Streaming Reviews

Reviews of 5 films currently available on VOD

Slawomir Grünberg’s Still Life in Lodz: Streaming Review; shows how art and objects can take us back emotionally to another place and time

By Daniel Pappas 5 years ago

It might be enough to simply stop and rebuild the old lives of these three’s families, but the filmmaker goes above and beyond to recreate as much of this town in its original form as possible. With a dearth of archival material and an emphasis on bringing them to life we HEAR the trains engines firing up and the cries of Jews being sent to death camps. The middle section of the film really draws out the history of the Nazi takeover of this neighborhood.

Jason Loftus and Eric Pedicelli’s ASK NO QUESTIONS on VOD Review; suspected faked immolation suicides by the Chinese government by balancing a personal story with “true crime” deconstruction

By Daniel Pappas 6 years ago

Loftus takes pains to test various theories. Were the protesters actors in fireproof suits? Could the hospital interviews have been staged? He interviews experts in fire stunts and fire burns to analyze the footage and either affirm or negate his theories. Technically he’s grasping at straws as the footage is so slim and easily controlled by the Chinese state propaganda, but he walks the audience through his reasoning clearly demonstrating the flaws in the footage.

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.

VOD REVIEWS: Grant Korgan and Brian Niles’ THE PUSH follows a seemingly impossible journey of spinal-injury recovery all the way to the South Pole

By Ali Carter 6 years ago

More than just a detailing of one man’s journey back from a seemingly insurmountable tragic turn in his life, THE PUSH is a feel good story about dreams, adventure, perseverance, love, friends, family, triumphs & lessons. Do you know who you are? What you want out of life? Imagine having an opportunity to do what you dream most and in one instance you are living that dream and the next…. Crushed… literally.

VOD REVIEWS: Ryan Prows’s LOWLIFE is a Darkly Comic Look at a Microcosm of Our Country That Must Be Seen

By Edward Douglas 8 years ago

Lowlife follows an eclectic group of characters over the course of a single day in Los Angeles, including a famed Mexican wrestler (or luchador) named El Monstruo (Ricardo Adam Zarate), his pregnant wife (Santana Dempsey), a motel owner named Crystal (Nicki Micheaux) desperate to save her ailing husband Dan, and a pair of incompetent criminals (Jon Oswald and Ogbonna) who see their friendship tested in bizarre ways by the conflict created by Haynes.