Complications (2023) [Slamdance 2024]

The Slamdance Film Festival runs Digitally and In-Person from January 19th to January 28th.

Director Ivan Aase’s “Complications” is a movie that’s begging to be turned in to a feature. I’d love to see more movies about the lives of sex workers and director Aase takes down this uneasy avenue in to an interesting tale about loneliness and companionship. Anna Laagegard is great as dominatrix Lotte, a young gorgeous woman who dominates middle aged Arne every week over a web camera.

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Knife+Heart (2018) [LA&M Film Fetish Forum]

Playing at the LA&M Film Fetish Forum Saturday, January 20th at 7pm; it will be Co-Presented by Cinematic Void.

Director Yann Gonzalez’s “Knife+Heart” is a movie that’s too silly to be taken as a giallo, and too serious to be taken as a dark comedy. It’s constantly shifting in tones and storylines which makes its narrative frame work feel so disorienting and ultimately kind of unbearable. Truth be told I slept through a quarter of “Knife+Heart” because it has so much trouble maintaining its multiple plot threads that it just rambled for long periods of time. Any kind of momentum or tension that picks up during “Knife+Heart” feels accidental as director Gonzalez can never quite decide on what kind of story he’s trying to tell.

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How Deep is the Ocean (2023)

Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Tubi TV.

Director Andrew Walsh’s microbudget indie film thrives on being a mumblecore character journey that is unabashedly aimless with its narrative. It’s not so much a linear narrative so much as it is a series of encounters a small journey our character Eleanor experiences. She’s in search of stability and has a hard time adjusting in a city where she comes across nothing but oddballs and unusual characters. Eleanor is an admitted victim of her own being as she spends so much time self sabotaging her own life, and can never figure it out.

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FIAF Announces the Seventh Edition of “Animation First”

The French Institute Alliance Française announces the program for the seventh annual Animation First, the only U.S. festival dedicated to showcasing the legacy and innovation of Francophone animation. FIAF is thrilled to celebrate the seventh edition of its popular festival, which expands this year from a three-day to a six-day festival due to increased popularity, running from Tuesday, January 23 through Sunday, January 28.

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Full Time (2023)

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Éric Gravel’s drama is a movie filled with so much tension and suspense, yet it’s a movie that has no actual villain. There’s no criminal or abusive spouse or corrupt officer. All there is is time that constantly seems to be working against our protagonist Julie. In a world where being a single parent becomes tougher and tougher, Gravel has offered audiences easily the most universally relatable drama in a very long time. Despite its setting, “Full Time” is wonderful often emotionally exhaustive exploration of a single parent, Julie, who is tasked with trying to keep her world above water. This becomes even harder as she’s tasked with caring for two children, both of whom are demanding of her constant attention.

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