American Daydream (2024)

Where is the American dream bred? In the heart or in the head? Director-Writer Ziyu Luo’s “American Daydream” is a classic ode to the idea of the American dream and our pursuit of it. Is the “American Dream” an unreachable goal, or something that we each have within us, personally? Recently having its world premiere at the HollyShorts Film Festival, “American Daydream” is a brilliant beautiful short drama comedy that explores ideas about immigration, assimilation and Americanization.

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Brave Citizen (2024) [Fantasia Film Festival 2024]

Deep down there’s a great movie within “Brave Citizen.” The South Korean film by Park jin-pyo has a great premise, and a great cause to fight for that could serve as a catalyst for an interesting superhero tale. Instead “Brave Citizen” is bogged down in so much exposition and sub-plots and commentary that is loses sight of its original intent. There’s no reason a movie like “Brave Citizen” should be so long, and I say that as someone that almost never cares about run time.

But Park jin-pyo and the writers take so long to get to the actual point that by the time we do get an idea what they’re aiming in the realm of superheroes meets bringing down the affluent, the movie has already worn out its welcome.

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