Slamdance
Slamdance Film Review: Withdrawn
Director Adrian Murray’s first feature film, “Withdrawn,” is somewhat of a dry farce that manages to be both entertaining and subdued. The broke, basement-dwelling, band-tee-wearing Aaron spends his days mostly alone, preoccupying himself by playing video games, trying to solve a Rubik’s Cub and also trying to find ways to pay bills that he can’t afford. When he finds a lost credit card, Aaron decides to hatch a defrauding scheme. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Bogalusa Charm
Bogalusa Charm chronicles the people of Bogalusa, who narrate their own interwoven histories as part of the collective lore of the town. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Strad Style
Danny Houck is a 32-year-old eccentric. He wears a long scarf around his head at almost all times, and he has a mania for violins. In particular, he’s obsessed with the two greatest violinmakers in musical history, the Masters of Cremona: Antonio Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu. Director Stefan Avalos’ “Strad Style” has us cheering for Danny from beginning to end. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Aerotropolis
“Aerotropolis” follows Allen, a young, middle-class man who invested everything he owned into a beautiful apartment and unused aerotropolis land. Lulled in by the aerotropolis’ “promised land,” Allen is instead ensnared by the pitfall of financial pressures and an existence stripped of meaning. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Supergirl
Naomi Kutin is a fairly normal, Orthodox Jewish, preteen girl growing in New Jersey. The only catch: She is also a world-record-breaking powerlifter, who, at one point in the movie Supergirl, deadlifts almost three times her body weight. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Who is Arthur Chu?
Yu Gu and Scott Drucker’s aptly titled documentary, Who is Arthur Chu?, chronologically follows Chu’s rise to fame, using Chu’s number of Twitter followers at any given time to mark different chapters of Chu’s life during and after Jeopardy! … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Wexford Plaza
Toronto-based Joyce Wong’s first feature film, Wexford Plaza, is an at-times painfully real-life comedy about suburbia, isolation and ennui. The film follows the lives of 19-year-old, late-night security guard, Betty (Reid Asselstine) and the well-meaning, deadbeat bartender, Danny (Darrel Gamotin), as they find their lives unraveling. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Beat Beat Heart
Slamdance Film Festival’s “Beat Beat Heart,” directed by Luise Brinkmann, creatively portrays how a person heals from a heartbreak—especially in a closed-off, small-town setting. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: Cortez
Cinematically, Cortez is a beautiful film and focuses on the wild, unpredictable nature of the Southwest. It follows the story of struggling musician Jesse as he is aimlessly drifts from town to town, trying to make it as a solo musician after the breakup of his band. … read more
Slamdance Film Review: The Modern Jungle
“The Modern Jungle,” directed by Charles Fairbanks and Saul Kak, depicts life in an area of Oaxaca, Mexico, known as La Selva Negra (The Black Jungle), and follows local Zoque shaman, Juan Juarez Rodriguez and his neighbor and friend, Carmen Echavarría Gomez. … read more
Ford Clitaurus at Slamdance: MP Cunningham
Ford Clitaurus is a 2017 Slamdance Film Festival short with an oddball sense of humor. Taking place in Salt Lake City, the story follows three friends’ misadventures, from an inspirational interview with a triathelete gone awry to a sheepdog competition to playing chess with a Sufi mystic while pondering one’s sexuality at Liberty Park. … read more
Kuro: Voice and Vignette
Joji Koyama and Tujiko Noriko’s Kuro is a beautiful and slow-burning film that will steep audiences in ambiguity during its world premiere at Slamdance 2017. … read more
