Focus on Film & Television Reviews and writings about these subjects. As well as Pop Culture at times. With a bit of an edge and some color
Written & Directed By: Clay Liford
Cinematography By: Ellie Ann Fenton
Editor: David Fabelo & Bryan Poyser
Cast: Michael Johnston, Hannah Marks, Michael Ian Black, Missi Pyle, Sarah Ramos, Angela Kinsey, Sam Eidson
Freshman Neil’s Vanguard stories are all he cares about…until he meets the older Julia, who pushes him to put his own fan fic online. When the website’s moderator takes a special interest in Neil’s work, it opens up a whole new universe.
Directed By: Dennis Hopper
Written By: Leonard Yakir & Brenda Nielson
Cinematography: Marc Champion
Editor: Doris Dyck
Cast: Linda Manz, Dennis Hopper, Sharon Farrell, Don Gordon, Raymond Burr, David Crawley, Jim Byrnes
A young girl whose father is an ex-convict and whose mother is a junkie finds it difficult to conform and tries to find comfort in a quirky combination of Elvis and the punk scene.
Written & Directed By: Celine Sciamma
Cinematography: Crystel Fournier
Editor: Julien Lacheray
Cast: Pauline Acquart, Louise Blachere, Adele Haenel, Warren Lacquin
Three girls, each about 15, deal with puberty, the onset of sexual attraction, and, for two, the pressure of virginity. Marie, who’s slight and diffident, quiet and nearly expressionless, is friends with Anne, who’s a bit chunky and impulsive and has decided that François will be her first love. Watching synchronized swimming, Marie is suddenly attracted to the team captain, Floriane, beautiful, aloof, tall, and rumored to be a slut. François pursues her. Marie begins to hang around her; they trade favors, and soon it’s an odd sort of friendship. Each of the three experiences her own first, and Marie must sort out attraction and friendship.
Directed By: Justin Tipping
Written By: Justin Tipping & Joshia Beirne-Golden
Cinematography By: Michael Ragen
Editor: Dominic LaPerriere & Tomas Vengris
Music By: Brian Reitzell
Cast: Jahking Guillory, Christopher Meyer, Christopher Wallace Jr., Kofi Siriobe, Mahershala Ali, Nessa Ismail
Brandon is a 15 year old whose dream is a pair of fresh Air Jordans. Soon after he gets his hands on them, they’re stolen by a local hood, causing Brandon and his two friends to go on a dangerous mission through Oakland to retrieve them.
Written & Directed By: Eva Husson
Cinematography By: Mattias Troelstrup
Editor: Emilie Orsini
Cast: Finnegan Oldfield, Marilyn Lima, Daisy Broom, Lornezo Leferbvre, Fred Hotier
In a small town of France, life seems to be still and somewhat boring for a group of teenage friends, who day in, day out, are asked to cope not only with the usual issues in the life of a high school student but also with the search for love and sex. How do you blow the steam off, when you are a puzzled, sexually-frustrated youngster? Eventually, a party is thrown on a Saturday night and the solution is about to be found in a very simple idea… A game of truth or dare that will be rapidly transformed into a mandatory, dare only, series of sexy challenges between friends, will provide the means to unfold the true self and hidden potential in everyone present. Beer, drugs, spin the bottle and the “Bang Gang” revolution is born. But what deceptively appeared as a way to deal with boredom, strained family relationships, emancipation and above all liberty, quickly turned into the biggest scandal, a mockery of a modern fairy tale, a story of a child given a toy, not knowing what to do or how to play with it.
Written & Directed By: John Carney
Cinematography By: Yaron Orbach
Editor: Andrew Marcus & Julian Ulrichs
Cast: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Lucy Boynton, Jack Reynor, Ben Carolan, Mark McKenna, Kelly Thornton, Aidan Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Percy Chamburuka, Ian Kenny, Lydia McGuinness, Karl Rice, Conor Hamilton
A boy growing up in Dublin during the 1980s escapes his strained family life by starting a band and moving to London.
Written & Directed By: Rebecca Johnson
Cinematography By: Annemarie Lean-Vercoe
Editor: John Dwelly
Cast: Jessica Sula, Ntonga Mwanza, Lucien Laviscount, Naomi Ryan, Danielle Vitalis, Lauren Johns, Tosin Cole, Savannah Gordon-Liburd
Inspired by true events, it tells a story of fifteen-year-old Layla, who sets up the boy in love with her to be killed. When Troy discards her, Layla is left in ruins. She vows to rebuild herself as a hardened player in order to win him back and Shaun becomes a pawn in her game. Soon the forces she has set in motion are escalating out of control. The first UK urban drama seen from a girl’s point of view, HONEYTRAP is authentically local in its setting but universal in its themes of passion, jealousy and revenge. We have not seen a character like Layla take centre-stage before and it’s time her story to be told.
Written & Directed By: Chad Hartigan
Cinematography By: Sean McElwee
Editor: Anne Fabini
Cast: Craig Robinson, Markees Christmas, Carla Juni, Lina Keller
Morris is a 13-year-old African-American who moves to Heidelberg with his dad, who coaches professional soccer. The film explores Morris’s attempts to fit in with German kids. He falls for a girl at a youth club and she encourages him to open up a little and share his rapping.
Written & Directed By: Kelly Fremon Craig
Cinematography By: Doug Emmett
Editor: Tracy Wadmore-Smith
Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, Kyra Sedgwick, Woody Harrelson, Hayden Szeto, Meredith Monroe
Everyone knows that growing up is hard, and life is no easier for high school junior Nadine, who is already at peak awkwardness when her all-star older brother Darian starts dating her best friend Krista. All at once, Nadine feels more alone than ever, until the unexpected friendship of a thoughtful boy gives her a glimmer of hope that things just might not be so terrible after all.
Written & Directed By: Jonah Hill
Cinematography: Christopher Blauvelt
Editor: Nick Houy
Music By: Atticus Ross & Trent Reznor
Cast: Sunny Suljic, Na-kel Smith, Olan Prenett, Gio Calicia, Ryder Maclaughlin, Lucas Hedges Katherine Waterston, Alexa Demie, Alma Elsesser
Follows Stevie, a thirteen-year-old in 1990s-era Los Angeles who spends his summer navigating between his troubled home life and a group of new friends that he meets at a Motor Avenue skate shop. Continue reading “MID90S (2018)”
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