Slamdance 2016 Film Reviews
Events
The 2016 Slamdance Film Festival has kicked off and with it comes a slew of innovative and subversive films in the independent circuit. Bringing in titles such as Chemical Cut (Marjorie Conrad), Dead Hands Dig Deep (Jai Love), Fursonas (Dominic Rodriguez) and Honey Buddies (Alex Simmons), Slamdance 2016 looks to be a great and intriguing showcase of underground, independent film. As the voice of the underground, SLUG is dedicated to providing extensive coverage of Slamdance 2016, a film festival founded on the idea of giving up-and-coming independent filmmakers with fresh ideas an opportunity to premiere and showcase their works.
Slamdance 2016: 1ha 43a
When visual artist Monika Pirch inherits of plot of farmland, she embarks on a poetic and multifaceted exploration of the field in an effort to reconnect with her ancestry and the soil. Her deeply personal quest simultaneously sheds valuable light onto some of the most impactful, consequential, and very real questions of our world. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: All the Colors of the Night
Iris, like Tiara, had everything. Except while Tiara killed her boyfriend after a night at the club, Iris found a dead man in her apartment after blacking out from a night partying. In this female-driven cast, All the Colors of the Night is a production of enigmatic stories that explore how the tensions of class reflect on private relationships. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites
Alvin Ng is the agoraphobic and endearing protagonist of Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites, a perplexing yet tender film that delves into the confines of Alvin’s world—that is, the one-bedroom apartment that Alvin hasn’t left in over 18 months. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: The Art of the Prank
Whether he’s Joe Skaggs, Dr. Joseph Greggor, Santa Clause, Joe Howard, Joseph Bucks, J.J. Skaggs, or Dr. Joseph Schlafer, artist Joey Skaggs has built an impressive repertoire of being one of the most unpredictable and convincing pranksters in the US, and should be an important figure to research if you’re interested in the media. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: Chemical Cut
Chemical Cut follows 23-year-old Irene, a creative and dewy-eyed LA misfit. After bleaching and dying her hair platinum blonde, Irene gets scouted by a modeling agency and soon finds herself entrenched in an alluring, toxic and surreal world. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: Dead Hands Dig Deep
With a slasher flick, you may experience moments that make you jump or cringe, but in Dead Hands Dig Deep, you have no comfort of escaping the reality of what’s on screen. Everything you see is real, and it’s bloody as hell. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: Driftwood
Writer/director Paul Taylor’s first feature, Driftwood, is a small, intimate and refreshing chamber piece that still manages to speak in droves—an impressive feat, considering that the entire film is dialogue-free. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: Fursonas
The furry fandom is as closely knit and enthusiastic as it is diverse and complicated. Fursonas takes us behind-the-scenes to get to know a few of the faces and fuzzy tails that make up the furry community. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: Honey Buddies
When a jilted former child actor is dumped by his fiancée, his irrepressibly gung-ho best man convinces him to continue on the planned honeymoon anyway, together—as honey buddies. A seven-day backpacking trek through the Oregon mountains ensues. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: Hunky Dory
Sure to be one of this year’s must-see Slamdance gems, Hunky Dory is an opulent, gender-bending and audacious feat that can be described exactly as music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine described David Bowie’s 1971 album of the same name: “a sweeping, cinematic mélange of high and low art, ambiguous sexuality, kitsch, and class.” Read More…
Slamdance 2016: If There’s A Hell Below
Debra agrees to meet with Abe, a young journalist, under the impression that she has something important to reveal in regards to national security. In real-time, we follow the two of them through a desolate landscape. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: Last Summer
Last Summer is a supremely elegant and stylish feature film debut from director Leonardo Guerra Seràgnoli, who electrifies audiences with a tense and sophisticated exploration of a mother-son relationship that begins as soon as it ends. Set to see its US premiere at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival, the taste-making film is a nonpareil must-see. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: The Lesson
What could be a coming-of-age story for Fin, a troubled teen, instead shows his mutilation by a disenchanted teacher who uses torture in order to get his message across. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: Los Punks
The DIY punk scene in East LA is thriving, thanks to a community of dedicated Latinos who are determined to keep it alive and bad ass. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: MAD
After finalizing her late-in-life divorce, Mel finds herself crying uncontrollably and past the point of a nervous breakdown. Connie and Casey, her two adult daughters, convince her to spend a week in the psych ward. As the three women try to work through their own uncertainties, what ensues is MAD—mutually assured destruction—a farcical dramedy that manages to be both biting and poignant. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: The Million Dollar Duck
The annual Federal Duck Stamp Contest brings contestants from across the US to prove their artistic talent. But is the competition enough to count as a functioning conservation program? Read More…
Slamdance 2016: Myrtle Beach
A tourist destination may give you the impression that everything is a paradise, but Myrtle Beach doesn’t care about your pleasant vacation, as you learn through the stories from the outcasts of the area. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: Neptune
14 year old orphan Hannah Newcomb lives under the tight grasp of a reverend on a small island in Maine. After a boy her age goes missing, she explores the island and talks to people outside of the church, as the mysteries of her worldview expand and come into question. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: Peanut Gallery
Acclaimed documentary filmmaker and Gasland producer Molly Gandour has taken her work to the intensely personal and unblinking Peanut Gallery. Sixteen years after the loss of her older sister, Aimee, Molly decided to return home to Indiana to finally cope with her sister’s death. Read More…
Slamdance 2016: The Tail Job
Nicholas hires a taxi driver, Trevor, to follow his fiancé on a night that she’s claimed she’s hanging out with some unnamed friend. In this micro-budget comedy, we follow the two on their journey through every wrong turn. After the driver loses the trail of Nicholas’ fiancé, the two go to great lengths to get back on the right path. Read More…