in the United States. Italy’s The Traitor gives these audiences a more complete glimpse of the other side of that coin. Based on the real story of Tommaso Buscetta, the film serves as… Continue reading THE TRAITOR
WENDY
By Liz Lopez Rating: B- Benh Zeitlin’s follow-up to ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ (eight years later), is “Wendy” where a young elementary school aged girl, Wendy (played by Tommie Milazzo at age three and by Devin France at 10), has watched her single mother Angela (Shay Walker), toil away at the local diner by… Continue reading WENDY