Independent Cinema

American Primitive with Tate Donovan and Adam Pascal. July 19: The tale of a poor backwater family struggling against poverty, addiction, and assorted personal and social maladies, Tina Mabry’s Mississippi…

In Matt Bissonnette’s psychological comedy-drama Passenger Side, recently screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival, two brothers go on a road trip throughout the Los Angeles area and the desert…

Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard in Humpday. A few highlights today at the Los Angeles Film Festival, currently being held (mostly) in the Westwood Village and at the Westside’s Landmark…

As the title implies, BearManor Media’s The History of Independent Cinema covers the century-long development of – American – filmmaking outside the big-studio lots. Now, who were those independents? Well,…

Darfur Movie: The Devil Came on Horseback. Darfur Now and The Devil Came on Horseback, both focusing on the ongoing Darfur crisis, will screen as part of the Academy of…

London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival Friday, March 27, highlights Schedule and synopses from the LLGFF website The Naked Civil Servant Directed by: Jack Gold. Cast: John Hurt, Liz Gebhardt,…

David Spaltro’s …Around is appropriately subtitled, “Embrace the Fall.” For “falling” – both emotionally and financially – is what happens to the film’s protagonist, whose hurdles are based on writer-director…

Los Angeles and New York Film Critics winners: 1st Animated movie + Slain Gay leader biopic tops as Sally Hawkins now serious Best Actress Oscar contender.

The Wild Women of Wongo (1958) movie review: You’ll enjoy it if you focus on what truly matters: Beautiful physiques and the overall weirdness.

Chop Shop by Ramin Bahrani. Ramin Bahrani’s Chop Shop, which opens today in Los Angeles, has received widespread praise since its premiere at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. The French…

Formerly known as Padre Nuestro (not to be confused with Rodrigo Sepúlveda’s Chilean drama of the same name), screenwriter-director Christopher Zalla’s debut feature Sangre de Mi Sangre (“Blood of My…

Silent era veterans Erich von Stroheim and Betty Compson deliver quality performances in James Cruze’s engrossing psychological drama The Great Gabbo.

Dennis Lim in the New York Times: “When referring to the Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, it is now – and has been for some time – customary to affix…

Sundance Film Festival Awards: Immigrant smuggling and skyscraper acrobats + Roman Polanski documentary and (non-winning) ‘gay zombie porn.’

Dubai Film Festival: Belly-dancing Laura Ramsey and Kashmiri frozen Body plus CineKink screening of Tony Comstock docs about adult film stars’ private lives.

Dysfunctional families: Little Miss Sunshine. With five nods each, the crowd-pleasing dysfunctional family comedy Little Miss Sunshine (US$59 million at the U.S. and Canada box office) and the socio-psychological drama…

In the New York Times, Dave Kehr has written about the death of Paris-born filmmaker Danièle Huillet, who succumbed to cancer on Oct. 9 at the home of friends in…

Joshua Jackson delivers a low-key, sensitive performance in the otherwise conventional family comedy-drama Aurora Borealis. Donald Sutherland costars.

The Secret Life of Words: English-language drama tops Spanish Academy’s Goya + critics Awards as gay + pregnant Hispanic youth wins Sundance.

Independent Spirit Awards’ winners: Crowd-pleasers and box office hits dominate the so-called ‘indie alternative’ to the mainstream Oscars.

Sundance winners include a pregnant Amy Adams and a father-son love triangle reportedly inspired on a Satyajit Ray classic, plus an attack on America’s endless wars.

Best Actress Oscar nominee Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes’ A Woman Under the Influence is seriously marred by its own inauthentic ‘rawness.’

The all-star ‘existential’ David O. Russell satire I Heart Huckabees is all but unwatchable; its notable moments actually took place behind the scenes.

John Cassavetes’ landmark and widely admired 1968 independent drama Faces is a narrative wreck and a long-winded cinematic chore.