'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.

'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.

'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.

'Desolation Center' (2019) Movie Review

This is an updated version of an earlier review.

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to go on a punk rock field trip, like pile into school buses with a bunch of like-minded outsiders who are into the same kind of music as you, Stuart Swezey’s new documentary, Desolation Center, has you covered. 

Slamdance 2019: 'Behind The Bullet' (2019) Movie Review

Gun violence is an epidemic in this country. Scarcely a day goes by where we don’t hear about a shooting of one sort or another. Mass firearm killings have become so common, they scarcely make a blip in the current news cycle. What does it take to pull the trigger? And what impact does that have have once you do? These are the questions Heidi Yewman’s new documentary, Behind the Bullet, seeks to answer. 

Slamdance 2019: 'The Vast Of Night' (2019) Movie Review

Fans of classic Twilight Zones may want to put Andrew Patterson’s The Vast of Night on their radar. The throwback sci-fi mystery filters that moody, atmospheric vibe through a nostalgic Amblin lens. While it lacks much forward propulsion and true tension, it’s a lovely, sure-handed film that brims with charm and potential, even if unrealized.

Slamdance 2019: 'The Drone' (2019) Movie Review

If you anticipate a certain level of absurdity in a horror-comedy from the guys most known for writing and directing a movie called Zombeavers, you’re not wrong. And if you lament the current lack of campy, 1980s style technology-run-amok sci-fi-horror in the vein of Chopping Mall or Night Vision, Jordan Rubin’s The Drone has your back.

Slamdance 2019: 'Beats' (2019) Movie Review

One-night-that-changes-everything is a familiar cinematic narrative, especially in the lives of young people. Not the most original set up, there are reasons filmmakers and storytellers keep coming back to this particular well. Many people who’ve survived adolescence have had this type of experience, a transformative moment where you make a choice, where you can go one way or another, and where, afterwards, nothing is ever quite the same. Maybe it’s not always as dramatic as movies portray it, but when you’ve lived on that precipice between childhood and adulthood, searching for some nebulous thing you can’t quite define, it’s easy to relate.

Slamdance 2019: 'Memphis '69' (2019) Movie Review

Concert movies are a documentary staple, from classics like Woodstock and The Last Waltz to modern takes like Justin Timberlake and the Tennessee Kids. They provide a contained narrative window that can service various other storylines. And there’s usually killer music. Joe LaMattina’s Memphis ‘69 fits solidly in this tradition, and is a must-see for fans of Tennessee blues and soul, though it also has more on its mind.

Slamdance 2019: 'Lost Holiday' (2019) Movie Review

All kinds of wacky shenanigans and general mayhem happen over the holidays as old friends, now scattered to winds, return to their former homes, see faces they haven’t seen in years, revisit old haunts and wounds, and take stock of their lives. In the case of Michael Kerry Matthews and Thomas Matthews’ microbudget mumblecore noir, LostHoliday, this set up includes becoming amateur detectives and trying to solve a kidnapping.

Slamdance 2019: 'Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story' (2019) Movie Review

I grew up watching Warren Miller movies. I spent the summer months wearing out VHS copies of skiing movies like Extreme Winter, Beyond the Edge, and Steep and Deep, praying for snow as I watched neon-clad (it was the 1980s) winter sports enthusiasts huck themselves off of cliffs and gracefully carve down mountain pitches you’d think twice about walking down, all narrated by his wry, soothing monotone. 

Slamdance 2019: 'The Professional: A Stevie Blatz Story' (2018) Movie Review

Documentaries take many forms. They play with constraints and push the bounds of what the genre can do, shine a light on injustice or hidden histories, examine fascinating stories, and much more. Then there are those about wing-nuts, singular weirdos who stand out for one reason or another. It’s into this latter category that Daniel Labarbera’s The Professional: A Stevie Blatz Story falls. Straightforward subject-driven pieces like this are only as interesting as their the people they focus on, and in Stevie Blatz, Labarbara found a fascinating front man.

10 Slamdance 2019 Films You Need To See

We’re somehow already deep into January 2019. I don’t know how that happened, but I do know that means the year in film festivals is about to kick off in earnest. Most well-known is obviously Sundance—it is, after all, the big daddy of indie film—which starts this week. But it’s not the only one. Also this weekend, and also in Park City, Utah, we’ve got Slamdance, the radical response to the over-corporatization and exclusivity of Sundance.