Category: Reviews

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) From Iran comes a stressful and gripping drama that can has great writing, even greater direction and superb performances by the talented actors in the cast. Writer/director Kazem Mollaie uses a tension-filled abduction story to a make a commentary on the world today. This is actually… Continue reading Austin Film Festival 2020 Review: THE BADGER

By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) We live in a sad and scary time when school shootings occur almost regularly. It seems like just when we are in the process of healing and recovering, another violent tragedy takes place. It is indicative of our inability to unite and help fight the causes… Continue reading Austin Film Festival 2020 Review: PAPER TIGER

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) A sort of spiritual relative to Can’t Hardly Wait, The Get Together focuses on a group of twenty-somethings at a house party facing scary and uncertain futures as they attempt to fully embrace their lives as true adults. Shot in and around the Austin, Texas area,… Continue reading Austin Film Festival 2020 Review: THE GET TOGETHER

By Mark Saldana Rating 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) My festival officially began with this “Marquee” opener. I have seen several movies that envision or imagine the “afterlife.’ Never before had I ever seen a film that presents the “before-life.” Written and directed by Edson Oda, Nine Days gives its audience an visionary and highly… Continue reading Austin Film Festival 2020 Review: NINE DAYS

By Mark Saldana Rating: 2.5 (Out of 4 Stars) Even though the programmers placed this film in the Comedy Vanguard category, this bloody and gory comic film could also fit in with the Dark Matters label, as the humor goes very dark, embracing gags of the gallows variety. That can be a very difficult line… Continue reading Austin Film Festival 2020 Review: MURDER BURY WIN

By Liz Lopez Rating: A+ Anne Rapp (“Tender Mercies” script supervisor, among others) directed and produced the documentary, “Horton Foote: The Road To Home,” and the world premiere was at this year’s Austin Film Festival. For anyone who is not familiar with Horton Foote, he is a Wharton, Texas born playwright and screenwriter, who also… Continue reading Austin Film Festival 2020 Review: HORTON FOOTE: THE ROAD TO HOME

By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) It has been a while since I have seen an indie art film that has blown me away like this one. I continued my virtual festival with a screener for Fugitive Dreams, a film that comes across as the love child of Andrei Tarkovsky and Jim… Continue reading Austin Film Festival 2020 Review: FUGITIVE DREAMS

By Liz Lopez Rating: B+ There have been several horror cinematic efforts to convey aspects of the Mexican culture when it comes to rituals for healing, often labeled as witchcraft by individuals who are not familiar with the culture and/or how some maladies are cured before modern medicine of the West was introduced.  Some scripts… Continue reading Sitges Film Festival Review: THE OLD WAYS