French writer/director Régis Roinsard makes his feature length debut with Populaire, the story of a young girl searching for her identity and purpose in the world during the late 1950s, and the man who pushes her toward stardom. Rose Pamphyle (Déborah François) is a naïve girl living in Normandy, the town where she grew up. Raised by her widower father, a stubborn and conservative man set in his ways, Rose looks to start a new life in Paris. Her rapid typing skills – using only two fingers no less – land her a job with Louis Échard (Romain Duris), a handsome but smug insurance agent. It’s her quick hands that…
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G-S-T Review…Short Term 12
Winner of the Audience and Grand Jury Awards at SXSW in March, writer/director Destin Cretton’s Short Term 12 is a rare and beautiful film containing moments that will make you laugh, cry, render you speechless, take your breath away, and then leave you with a smile. The film’s title comes from the name of the group home that serves as the story’s central setting. The facility known as Short Term 12 serves as a foster home to troubled youth, victims of abuse, kids who have been forgotten, abandoned or otherwise left behind by their parents. On top of this many of the foster kids suffer from mental illness, making their behavior that more…
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G-S-T Review…Sparrows Dance
Sparrow’s Dance is an unexpected love story about an agoraphobic and former stage actress (Marin Ireland) who hasn’t left her apartment in over a year – nor has she had face-to-face contact with anyone from the outside world – and spends her days eating, sleeping and alternating between riding her exercise bike and watching television, until she is finally forced to face her fears when her toilet overflows. Ireland’s unnamed female protagonist first tries to acquire a plumber’s advice over the phone, but to no avail. When a plumber named Wes (Paul Sparks, “Boardwalk Empire”) does show up at her door, he’s a surprisingly handsome, endearing sort of guy, who…
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Be Natural…The Kickstarter Project Working to Change Film History
Alice Guy-Blaché was a daughter of a bookseller, a mother of two, a dreamer, a divorcée, a French feminist, a secretary, a pioneer, a filmmaker, a fashionista, an innovator, a studio manager, a friend. She was also the first female film director in the motion-picture industry, and one of the first directors to incorporate narrative storytelling into filmmaking, but changes are you’ve never heard of her. Directors Pamela Green and Jarik van Sluijs, along with their filmmaking partners at the Pic Agency, are looking to change that through their documentary – appropriately titled Be Natural, after the auteur’s clever mantra. Green came across Alice’s story from a documentary segment, Reel…
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[DIFF Review]…Sweetwater
Set in the American Old West, Sweetwater is a story of one woman’s vengeance against a religious extremist (Jason Issacs) who claims himself a prophet, and the town that allows him to rule with tyranny. After Sarah’s (January Jones) husband goes missing a chain of events eventually lead her to take justice into her own hands. With a little help from an eccentric sheriff, played by Ed Harris, whose brilliant performance is something everyone will be talking about, she may just get her revenge. The film is set in New Mexico sometime in the 1800s. We are first introduced to Sarah (Jones) and her husband Miguel (Eduardo Noriega), as a…
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[DIFF Review]…Between Us
Between Us deals with the harsh realities that exist in friendships, love marriage and life that are rarely depicted in films. Director Dan Mirvish, co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival, adapted the film from an Off-Broadway play by Joe Hortua. The film revolves around the lives of Carlo (Taye Diggs) and Joel (David Harbour), two friends who first met in art school, and moves between present moments and flashbacks into the past where we are introduced to Joel and his wife Sharyl (Melissa George) as they are hosting Carlo and his new wife Grace (Julie Stiles) at their large home in the Midwest. At this point we learn Joel and…
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[DIFF Review]…Diving Normal
Character-driven narrative feature Diving Normal that tells the story of a love triangle that occurs when two unlikely friends fall for the same girl. The film is an adaptation of the critically acclaimed play of the same name, and centers around the lives of Fulton and Gordon (played by Philipp Karner and Scotty Crowe, respectively, who also produced and co-wrote the adapted screenplay with playwright Ashlin Halfnight). Fulton and Gordon are an odd pair; Fulton is an adorable, successful graphic novelist who has no problem attracting attention from the ladies, despite (and maybe slightly because of) brief moments of insecurity, and Gordon is his sweet, yet extremely socially awkward neighbor…
