Sundance Review: Palm Trees And Power Lines is a disturbing yet important film on child grooming.

A disconnected teenage girl enters a relationship with a man twice her age. She sees him as the solution to all her problems, but his intentions are not what they seem.

Palm Trees And Power Lines is the equivalent of watching a huge crash in slow motion happen at least 10 times, this film is a lot and very very disturbing. The film is about child grooming and how sneaky and the stages of it, the film doesn’t shy away from any details and tells you how it is. There’s no sugarcoating at all, first and foremost the performance from Lily Mclnerny (who plays Lea a 17 year old girl) should absolutely be praised. I can’t even imagine how hard it must have been to even do this, she gives such a realistic performance that just adds to why the film is so disturbing. She captures the emotions and actions of a 17 year old girl who is disconnected and someone who has been groomed. Jonathan Tucker also does one hell of a job as well, he plays a 34 year old man who has all of the traits of a child groomer. Pretends to your friend at first and slowly tries to get into relationship territory and then become manipulative and so on, each of those actions are shown in the film what that ends up leading to is the destruction of Lea, it completely destroys her feelings, thoughts and health. There’s tons of heartbreaking and disturbing moments in this film that absolutely got me. The filming is shot in this style that absolutely fits the film, it doesn’t have a clean look to it which keeps things more grounded. The writing is very grounded and only adds to how disturbing the film really is, it captures everything about child grooming what words groomers like to commonly say and so on. But then there’s the third act which while yes the film was disturbing before the final act turns it up quite a lot, there’s a very uncomfortable scene that goes on for about 5-10 minutes this scene will make you feel disgusting after watching it which was definitely the attention. It’s a scene that is very disturbing to watch but brings the message home very well. It should go without saying that this film is most certainly not going to be for everyone, as I said earlier the film is about how sneaky and disgusting child groomers are and what effect they leave on their victims. Jamie Dack did such a fantastic job with this film, I do recommend watching this film only if you know what you are getting into.

Palm Trees And Power Lines currently has no release date.

10/10 A+

Sundance Review: The Worst Person In The World is a powerful story about several choices.

A young woman battles indecisiveness as she traverses the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path.

I’ve been wanting to see The Worst Person In The World for the longest time, last year I didn’t get a chance to see it due to either having a lot going on at festivals it was shown and the film not releasing in America. Luckily Sundance 2022 showed the film and all of that wait was well worth it. This film is a huge gut punch in every single way possible, it tackles a lot of subjects and really gives this theme of what happens in life and sometimes you have to move on. Renate Reinsve’s performance is absolutely incredible, she delivers one of my absolute favorite performances so far this year. The amount of emotion, depth, energy and power that’s put into her role is truly mesmerizing, the cinematography combined with the music really gives this film it’s own identity as well. There’s a lot of focused shots that really make each scene it’s own, splitting the film up into chapters I think was such a brilliant move, it gives each chapter it’s own story to tell as well as it’s own identity. Even with the shorter chapters they add so much to the film and really tell you a whole information in a short amount of time. The writing keeps things very realistic, which makes a lot of moments all the more powerful, it’s a huge deep dive into Julie’s (Renate Reinsve’s character) thoughts, emotions, what she’s going through, her life and so much more. The film also does a fantastic job of focusing on the people around her as well, it explores each of the characters really well and truly delivers. The Worst Person In The World is a film I can’t recommend enough!!

The Worst Person In The World is now in theaters!

10/10 A+

Sundance Review: After Yang is a meditative Sci-Fi Film that captures family emotions!

In a near future, a family reckons with questions of love, connection, and loss after their A.I. helper unexpectedly breaks down.

After Yang is a film I’ve been wanting to watch for a very long time, for awhile it went without a release date. It premiered at Cannes 2021 and then just kind of disappeared for awhile until it was announced it will be shown at Sundance 2022. The wait did not disappoint because After Yang is truly something special, first off the film itself is both hypnotic and meditative everything from the cinematography, writing, acting and direction it really takes you into it’s own world that you follow really closely. The performances were all incredibly strong here particularly Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja and Haley Lu Richardson. They all give a raw performance that really brings you into the film leaving you in a meditative state, plus the characters are given some really strong development that helps build the world of the film. The cinematography does a fantastic job of giving information about the world of the film, it pays attention to every single detail and adds to the story being told. The writing tackles family themes in very unique and interesting ways, it talks about the emotions of a family and goes much more in depth with those themes. After Yang is a much different Sci-Fi film that is bound to make you feel tons of emotions, make you think really hard about what the characters and each of the scenes and what the film means overall. After Yang is a beautifully told story that Kogonada absolutely mastered easily one of the best films so far this year.

After Yang will be released in theaters and on Showtime March 4th!

10/10 A+

Sundance Review: Fresh is a disturbing yet comedic film.


The horrors of modern dating seen through one young woman’s defiant battle to survive her new boyfriend’s unusual appetites.

Fresh is another pretty disturbing film from Sundance 2022, even if it’s also a dark comedy film as well. The mixture of being disturbing and the dark comedy compliment each other extremely well, Daisy Edgar-Jones is absolutely fantastic here and I have a strong feeling we are going to see much more of her after this film releases. Sebastian Stan is also really strong here, it’s definitely one of his more stronger performances his performance here heavily reminds me of John Goodman’s performance from 10 Cloverfield Lane. The film itself is suspenseful and has a very haunting atmosphere to it that builds up to the finale which kicks things up into high gear, Mimi Cave does a fantastic job especially with the fact this is her directional debut which I still find very hard to believe. She captures what makes a film disturbing, thrilling and understands how to balance comedy with disturbing moments. Fresh is one of those disturbing films that slowly builds up to the disturbing moments and completely catches you off guard, I won’t say much more because this is definitely a film where you have to go into it knowing as little as possible. Plus I don’t want to end up accidentally spoiling it, but overall Fresh is a disturbing yet mixes dark comedy that makes it stand out!

Fresh will be released March 4th on Hulu!

10/10 A+

Jackass Forever a masterpiece of stunts and gags!

Celebrate the joy of a perfectly executed shot to the groin as Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O and the rest of the gang return for another round of hilarious, wildly absurd and often dangerous displays of stunts and comedy.

A major part of film that I always absolutely love to see is people enjoying making their work, whether it’s by themself or with friends it’s always so inspiring to see. That’s how I feel about Johnny Knoxville and his group, each and every time they are on screen whether it was the TV series or the films they always seem like they are having so much fun. That’s especially the case here with Jackass Forever, this film ups the ante with the gags and stunts to make this an absolute blast of a film. Right from the beginning that parodies Kaiju monster movies you can easily tell how much love and fun went into making this film. I can’t think of a moment in this film where I didn’t stop laughing, each and every stunt had it’s own personality, fun factor, amusement and so on. Even the quick ones were genuinely incredible mostly due to them being just that quick gags that didn’t over stay their welcome. That’s something Knoxville and his group have always been a master at comedic timing, they know when to keep a certain stunt around, how long or short It should be and what can be added to it to make things fresh and interesting. Seeing them bring in new faces was also quite touching as well, it feels like meeting new friends plus they fit right in there as well. What’s quite amazing about Jackass is that it’s strangely wholesome and heartwarming, when you really come down to it Jackass is a group of friends doing insane stunts and gags because they love doing it. They not only entertain the audience but entertain themselves, Jackass also heavily reminds me of the love I have for my friends and I’m sure many fans have felt the same way. And that’s displayed in Jackass Forever extremely well these guys have been doing this for a very long time it’s been 20 years since the first Jackass film and they have come such a long way. Overall Jackass Forever is an incredible film that I absolutely recommend, gather your friends and go see this one!

Jackass Forever is now playing in theaters!

10/10 A+

Moonfall is a laughably bad mess that you can’t look away from.

The world stands on the brink of annihilation when a mysterious force knocks the moon from its orbit and sends it hurtling toward a collision course with Earth. With only weeks before impact, NASA executive Jocinda “Jo” Fowler teams up with a man from her past and a conspiracy theorist for an impossible mission into space to save humanity.

Moonfall is exactly what you expect it to be especially since it’s directed by Ronald Emmerich, it’s quite honestly no different from his other films or the apocalypse film genre in general. With that said there definitely is enjoyment to get out of this movie, for starters the dialogue is hilariously awful. It ranges from being not believable to very over the top to the point where it becomes goofy, I will say that some of the filming was actually quite nice particularly the space scenes there was clearly a lot of effort put into them so I definitely give credit where credit is due, the wooden acting has a ton of laughably bad moments as well. Some actors do try to make it work such as Halle Berry and John Bradley (who is by far one of my favorite parts of the movie) but a lot of it just comes off as very ridiculous. However the biggest flaw is the movie is the final act, when the movie tries to be serious it falls flat very hard and unfortunately it tries to do just that. Yes there are still some hilarious bits here and there but not nearly as many as the rest of the movie, as I said before Moonfall is exactly what you expect it to be, if you go in expecting a trashy movie that you can watch and laugh with friends then you will get kick out of this one!

Moonfall is now playing in theaters!

4/10 D+

Sundance Review: Fire Of Love is a beautiful film that captures the beauty of volcanos!

Intrepid scientists and lovers Katia and Maurice Krafft die in a volcanic explosion doing the very thing that brought them together: unraveling the mysteries of volcanoes by capturing some of nature’s most explosive imagery.

Who knew a documentary about two people sharing their love for volcanos would be one of my favorite films of the Sundance film festival. Fire Of Love tells the story of Katia and Maurice Kraftt two married volcanologists who share their love for volcanos, the film uses archival footage as well as Miranda July’s commentary to the tell story. Which both combined truly create something absolutely stunning, the beauty of the lava is truly captivating and really grabs you, there truly is something whimsical about watching the lava and hearing the story of two people who share their love for volcanos. It’s also an incredibly touching story that really get’s to you, Miranda July’s commentary adds so much to the documentary in every single way possible she has this beautiful voice that truly hypnotizes you. The archival footage is brilliantly used, it really shows the beauty of the volcano and adds so much layers to the documentary. Overall Fire Of Love is straightforward yet a absolutely fantastic documentary that I can’t wait to watch again!

Fire Of Love currently has no release date!

9/10 A

Sundance Review: Speak No Evil is a disturbing ride.

On a vacation in Toscana, a Danish family instantly becomes friends with a Dutch family. Months later, the Danish couple receives an unexpected invitation. It doesn’t take long before the joy of reunion is replaced with misunderstandings.

Sundance 2022 had a lot of films that seemed simple enough but quickly dived into madness and some others went as far as being disturbing. Speak No Evil is one of the films that ends up being the latter, the film starts out simple enough with two families meeting each other. But as the film goes on it starts quickly paint a very dark picture, it quickly shifts into this very creepy atmospheric film that leads to some very brutal results. Some of which I’m absolutely shocked the film went into that direction, but I’m seriously glad that it did because the build up was ginormous, it’s such well written film that really captures in the writing. The performances from everyone in the film are spectacular, which I actually believe is partly why the film succeeds the acting feels incredibly raw and shows the characters as ordinary people you would see walking down the street. Which is the main focus of the film showing how everyday people can be truly disturbing, as I said earlier the build up is huge it’s very thrilling and keeps piling on the fear and disturbing element of it all. Until it completely explodes and turns into something very very different yet fascinating at the same time. I don’t want to say too much else, going into Speak No Evil knowing as little as possible is the best way to get the full experience, there’s so much to unpack about this film in all the right ways!

Speak No Evil currently has no release date but will be released later this year by Shudder.

9/10 A

Sundance Review: Piggy is a smart commentary on bullying and body shaming.

An overweight teen is bullied by a clique of cool girls poolside while holidaying in her village. The long walk home will change the rest of her life.

I was prepared for Piggy to be yet another “victim of bullying gets revenge” movie that we have seen so many times at this point, however takes that concept and actually does something different with it. The film surprisingly ends up being a very good commentary on bullying and body shaming, it isn’t just one or two scenes that talk about these heavy subjects there’s quite a lot of discussion in the film. The film also questions mortality on both sides, which is definitely something completely different from a lot of other films like Piggy. Laura Galán does such a fantastic job as Sara, she really brings so much to her role and adds a lot to the character! Piggy is a french horror film (well and Spanish too) so you know what that means…lots of gore! Which the gore is really great, there might not be as much gore as there are in a lot of other french horror films. Piggy focuses much more on story and Sara’s life, but the build up is absolutely worth the wait. What makes Piggy successful is the character study type feel it does for Sara, we learn so much about her and what she’s been through. It all builds up to a very strong final act that ends the film on a very high note, the questioning of mortality is definitely one of the strongest parts about the film. Although the film does follow Sara it does question some of the decisions she’s made as well as the bullies as well. It’s a perfect balance that adds so much to a film that could have easily been nothing new.

Piggy currently has no release date.

9/10 A

Sundance Review: 892 is an emotional and thrilling experience.

A Marine war veteran faces mental and emotional challenges when he tries to reintegrate back into civilian life.

892 was actually a film I wasn’t originally going to check out at Sundance, however word of mouth got me super interested in this one! 892 is based on a tragic true story that is a quite fascinating read. The film itself is very thrilling, it has a very suspenseful atmosphere that truly gets you on the edge of your seat, John Boyega gives such an incredible performance. He captures several emotions, you can see the anger, sadness and so on in his performance. It truly is something quite special, everyone else also gives wonderful performances that mix very well with the writing, rawness is the key factor here. Which is what separates this film from a lot of other films like it, the film explores backstories, the people involved, why this situation happened and at times how it could have been prevented. The final act of the film truly hits it out of the park, with tons of suspense and emotion it truly gives some very shattering moments.

892 currently has no release date but will release this summer.

9/10 A