SIFF 2025: 'She's The He' Capsule Review

To get close to a crush, seniors Alex (Nico Carney) and Ethan (Misha Osherovich) pretend to be trans, a dicey proposition for sure. Here’s the twist, for one of them, she’s never felt so comfortable, so herself. Realizing she is in fact trans, the movie follows the fallout from that revelation. 

'My Old Ass' (2024) Movie Review

If you could go back in time and offer advice to your younger self, what would you say? What wisdom would you impart? Invest in a particular stock early? Follow a certain career path? Maybe don’t eat that burrito you left sitting out overnight that one time? That’s the basic concept of My Old Ass, a gentle, moving, light sci-fi coming of age story from writer/director Megan Park (The Fallout). This feels like one of those movies that has the potential to become a generational touchstone. It’s lovely and earnest, deeply emotional, and achingly bittersweet in poignant ways.

'Bookworm' (2024) Movie Review

Do people still like movies where Elijah Wood walks around the New Zealand wilderness? Because there’s a great deal of that in Bookworm, the latest directorial effort from Ant Timpson (Come to Daddy). It may not be quite as epic as the Lord of the Rings movies, but it’s impossible for that landscape to not look incredible, and there’s plenty of adventure on this sweet, earnest journey of reconciliation between a long-estranged father and daughter, a journey that also happens to be something of a cryptid hunt.

'Chainsaws Were Singing' (2024) Movie Review

When you hear about a DIY Estonian horror-musical that took the filmmaker (Sander Maran served as director, writer, editor, cinematographer, songwriter, and probably more roles) a decade to make, you can’t help but be curious. And Chainsaws Were Singing is all of that and so, so much more. This is a bizarre, wild time that goes way, way out in the wilderness and is something fans of movies like Cannibals: The Musical and Hundreds of Beavers need to check out.

'Boy Kills World' (2024) Movie Review

You know the story well. In a dystopian world, the despotic siblings who rule with an iron fist murder a family who opposes them. The only survivor, a young boy, left deaf and mute by the experience, trains his entire life with a very stoned shaman for a mission of revenge with only the mental incarnation of his dead sister and his internal monologue, the voice of his favorite childhood video game, for company. Yeah, that old yarn, right?  And thus, we have Boy Kills World. 

SIFF 2023: 'Egghead & Twinkie' Capsule Review

Well, Egghead & Twinkie is freaking adorable. In Sarah Kambe Holland’s twee, lo-fi indie comedy, when trans-racial adoptee Twinkie comes out to her conservative parents it doesn’t go great. She sets out on a cross-country adventure with her nerdy bff Egghead to meet her online DJ crush.

'Polite Society' (2023) Movie Review

Young martial artist Ria (Priya Kansara) wants to be a professional stunt performer. Her older sister, Lena (Ritu Arya), has dreams of being an artist, though she’s dropped out of art school. Problem is, their Pakistani immigrant parents, while indulgent of the whims of their children, have aims of their own. When the directionless Lena agrees to an arranged marriage to too-good-to-be-true doctor Salim (Akshay Khanna) and his family who may or may not have a nefarious endgame—Ria has an overactive imagination and is prone to flights of wild fancy, so who’s to say what’s real—it’s up to the younger sister to save the day. Or maybe just ruin the Big Day.

The BoneBat Comedy Of Horrors Film Festival Is Almost A Damn Teenager!

This is the place where I was going to make a crack about how it’s spring and of course what we really want to do is spend a beautiful weekend day sitting in the dark watching horror movies with a bunch of like-minded weirdos. But the weather in Seattle has been utter trash, so you don’t have anything better to do than attend the BoneBat Comedy of Horrors Film Festival.

'She Came From The Woods' (2023) Movie Review

Ah, summer camp, where generations of teens have gone to learn outdoor skills, fall in love, lose their virginity, and subsequently be murdered by either psychotic killers or supernatural forces beyond their control. Or, in the case of Erik Bloomquist’s horror-comedy, She Came from the Woods, both. 

'Mad Cats' (2023) Movie Review

A lazy, layabout slacker, a missing brother, and a pack of anthropomorphized cats bent on executing sketchy pet shop owners. That’s the basic premise of writer/director Reiki Tsuno’s Mad Cats. This inherently strange tale mixes banger martial arts throwdowns, kinetic gun play, a weirdo mystery, and “forbidden catnip from ancient times.” The result is chaotic and odd, with an off-kilter approach that balances comedy, melodrama, action, and ambition.

The Bone Bat Comedy Of Horrors Film Festival Returns For 2022, Weird And Wild As Ever

Well, it’s that time of year again in Seattle. Spring is in full swing, the weather’s getting better, so what other decision is there than to spend a (potentially) gorgeous day inside in a dark-ass movie theater watching horror movies? If that sounds like a damn fine time, the Bone Bat Comedy of Horrors film festival is back for their first in-person gathering since, you know, the world came to a screeching halt…for some reason that escapes me at the moment. (Just kidding, it was a global plague.)

'Licorice Pizza' (2021) Movie Review

As a whole, I’m not entirely certain what Licorice Pizza, the new 70s-set coming-of-age film from Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread), amounts to. Pieces are absolutely magical, full of joy and whimsy. Others…are a bit more problematic, at best; downright cringe-inducing at worst. It watches like a movie where the filmmaker has zero checks and balances, able to indulge any and every flight of fancy with no oversight. Which is both a good and bad thing by turns. This freedom allows PTA to indulge himself; the flipside of that is, of course, overindulgence. 

'The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent' Trailer: Nicolas Cage Plays Nicolas Cage In Most Nicolas Cage Movie Ever

Are you ready for the most Nicolas Cage movie that Nicolas Cage ever Nicolas Cage-d? If that sentence seems awesome instead of like gibberish, you may be ready for the first trailer for The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

'Lady Of The Manor' (2021) Movie Review

After being branded a sex offender, stoner slacker Hannah (Melanie Lynskey) gets a job as a live-in tour guide at a historical southern estate. One that happens to be haunted by the ghost of the home’s original inhabitant, the prim, proper Lady Wadsworth (Judy Greer). The two women, one living, one dead, become unlikely pals. Such is the premise of Lady of the Manor, the feature directorial debut from prolific actor and former Apple spokesperson Justin Long, who costars, and his brother, Christian Long. If that sounds funny, don’t worry, it isn’t.

Fantasia 2021: 'Sweetie, You Won't Believe It' Movie Review

Three friends, a van full of inflatable sex dolls, and a fishing trip gone very, very wrong. What about a quartet of inept killers and a mysterious one-eyed man with a brutal vendetta? All wrapped in a bloody, violent, patently ridiculous, near-slapstick package? If that sounds like a fine time, add Yernar Nurgaliyev’s Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It to your mist-see list. 

'Werewolves Within' (2021) Movie Review

Don’t you hate it when you move to a small town for work and it turns out there are werewolves on the loose? Yeah, that sucks. Unless you’re watching Werewolves Within, the latest from director Josh Ruben (Scare Me). An adaptation of a video game I’ve never heard of, Ruben and writer Mishna Wolff mix scares and laughs in a way that many attempts to do so fail to achieve. Playing like a horror whodunnit, the result is something akin to a lycanthrope take on Clue or Agatha Christie with monsters. (Literal monsters, not the metaphorical human variety, though the film has plenty of those as well.) It’s one of the most fun, entertaining movies to come out this year, and easily a top-tier video game movie.

'The Paper Tigers' (2020) Movie Review

I’ve been tracking the progress of writer/director Bao Tran’s The Paper Tigers for a while now. There weirdly aren’t many indie Kung Fu movies produced in Seattle, so when one does happen, you’re damn right it has my attention. After a long journey, the film finally premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival over the weekend, and doesn’t disappoint when it comes to delivering humor, heart, and face-kicking.

'We Broke Up' (2021) Movie Review

There’s that messy moment at the end of a long-term relationship, after you break up but before you tell people. You kiss, cry, fight, fuck, fight more. That’s the moment We Broke Up, a new romantic comedy from writer/director Jeff Rosenberg and co-writer Laura Jacqmin, focuses on. The result is a charming, if slight entry into the rom-com fray.

'The Paper Tigers' Trailer Delivers Humor, Heart, And Face Kicking

A Seattle-produced martial arts movie? You have my attention. A Seattle-produced martial arts movie about dudes who are old and out of shape and not very good at martial arts anymore? Yeah, that’s the sweet spot right there. Such is the case of Tran Quoc Bao’s The Paper Tigers. After a festival run last year, Well Go USA is set to give the film a proper release and they released this new trailer to pump up the excitement.

'Freaky' (2020) Movie Review

For his last two movies, Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U, director Christopher Landon took a Groundhog-Day-but-horror approach. With his latest, Freaky, he uses the well-worn Freaky Friday body swap conceit but gives it a slasher spin. Instead of a mother and daughter changing places, a teen girl and vicious serial killer flip flop bodies and lives. While the resulting film isn’t always 100% successful—the plot is easily predictable and once the concept becomes apparent early on and  contains zero surprises—it’s an effective, screwdriver-stabbing, corpse-sawing good time.