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: Boaz Davidson
Cinematography: Adam Greenberg
Editor: Bruria Davidson
Cast: Lawrence Monoson, Steve Antin, Diane Franklin, Joe Rubbo, Kimmy Robertson, Louisa Moritz, Brian Peck
The friendship of a group of young friends struggling with teen sex, drugs, and work is jeopardized by a romantic interest which may turn pals into bitter rivals.
Directed By: Desiree Ahkavan
Written By: Desiree Ahkavan & Cecilia Frugiuele
Based On The Novel By: Emily M. Danforth
Cinematography By: Ashley Connor
Editor: Sara Shaw
Cast: Chloe Grace Moretz, Sasha Lane, Jennifer Ehle, John Gallagher Jr., Marin Ireland, Emily Skeggs, Quinn Shephard, Dalton Harrod, Forrest Goodluck
In 1993, a teenage girl is forced into a gay conversion therapy center by her conservative guardians.
Directed By: Robbie Pickerling
Written By: Oren Uziel
Cinematography By: Uta Briesewitz
Cast: Nicholas Braun, Josh Fadem, Vanessa Hudgens, Mackenzie Davis, Chris Zylka, Ed Westwick, Keegan-Michael Key, Mae Whitman, Joan Cusack, Bob Odenkirk, Denis Leary, Ian Roberts, Rachael Harris, Patton Oswalt, Pat Healy, Cerina Vincent
Written & Directed By: Sam Levinson
Cinematography By: Marcell Rev
Editor: Ron Patane
Cast: Odessa Young, Joel McHale, Hari Nef, Abra, Suki Waterhouse, Colman Domingo, Maude Apatow, Bella Thorne, Anika Noni Rose, Kathryn Erbe, Bill Skarsgard, Danny Ramirez, Cody Christian, Jennifer Morrison
After a malicious data hack exposes the secrets of the perpetually American town of Salem, chaos decends and four girls must fight to survive, while coping with the hack themselves.
Written & Directed By: Peter Foott
Cinematography By: Patrick Jordan
Editor: Colin Campbell
Cast: Alex Murphy, Chris Walley, Hilary Rose, Dominic McHale, P.J. Gallagher, Shane Casey, Pascal Scott
Inspired by the true story of Ireland’s biggest cocaine seizure in 2007, The Young Offenders is a comedy road movie about best friends Conor and Jock, two inner-city teenagers from Cork who dress the same, act the same, and even have the same bum-fluff mustaches. Jock is a legendary bike thief who plays a daily game of cat-and-mouse with the bike-theft-obsessed Garda Sergeant Healy. When a drug-trafficking boat capsizes off the coast of West Cork and 61 bales of cocaine, each worth 7 million euro, are seized, word gets out that there is a bale missing. The boys steal two bikes and go on a road trip hoping to find a missing bale which they can sell so as to escape their troubled home lives….But Sergeant Healy is in hot pursuit.
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: Greg Araki
Based on the Book By: Laura Kasischke
Cinematography By: Sandra Valde-Hansen
Cast: Shailene Woodley, Thomas Jane, Eva Green, Shiloh Fernandez, Christopher Meloni, Gabourey Sidibe, Angela Basset, Dale Dickey, Sheryl Lee, Mark Indelicato
Kat Connors is 17 years old when her seemingly perfect homemaker mother, Eve, disappears in 1988. Having lived for so long in an emotionally repressed household, she barely registers her mother’s absence and certainly doesn’t blame her doormat of a father, Brock, for the loss. But as time passes, Kat begins to come to grips with how deeply Eve’s disappearance has affected her. Returning home on a break from college, she finds herself confronted with the truth about her mother’s departure, and her own denial about the events surrounding it.
Directed By: Kevin Phillips
Written By: Ben Collins & Luke Piotrowski
Cinematography By: Eli Born
Editor: Ed Yonaitis
Cast: Owen Campbell, Charlie Tahan, Elizabeth Cappuccino, Max Talisman, Sawyer Barth, Amy Hargreaves, Adea Lennox
Teenagers Zach and Josh have been best friends their whole lives, but when a gruesome accident leads to a cover-up, the secret drives a wedge between them and propels them down a rabbit hole of escalating paranoia and violence.
Written & Directed By: Bo Burnham
Cinematography By: Andrew Wehde
Editor: Jennifer Lilly
Cast: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Emily Robinson, Jake Ryan, Daniel Zolghardi, Imani Lewis
An introverted teenage girl tries to survive the last week of her disastrous eighth grade year before leaving to start high school.
Directed By: John Cameron Mitchell
Written By: John Cameron Mitchell & Philippa Goslett
Based on the Short Story Written By: Neil Gaiman
Cinematography By: Frank G. DeMarco
Editor: Brian A. Kates
Cast: Alex Sharp, Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman, Ruth Wilson, Matt Lucas, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Brooke, Stephanie Hazel
Suburban London in the late 70s. Under the spell of the Sex Pistols, every teenager in the country wants to be a punk, including our hopeless hero Enn. Hearing the local punk Queen Boadicea is throwing a party, Enn crashes the fun and discovers every horny boy’s dream; gorgeous foreign exchange students. When he meets the enigmatic Zan, it’s lust at first sight. But these girls have come a lot further than America. They are, in fact, aliens from another galaxy, sent to Earth to prepare for a mysterious rite of passage. When the dark secret behind the rite is revealed, our galaxy-crossed lover Enn must turn to Boadicea and her punk followers for help in order to save the alien he loves from certain death. The punks take on the aliens on the streets of London, and neither Enn nor Zan’s universe will ever be the same again.
Cut To The Chase 