Spinning the Reel
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Best of Lists
    • 2017 List
    • 2018 List
    • 2019 List
    • 2020 List
    • 2021 List
  • Podcast
  • About Us

AFI Fest 2021: Red Rocket

12/13/2021

Comments

 

Evan D.

Picture
Sean Baker has never had problems finding cinematic drama — and a deep well of empathy — in the lives of people on the brink. To large degrees, all of his films have revolved around well intentioned folks doing the best they can in the face of debilitating financial situations. Be it Sin-Dee (Kitana Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor) working the streets of LA or Halley (Bria Vinaite) doing sex work on the side to keep a roof over her daughter Moonee’s (Brooklynn Prince) head, Baker’s characters clearly hold his respect. Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), the central figure of Red Rocket, is a new type of lead for the director.

Read More
Comments

AFI Fest 2021: Petite Maman

11/15/2021

Comments

 

Evan D.

Picture
Expectations are always high for a well regarded auteur, but they were especially lofty for Celine Sciamma following her revelatory 2019 film Portrait of a Lady on Fire. From Water Lillies to Girlhood, the French director has always had a piercing vision, but Portrait brought her the largest audience and most fervent acclaim of her illustrious career. So how did she choose to follow it up? With Petite Maman, a 72 minute fable about a young girl meeting her mother as a child, of course.

Read More
Comments

AFI Fest 2021: The Worst Person in the World

11/15/2021

Comments

 

Evan D.

Picture
For decades film has told the stories of young people finding their way in the world to dazzling effect. There is something so universally relatable about those late teenage years where you feel like you’ve figured it all out and seeing it with the gift hindsight you realize that those answers wouldn’t come until much later. The hard truth is that coming of age doesn’t happen all at once and that next phase of life brings with it doubts, big decisions and so much more uncertainty. This is the phase of life examined in Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World.

Read More
Comments

AFI Fest 2021: What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?

11/12/2021

Comments

 

Evan D.

Picture
A tale as old as time, how much can true love transcend? Is it simply an intertwining of attractions or is love something more, something so inherent to our very being that we’ll find our way back to it under even the most dire of circumstances? These are questions Georgian filmmaker Alexandre Koberidze poses, if never really answering, in What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?

Read More
Comments

    Categories

    All
    AFI 2021
    Author: Cody
    Author: Emily
    Author: Evan
    Awards
    Commentary
    Festival
    Reviews
    Sundance 2021
    Sundance 2022
    Throwback Thursday
    Year In Review

    Archives

    March 2023
    January 2023
    October 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018

Interact on Our Socials!

  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Best of Lists
    • 2017 List
    • 2018 List
    • 2019 List
    • 2020 List
    • 2021 List
  • Podcast
  • About Us