SIFF 2025: 'Know Her Name' Movie Review

All-too-often people seem to believe there were no, or at least vanishingly few female filmmakers throughout the history of the medium. If Zainab Muse’s Know Her Name has anything to do with it, that won’t last much longer. Her documentary dives into the deep, rich, and integral, not to mention frequently overlooked and undervalued role women have and continue to play in film history. 

SIFF 2025: 'Chain Reactions' Capsule Review

Documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe has delved into Alien, the shower scene in Psycho, David Lynch, and more. In Chain Reactions, he focuses on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this time via extended interviews with Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, and Karyn Kusama. Each shares their interpretations and experiences with the iconic film, honing in on legacy and influence.

'The Life And Deaths Of Christopher Lee' (2024) Movie Review

If you didn’t already think Christopher Lee was cool, one, really? Two, you may very well change your tune after watching The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee, the latest documentary from Jon Spira (Elstree 1976). As one might expect from the title, the film delves deep into the life and times of the iconic actor—don’t call him the King of Horror, he did not appreciate that—exploring every nook and cranny along the way.

SIFF 2024: 'Scala!!!' Capsule Review

From the 1970s to the ‘90s, London’s Scala theater was a haven for cinemaniacs. From arthouse to exploitation and everything in between, they screened oddities, avant-garde experiments, and whatever the hell they wanted.

'Once Upon A Time In Uganda' (2021) Movie Review

If you’re a fan of action movies, you owe it to yourself to dive into the filmography of no-budget Ugandan film studio Wakaliwood. Shot in a slum, with budgets that top out in the hundreds of dollars, mastermind Isaac Nabwana, a former brickmaker, has assembled a beyond-ragtag crew that has pumped out some of the most energetic, entertaining action movies you’ll ever see. The story of how this exists in the first place is even more unlikely than the plots of the movies, and Cathryne Czubek’s documentary Once Upon a Time in Uganda tracks the saga of the wildest action movie studio around.

SIFF 2023: 'Satan Wants You' Capsule Review

Nowadays we think of the Satanic Panic of the 1980s as almost quaint, forgetting how it decimated countless lives and gripped the country in a destructive frenzy. One talking head in Satan Wants You  refers to the book Michelle Remembers as “Patient zero for the Satanic Panic,” and the documentary digs into that now-discredited tale that fanned the flames of mass hysteria.

SIFF 2023: 'A Disturbance In The Force' Capsule Review

Among fans, the Star Wars Holiday Special is a kind of myth, an artifact some have seen but that’s spoken of as a fable. In reality, it’s an ill-advised lunatic oddity aimed to cash-in on raging Star Wars mania that George Lucas tried to bury. Which just made people want it more. 

SIFF 2023: 'Circus Of The Scars' Capsule Review

To viewers of a certain age, the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow holds an infamous spot in our collective memory. For many ‘90s kids, it was our introduction to an updated carnival geek/freak show. Corey Wees’ documentary, Circus of the Scars, offers an in-depth time capsule of this specific cultural phenomenon and era.

SIFF 2023: 'Even Hell Has Its Heroes' Capsule Review

In certain circles, experimental metal band Earth is revered with a sense of mythic awe. Heavily influential, especially to the early grunge era and continuing today, Clyde Petersen’s documentary, Even Hell Has its Heroes, tracks the group’s path, specifically mastermind Dylan Carlson, offering a glimpse behind the reclusive curtain.

SIFF 2023: 'Douglas Sirk - Hope As In Despair' Capsule Review

Douglas Sirk was the master of American melodrama, his films commercial juggernauts while being largely panned critically. Roman Huben’s documentary, Douglas Sirk—Hope as in Despair, digs into the drama of his own life.

SIFF 2023: 'Punderneath It All' Capsule Review

A sucker for documentaries that explore the most niche, off-the-beaten-path slices of life, Abby Hagan’s film, Punderneath it All, about the world of puns, punning, and pun slams, is freaking catnip.

'Sepa: Nuestro Señor De Los Milagros' (1986) Movie Review

A long-lost documentary about an isolated Peruvian penal colony directed by a long-time collaborator of Werner Herzog? You had me at hello, Sepa: Nuestro Senor de los Milagros (Sepa: Our Lord of Miracles). And the newly restored film does not disappoint.

'Facing Monsters' (2021) Movie Review

I’m not a surfer. It’s one of many, many things I’ve always wanted to try but have never actually got around to. (It doesn’t help I’m from a not-particularly-surfy place.) But on film, the sport shows as beautiful and serene; a perfect love letter to the majesty of nature. It’s also often harrowing and reminds us of the true power of that natural force. Bentley Dean’s new documentary, Facing Monsters, captures all this splendor, all this peril, as well as one man’s connection to the waves that runs as deep as any ocean.

NBFF 2022: 'Sirens' Movie Review

I’m a sucker for documentaries about punk, metal, or really any other musical genre popping up in places you don’t normally expect. Death Metal Angola, Los Ultimos Frikis, A Band Called Death, among others come to mind. Fitting nicely into this specific niche is Rita Baghdadi’s documentary Sirens, which chronicles Lebanon’s first all-female heavy metal band, Slave to Sirens. 

SIFF 2022: 'Skate Dreams' Movie Review

Skateboarding has almost always been a boy’s club. I grew up skating in the ‘80s and almost never saw a female skateboarder outside of a vanishingly rare photo in skate magazines. By the ‘90s when I was in high school a lot of teams had a token female skater and my hometown had a clique of three or four women who would show up semi-regularly at skate spots. (Parks in every town weren’t a thing yet.) Of my core crew of four, there was one woman, but for the most part, she was the only one everywhere we went. But in recent years, women’s skateboarding has exploded in popularity and become the fastest growing demographic in the sport. Jessica Edwards’ documentary, Skate Dreams, tracks that ascent in the in the days leading up to skateboarding becoming an Olympic sport.

'Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché' (2021) Movie Review

On its own, a documentary about Poly Styrene, legendary vocalist of X-Ray Spex, would be a good watch. A punk pioneer and one of the few women, and even fewer women of color, in the early days of punk, her story is one of grappling with fame and influence, carving out your own place in the world, racism, misogyny, mental illness, and much more. While the new documentary, Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, has all of that, it also presents the story different, more personal light than most music docs.

Fantasia 2021: 'Woodlands Dark And Days Bewitched' Movie Review

Folk horror is in the midst of a global resurgence at the moment, so what better time for a documentary to take a deep-dive into the fascinating subgenre? And that’s exactly what filmmaker Kier-La Janisse (author of the great House of Psychotic Women) and company do with the three-plus-hour documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror. It is every inch what that title suggests and more.

'All The Streets Are Silent' (2020) Movie Review

Sometimes a movie starts and you know immediately it is 100% your jam. That is precisely what happened with All the Streets are Silent: The Convergence of Hip Hop and Skateboarding (1987-1997), the new documentary from Jeremy Elkin and Dana Brown, which held its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. A love letter to both forms, the film tracks their parallel evolutions, from underground phenomena to mainstream staples, and ways in which, particularly in New York City, they collided and crossed over at a key juncture.

'Dons Of Disco' (2018) Movie Review

When you hear the phrase “lip-synching scandal,” you can be forgiven for immediately thinking of Milli Vanilli. That’s obviously the highest profile incident, but it’s also not the only public kerfuffle about pop sensations not singing their own songs. Jonathan Sutak’s new documentary, Dons of Disco, rectifies that situation, diving deep into the epic—and I do mean epic, as things get truly nuts along the way—saga of Italian singer Den Harrow.

'Wolfman's Got Nards' (2018) Movie Review

As a horror-obsessed kid, I adored The Monster Squad. I was ten when it came out in 1987 and it falls into a category of movies like The Goonies and a handful of others that are about kids, and aimed at kids, but that don’t marginalize them, which was always an issue I had with this type of film growing up. Here, the young characters are smart, capable, and complicated; in legitimate peril; and don’t rely on the parents swooping in at the last minute to save the day—the kids are the heroes and have the heroic moments they earn. Among other things, this is what I loved about it. This is basically a long-winded way of saying Andre Gower’s documentary, Wolman’s Got Nards, is 100% made for me.