Premature Captures Teenage Angst Both Intimately and From a Distance

Seventeen-year-old poet Ayanna (Zora Howard) is preparing for a lot of big changes in her life. She's about to leave her small home in Harlem for college. The next phase of her life is about to begin. But before that monumental change occurs, it's time for one last summer vacation. Over the course of this summer, Ayanna begins to take up a romantic affair with an older man by the name of Isaiah (Joshua Boone). Ayanna becomes enamored with him, though Isaiah doesn't just bring joyful romance into Ayanna's world. He also brings a number of challenges into her life, including Ayanna grappling with feelings of jealousy as well as helping to stir up animosity between Ayanna and her mother.

System Crasher Is a Harrowing and Impressive Piece of FIlmmaking

As System Crasher begins, everybody has kind of given up on nine-year-old Benni (Helena Zengel). She's been moved from foster home to foster home. Each time, something goes awry. No matter how much it seems like Benni has found the perfect home, her violent tendencies, as well as a desire to retrun to her birth mother, keep creeping up. Anger management trainer Michael Heller (Albrecht Schuch) believes he can help Benni. He takes her on a three-week trip into the woods where they'll live in a secluded cabin. Away from the world, Benni will have to find more constructive outlets for her rage. Or at least, that's the plan.

Come to Daddy Doesn't Quite Fulfill Its Potential

Norval Greenwood (Elijah Wood) hasn't seen his father in a while. In fact, he hasn't seen him since his dad abandoned Norval and his mom early on in Norval's childhood. That decades of distance has come to a close now that Norval has been invited up to his dad's beachside house. Now reunited, Norval and his dad Brian (Stephen McHattie) aren't hitting it off perfectly. Brian is a tough-as-nails kind of guy who is always pushing Norval's buttons. Meanwhile, Norval just can't seem to find any way to please this dad he never knew. There's already plenty of conflicts arising from this father/son reunion before strange revelations come to light on who Norval's dad really is and what Brian has been up to all these years.

Seberg Has a Great Kristen Stewart Performance But Little Else to Offer

Seberg is half of a good movie. Anytime it focuses exclusively on its titular character, real-life movie star Jean Seberg (Kristen Stewart), it's not flawless but it's certainly more assured of itself. It's actually rooted in a real person with tangible goals and discernible struggles. But Jean Seberg is not the only focus of the screenplay by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse. We also have an FBI agent named Jack Solomon, a fictitious character played by Jack O'Connell. Constantly cutting away from Seberg's storyline to the infinitely less interesting trials & tribulations of Solomon, that's where Seberg really loses its luster.

Bacurau Uses Blood, Suspense and Social Commentary All to Great Effect

There is so much confidence surging through the bloodstream of Bacurau. There are countless moments I could reference to demonstrate the immense level of confidence found in the new film from the directorial duo of Kleber Mendonca Filho and Juliano Dornelles. However, my personal favorite has to be the sudden appearance of a UFO around the half-hour mark of Bacurau. Up to now, there hasn't even been a hint of science-fiction material in Bacurau and they provide no explanation for where this UFO came from. Filho and Dornelles (who also penned the screenplay) trust the audience enough to not need an explanation that would undercut the sense of uncertainty this memorable image is trying to convey.

Cane River Took Decades to Get Released But It Was Worth The Wait

Cane River has taken quite the journey on its road to being released. Written and directed by Horace B. Jenkins, the film was independently financed and filmed outside of the Hollywood studio system. As 1982 drew to a close, the production hoped to secure distribution that would get Cane River seen by millions. Unfortunately, tragedy struck when Jenkins died oh a heart attack in December 1982 at the age of 42. Afterward, Cane River failed to secure distribution and went unseen. For thirty years, it sat on a shelf until the discovery of a print of Cane River in 2013 sparked an effort to restore the film. Five years of editing and polishing later, Cane River premiered on the film festival circuit in 2018 before finally receiving a theatrical release in February 2020.

The Lodge's Filmmaking and Lead Performance Are Thoughtful, Its Script Less So

Right away, The Lodge lets the viewer know that it's going to be playing things gruesomely. Once Laura Hall (Alicia Silverstone) learns that her ex-husband Richard Hall (Richard Armitage) is marrying a woman named Grace Marshall (Riley Keough), she pours herself a glass of wine, sits down at her kitchen table and proceeds to shoot herself. Now deceased, Laura's kids, Aidan (Jaeden Martell) and especially Mia (Lia McHugh), are traumatized from the whole affair and harbor a deep level of resentment again Grace. They blame her for the death of Laura. Grace having a past associated with a Catholic church death cult also makes them suspicious of Grace.