Miguel Cima

Jen Rainin and Rivkah Beth Medow’s AHEAD OF THE CURVE Review at BENTONVILLE Film Fest ; follows incredible rise of lesbian-focused Curve and founder, Franco Stevens

By Miguel Cima 6 years ago

But in the midst of all this madness, the real goal was for lesbian women to have a place where they could just be themselves. And the magazine helped pioneer that space. Listening to the recounting of what came before and how things transformed is pretty much summed up in one sentence from an activist’s interview: “They’ve wanted us to be political for so long that any type of visibility is political.” Yes, just walking down the street holding hands with your partner used to be a radical act.

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s THE PLATFORM: VOD REVIEWS: feature film debut is horror, sci-fi activism, and Orwellian dystopia done sublimely

By Miguel Cima 6 years ago

Explorations of human reactions to confinement and food insecurity span from altruistic to needlessly cruel. Avoiding uniform verdicts on the characters’ behaviors and choices under these stresses, the film chooses instead to contrast approaches to fear, problem solving and the value of having a conscience. All of it veers into the extremes of those ranges and all of it is vital and wholly believable. In short, Gaztelu-Urrutia has accomplished the rare feat of shunning cheap exploitation in favor of a diligent expedition into what fundamentally makes our species tick.

Robert Egger’s THE LIGHTHOUSE: VOD REVIEWS; a masterfully crafted nightmare starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson

By Miguel Cima 6 years ago

What matters here is the journey, the morbid trek through the nether regions of the soul rendered in atavistic scenarios. Terrors the human race may have believed it left behind when ancient ancestors emerged from the seas are recalled, turning out to never having been far behind. As the grotesqueries mount from the ordinary to the dramatic and the surreal, the audience can feel anxiety and dread building.

TRIBECA 2019 REVIEWS: Shosh Shlam’s & Hilla Medalia’s excellent LEFTOVER WOMEN looks at how the Chinese “force” women to marry

By Miguel Cima 7 years ago

As we follow the three ladies, we see varying degrees of acquiescence, and in one case, open rebellion. Imagine your own sister telling them you’ve dishonored the family by not being married and having kids by your early thirties, that all the educational goals you’ve achieved and high-paying jobs you keep mean nothing.