Photo caption: Neil Young in COASTAL. Courtesy of the SLO Film Festival.
The2025 SLO Film Fest opens on April 24 and celebrates its 31st festival, bringing its characteristic mix of aspirational cinema and sheer fun to California’s Central Coast. This year’s slate is an intoxicating mix of US and international indies and festival hits fresh from their premieres at Sundance and SXSW. Plus the richest program of surf and skate films of any mainstream film festival. The fest will run through April 29.
This is the first festival since the the SLO Film Center came into being as a collaboration of the SLO Film Festival and the Palm Theatre. Fittingly, the Palm will be showcasing some films and celebrity appearances, with the festival’s biggest events at the Fremont theatre. As usual, most screenings will take place at the Downtown Centre 7. One surfing-oriented feature will screen at the Bay in Morro Bay.
Jay Duplass appearing at the SLO Film Fest, Courtesy of the SLO Film Festival.
Here are festival highlights:
The opening night film is the Sundance Audience Award winner,DJ Ahmet.
The closing night film will be Coastal, Daryl Hannah’s documentary of the latest Neil Young concert tour. Both Neil Young and Daryl Hannah are expected to appear in person.
Director Jay Duplass will appear in person to receive an award and present his SXSW hit The Baltimorons.
The biodoc Bob Mackie: A Naked Illusion, with the fashion designer Bob Mackie in attendance for a Q&A at the Palm..
The Oscar-nominated documentary Porcelain War.
The always popular Surf Night featuring three surfing short films with gnarly waves. Expect the Fremont to be packed again with surfers enjoying drinks in the lobby and the Riff Tide surf band before the screening.
Skating culture is celebrated with the second annual Community of Skate – skate films, a panel of pro skaters and skate filmmakers, and a skateboard design exhibition.
There’s plenty more, with features, workshops and six programs of shorts. I’m screening my way through the program, and will post my MUST SEE recommendations before the fest opens. Peruse the program and get your tickets at SLO Film Fest.
Photo caption: Josh O’Connor and Lily LaTorre in Max Walker Silverman’s REBUILDING, screening at the 2025 SFFILM. Courtesy of SFFILM.
This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) opens April 17, and runs through April 27. SFFILM Festival is the longest-running film festival in the Americas, and this year’s fest is the 68th. The Premier Theater at One Letterman will host the Opening, Centerpiece and Closing Nights, and most screenings will take place at the Marina Theatre and the Presidio Theatre. Screenings and events will also take place at BAMFA in Berkeley and at seven other San Francisco venues.
The menu at SFFILM Festival includes 150 films from more than 50 countries. Peruse the program and buy tickets at SFFILM.
Here are some of the more special elements of this year’s SFFILM Festival :
Opening night with Max Walker-Silverman’s Rebuilding, a drama starring Josh O’Connor (Challengers, La Chimera,The Crown) as a man whose resilience is challenged by the devastation of wildfires.
Actor André Holland will appear to receive a tribute and to showcase his new film Love, Brooklyn. Holland also appears in another SFFILM film, The Dutchman.
Director Chris Columbus will appear to receive a tribute and host a screening of his 2005 musical drama Rent.
Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari, who brought her her hilariously offbeat Attenberg and her wickedly funny Chevalier to previous SFFILM fests, is here again with her latest, Harvest, starring Harry Melling and Caleb Landry Jones.
SFFILM celebrates the treasured Roxie Theater with its 30-yar-old Mel Novikoff Award and a Roxie screening of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, in the year of that movie’s 75th anniversary,
One of the deepest documentary sections in recent memory, including fourteen US and thirteen international features.
Horror retrospective with The Babadook, Carnival of Souls, They Live, Chain Reactions and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Movies starring Marlee Maitlin, Josh O’Connor, Kate Mara, Andre Holland, Ben Foster, Chloe Sevigny, Danielle Deadwyler, Marina Foïs, Caleb Landry Jones, Harry Melling and Simon Rex.
As usual, I’ll be looking for under-the-radar gems and posting my recommendations just before the fest’s opening
Photo caption: Alexander Karim in THE DOG. Courtesy of Cinequest.
Beginning today, and thru midnight March 31, select films from this year’s Cinequest are now available to watch at home through Cinequest’s online festival Cinejoy. The price is less than ten bucks per movie, and you can watch all of them with a $50 pass,
There’s a Spotlight section where you can join others watching the film at the same time and participate in Q&A with the filmmakers. The films that I recommend are in the Cinejoy Showcase section, so you can watch them whenever convenient:
The Dog: This electrifying thriller follows a classic neo-noir premise. A low level hood is assigned to drive a call girl, and he falls for her – against the explicit instructions of their employer and advice from the call girl herself. To stake a new start in a faraway land, he reaches for the big score. Desperation results. What’s unusual about The Dog is that it’s exceptionally exciting and that it’s set in Mombasa, Kenya. There’s a wonderful low-speed tuk tuk chase (on three-wheel taxis) through Mombasa’s open air markets, street performers and herds of goats. And there’s another unforgettable scene that will be particularly uncomfortable for male audience members.
The Move In: In this Mexican drama, a couple moves into a new home and, the first night, think someone has broken in; it turns out to be only the clang of an old window, but it’s a really scary experience, and the man, heading off to defend them, suffers a panic attack. As they unwind from the incident, it appears like they can get past it, but can they? In his first feature, writer-director-producer RS Quintanilla gradually reveals more about the origin and underpinnings of their newish relationship, as the experience makes its mark . It’s a similar premise to Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure, but The Move In is more subtle and perhaps even better. This a profoundly clever screenplay, and The Move In is one of the very best films at Cinequest. World premiere.
Burt: The title character in this affecting dramedy is a an elderly street musician with Parkinson’s. Burt rents a room in the home of his landlord Steve, an ever-suspicious and oppositional guy who is Burt’s age. Nevertheless, Burt is relentlessly upbeat. A young man, Sammy, arrives with a letter from one of Burt’s youthful flames, explaining that Sammy is Burt’s son. Burt jumps into belated fatherhood with both feet, and then discovers that all is not what it seems. Director and co-writer Joe Burke, in his second feature, succeeds in getting fine performances from non-professional actors playing Burt and Steve. Executive produced by indie stalwart David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls, Undertow). World premiere.
Alien: This mysterious Russian sci fi tale is set in the unfamiliar, remote Ural hinterlands. Lyosha, the local oddball, has a hearing disability, lives in his grandmother’s cabin on the edge of the settlement, and has built an impressive tower out of trash that he has collected. He has also jerrybuilt a radio system and made giant circles in the fields, all attempts to contact space aliens He is teased pitilessly by the village japesters. We later learn that the long ago disappearance of his mother has affected his psyche. A newcomer suddenly appears at his cabin – most certainly not looking like any space alien that Lyosha has imagined. Is this visitor just a runaway from another village, an emissary from deep in the universe, or a supernatural messenger from his mother? It’s all up in air as hostile villagers close in, all thew way to an unpredictable ending. US premiere.
Xibalba Monster: In this gentle, 76-minute tale, a pudgy Cuernavaca 10-year-old is sent off with his nanny for an extended visit in her remote Yucatan village. The affluent city kid is now in a poor community, tucked in the jungle with ancient Mayan ruins. He is now among the country kids, who do what kids do, completely unsupervised. He’s not been getting attention or affection from his widowed father, and he’s developed into a watchful, quietly curious kid with a gift for lying when convenient. He’s curious about mortality, and, throughout the story, reminders of death keep popping up – a highway accident, a museum with spooky artifacts, roadkill, a cemetery, local tall tales and more. Still, Xibalba Monster is decidedly not scary and captures the way that kids play and imagine. Adults will enjoy it, as will kids from middle school up. US premiere.
Boutique: To Preserve and Collect: This infectious documentary is about passion – passion that fuels the preservation and rejuvenation of cult cinema. We’re mostly talking about exploitation movies that would otherwise be lost. Much the credit for saving them goes to Severin Films and Vinegar Syndrome, which are essentially the Criterion Collection for grindhouse cinema. Both companies evolved from aficionados making bootleg tapes of their favorite obscure films into legitimate catalogues of preserved films. You may not think that a certain movie is IMPORTANT, but there is probably someone who finds it absolutely ESSENTIAL. Many movies have been made to be disposable, but have inspired loyal fans. One person’s drive-in may be another’s arthouse. What makes Boutique: To Preserve and Collect fun to watch is the contagious enthusiasm of the devotees. US premiere
American Agitators: This is the important story of legendary organizer Fred Ross, the mentor of Cesar Chavez, and essentially a saint of the social justice movement. American Agitators shows Ross being formed by the Great Depression and the left-wing politics, the union movement and the New Deal. This extraordinarily well-sourced doc rolls out Ross’ legacy today, not just Chavez the icon and the Farmworkers movement, but the influence of Fred Ross, Jr. and organizing campaigns in 2025. LOCAL INTEREST: Fred Ross met Chavez at Cesar’s home at 53 Sharff Avenue in San Jose, hired Cesar as his deputy and organized out of McDonnell Hall at Our Lady of Guadalupe on East Antonio Street. Cesar’s son Paul (of San Jose) appears in the film as does Luis Valdes of Teatro Campesino, who has also had a significant presence in San Jose. World premiere.
A Little Fellow: The Legacy of A.P. Giannini: Here’s an underdog story – a boy loses his immigrant father, starts out impoverished and builds the nation’s largest bank, helping to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. This very comprehensive documentary also tells the less well-known story of Giannini as movie financier – backing films like City Lights, Gone with the Wind and Sleeping Beauty. LOCAL INTEREST: Giannini’s childhood began in San Jose, his father was murdered in Alviso, and his first bank branch building still stands, only 1500 feet from the Cinequest screening at the Hammer Theatre.. US Premiere.
Silent Sparks: In this Taiwanese neo-noir, small time hood Pua is released from prison and checks in with the swaggering, exuberant local crime lord. The boss assigns him to a lieutenant, Mi-Ji, who happens to be Pua’s former cell-mate. But when Pua and Mi-Ji meet again, the encounter is a study in social awkwardness. Pua just wants to start earning money and working his way up in the syndicate, but Mi-Ji is surprisingly unhelpful. What explains Mi-Ji’s behavior toward Pua? As Silent Sparks smolders on, the risks escalate. Promising first feature for writer-director Ping Chu. US premiere.
In a Wintry Season: This heartfelt and intoxicating documentary starts out looking like a fairy tale, and unpredictably turns decidedly not, as the real world and human behavior intervene. I generally resist filmmakers profiling their own parents, but In a Wintry Season won me over with its candor, authenticity and surprises. It’s a relatable story of two people and their family and their times, but it brings us into a meditation on what is American Catholicism today. With its very sweet ending, In a Wintry Season will be a crowd=pleaser at Cinequest. US Premiere.
These are all good, but don’t miss The Dog and The Move In.
Florencia Rios and Noé Hernández in THE MOVE IN. Courtesy of Cinequest.
Photo caption: Florencia Rios and Noé Hernández in THE MOVE IN. Courtesy of Cinequest.
Here are the Cinequest 2025 films that I hadn’t written about yet in my The Best of Cinequest:
The Move In: In this Mexican drama, a couple moves into a new home and, the first night, think someone has broken in; it turns out to be only the clang of an old window, but it’s a really scary experience, and the man, heading off to defend them, suffers a panic attack. As they unwind from the incident, it appears like they can get past it, but can they? In his first feature, writer-director-producer RS Quintanilla gradually reveals more about the origin and underpinnings of their newish relationship, as the experience makes its mark. It’s a similar premise to Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure, but The Move In is more subtle and perhaps even better. This a profoundly clever screenplay, and The Move In is one of the very best films at Cinequest. World premiere.
Xibalba Monster: In this gentle, 76-minute tale, a pudgy Cuernavaca 10-year-old is sent off with his nanny for an extended visit in her remote Yucatan village. The affluent city kid is now in a poor community, tucked in the jungle with ancient Mayan ruins. He is now among the country kids, who do what kids do, completely unsupervised. He’s not been getting attention or affection from his widowed father, and he’s developed into a watchful, quietly curious kid with a gift for lying when convenient. He’s curious about mortality, and, throughout the story, reminders of death keep popping up – a highway accident, a museum with spooky artifacts, roadkill, a cemetery, local tall tales and more. Still, Xibalba Monster is decidedly not scary and captures the way that kids play and imagine. Adults will enjoy it, as will kids from middle school up. US premiere.
Boutique: To Preserve and Collect: This infectious documentary is about passion – passion that fuels the preservation and rejuvenation of cult cinema. We’re mostly talking about exploitation movies that would otherwise be lost. Much the credit for saving them goes to Severin Films and Vinegar Syndrome, which are essentially the Criterion Collection for grindhouse cinema. Both companies evolved from aficionados making bootleg tapes of their favorite obscure films into legitimate catalogues of preserved films. You may not think that a certain movie is IMPORTANT, but there is probably someone who finds it absolutely ESSENTIAL. Many movies have been made to be disposable, but have inspired loyal fans. One person’s drive-in may be another’s arthouse. What makes Boutique: To Preserve and Collect fun to watch is the contagious enthusiasm of the devotees. US premiere
A Little Fellow: The Legacy of A.P. Giannini: Here’s an underdog story – a boy loses his immigrant father, starts out impoverished and builds the nation’s largest bank, helping to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. This very comprehensive documentary also tells the less well-known story of Giannini as movie financier – backing films like City Lights, Gone with the Wind and Sleeping Beauty. LOCAL INTEREST: Giannini’s childhood began in San Jose, his father was murdered in Alviso, and his first bank branch building still stands, only 1500 feet from the Cinequest screening at the Hammer Theatre.. US Premiere.
Nora: A singer-songwriter (Anna Campbell, who also wrote and directed) leaves the music industry to return to her hometown, along with her precocious six-year-old daughter. Her confidence rocked by her life changes, she is now the new gal in a society run by her former high school classmates. Her feelings are reflected in her songs, dropped in throughout the movie, and Campbell shows a knack for directing music videos. Campbell’s screenplay genuinely captures the vulnerabilities of solo parenting and career change. Two of the characters are unrealistically perfect, but Campbell resists the cliche of having Nora hook up with the guy. The kid actor, Sophie Mara Baaden, is very good. The songs, written by Noah Harmon, are outstanding. World premiere.
The Bitter Tears of Zahra Zand: Having fled the Islamic Revolution of 1979, recently divorced and going broke, a famous Iranian fashion designer is trying to maintain her former lifestyle in London. She tends to narcissism and extravagance, which makes for character-driven humor. The designer is wonderfully played by Iranian poet Boshra Dastournezhad (so good in Radio Dreams), who co-write the screenplay. It’s basically a remake of Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.
1 + 1 + 1, Life, Love, Chaos: In this awkwardly titled Quebecois comedy, an author suffering from writer’s block takes her on-and-off boyfriend and her teen daughter for a secluded week at her aunt’s country cabin. As she battles with her self-confidence, the situations struck me as contrived in a sit-commy way, but the protagonist’s narration of her inner dialogue is a hoot. World premiere.
The Courageous: In this Swiss drama, a mom lives on the margins with her kids. She admittedly has no good choices, but she takes increasing risks to provide for the kids. The film is well-acted and well-shot, but it intends to depict the mom as rebellious and individualistic, when she is actually endangering her children’s welfare and long-term futures. Instead of rooting for the mom, audience members will want to call Swiss Child Protective Services.
The Summer Book: An elementary school-age girl and her father, struggling with the death of her mother, spend the summer at her grandmother’s home on a tiny Finnish island. The grandmother (Glenn Close) always knows the right thing to do or say as the girl heals and comes of age. This is an adaptation of the 1972 novel by Finnish-Swedish author Tove Jansson, which is reputedly a great read. Unfortunately, its literary merit isn’t translated to the screen. Close’s fine performance can’t save this slog. I checked the time after nothing had happened in the first 31 minutes, and decided to keep watching in case it turned out to be the most boring film I had ever seen. That most boring film ever remains Le Quattro Volte, but The Summer Book is a contender.
Manuel Irene in XIBALBA MONSTER. Courtesy of Cinequest.
Photo caption: Sergio Podeley in GUNMAN. Courtesy of Cinequest.
Cinequest, Silicon Valley’s own major film festival, returns live and in-person March 11, back in downtown San Jose, with screenings March 11-24 at the California Theatre, the Hammer Theater and 3Below. Selected films from the program then move to Cinequest’s virtual platform, Cinejoy, from March 23-30. I’m covering Cinequest for the fourteenth straight year.
I’ve already seen over twenty offerings from Cinequest 2025, and here are my initial recommendations. As usual, I focus on the world and US premieres. Follow the links for full reviews, images and trailers. I’ve also included some tips for making the most of the Cinequest experience under “Hacking Cinequest”. I’m leading off with two neo-thrillers – one set in Buenos Aired and one in Mombasa Kenya – and a haunting sci fi from Italy.
MUST SEE
Gunman (Gatillero): This hyper-kinetic Argentine neo-noir kicks off when the small time gunsel Galgo returns from prison and learns that the neighborhood drug gangs find him expendable. He immediately finds himself framed for a gangland assassination and goes on the run in a 75-minute, real-time thrill ride. As the prey in a midnight man hunt, Galgo’s dash for survival is captured by a handheld camera in shots of very long duration. If you liked Run, Lola, Run or Victoria, you’ll love Gunman. Gunman is an amazing first feature for director and co-writer, Cris Tapia Marchiori, and an unforgettable achievement for Marchiori and his veteran cinematographer Martin Sapia. Based on a true story and shot in its actual setting, the drug-plagued Buenos Aires neighborhood of Isla Maciel, Gunman is brimming with verisimilitude. US premiere.
The Dog: The electrifying thriller The Dog follows a classic neo-noir premise. A low level hood is assigned to drive a call girl, and he falls for her – against the explicit instructions of their employer and advice from the call girl herself. To stake a new start in a faraway land, he reaches for the big score. Desperation results. What’s unusual about The Dog is that it’s exceptionally exciting and that it’s set in Mombasa, Kenya. There’s a wonderful low-speed tuk tuk chase (on three-wheel taxis) through Mombasa’s open air markets, street performers and herds of goats. And there’s another unforgettable scene that will be particularly uncomfortable for male audience members.
The Complex Forms: This visually striking atmospheric is set in a centuries-old Italian villa, where Christian and other down-on-their-luck middle-aged men sell their bodies for a period of days to be “possessed”. Possessed how? By who or by what? As the dread builds, Christian resolves to pry the answers from the secretive masters of the villa. Director Fabio D’Orta unspools the story with remarkably crisp black-and-white cinematography, a brooding soundtrack and impeccable editing. In his astonishingly impressive filmmaking debut, D’Orta wrote, directed, shot and edited The Complex Form.
MORE INTERNATIONAL CINEMA
Alien: This mysterious Russian sci fi tale is set in the unfamiliar, remote Ural hinterlands. Lyosha, the local oddball, has a hearing disability, lives in his grandmother’s cabin on the edge of the settlement, and has built an impressive tower out of trash that he has collected. He has also jerrybuilt a radio system and made giant circles in the fields, all attempts to contact space aliens He is teased pitilessly by the village japesters. We later learn that the long ago disappearance of his mother has affected his psyche. A newcomer suddenly appears at his cabin – most certainly not looking like any space alien that Lyosha has imagined. Is this visitor just a runaway from another village, an emissary from deep in the universe, or a supernatural messenger from his mother? It’s all up in air as hostile villagers close in, all thew way to an unpredictable ending. US premiere.
Silent Sparks: In this Taiwanese neo-noir, small time hood Pua is released from prison and checks in with the swaggering, exuberant local crime lord. The boss assigns him to a lieutenant, Mi-Ji, who happens to be Pua’s former cell-mate. But when Pua and Mi-Ji meet again, the encounter is a study in social awkwardness. Pua just wants to start earning money and working his way up in the syndicate, but Mi-Ji is surprisingly unhelpful. What explains Mi-Ji’s behavior toward Pua? As Silent Sparks smolders on, the risks escalate. Promising first feature for writer-director Ping Chu. US premiere.
DOCUMENTARIES
The Unfixing: This mesmerizing film is a self-therapeutic memoir, chronicling the filmmaker’s personal journey through her parents’ divorcee, her own sudden disability from chronic fatigue syndrome, and then shockingly, her daughter’s affliction with the same symptoms via Lyme Disease; mom and daughter experiment with a new therapy that purports to rewire their brains. The clever structured (in yearly segments tied to climate change) and repeated motifs (of photography, the beach and grief) make this an art film inside a memoir. How will this family story end? This unique film may not be for everyone, but it’s that wholly original cinema that people hope to see at a film festival. US Premiere.
American Agitators: This is the important story of legendary organizer Fred Ross, the mentor of Cesar Chavez, and essentially a saint of the social justice movement. American Agitators shows Ross being formed by the Great Depression and the left-wing politics, the union movement and the New Deal. This extraordinarily well-sourced doc rolls out Ross’ legacy today, not just Chavez the icon and the Farmworkers movement, but the influence of Fred Ross, Jr. and organizing campaigns in 2025. LOCAL INTEREST: Fred Ross met Chavez at Cesar’s home at 53 Sharff Avenue in San Jose, hired Cesar as his deputy and organized out of McDonnell Hall at Our Lady of Guadalupe on East Antonio Street. Cesar’s son Paul (of San Jose) appears in the film as does Luis Valdes of Teatro Campesino, who has also had a significant presence in San Jose. World premiere.
In a Wintry Season: This heartfelt and intoxicating documentary starts out looking like a fairy tale, and unpredictably turns decidedly not, as the real world and human behavior intervene. I generally resist filmmakers profiling their own parents, but In a Wintry Season won me over with its candor, authenticity and surprises. It’s a relatable story of two people and their family and their times, but it brings us into a meditation on what is American Catholicism today. With its very sweet ending, In a Winrty Season wil be a crowd=pleaser at Cinequest. US Premiere.
INDIE
Burt: The title character in this affecting dramedy is a an elderly street musician with Parkinson’s. Burt rents a room in the home of his landlord Steve, an ever-suspicious and oppositional guy who is Burt’s age. Nevertheless, Burt is relentlessly upbeat. A young man, Sammy, arrives with a letter from one of Burt’s youthful flames, explaining that Sammy is Burt’s son. Burt jumps into belated fatherhood with both feet, and then discovers that all is not what it seems. Director and co-writer Joe Burke, in his second feature, succeeds in getting fine performances from non-professional actors playing Burt and Steve. Executive produced by indie stalwart David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls, Undertow). World premiere.
COMEDY
Time Travel Is Dangerous: In this deadpan British comedy, two ditzy gals who run a vintage shop discover a discarded gizmo from the early VCR era; it turns out to be an operational time machine, which they use to pilfer objects in the past that they can merchandise in the present. “You can’t put a price on nostalgia. Well, we do.” The two are tracked down by a consortium of inventors, and Time Travel Is Dangerous brilliantly sends up organizational behavior and other human foibles (one becomes stuck in her insufferable teenage years. When they carelessly unlock a dangerous vortex, we’re off to another dimension. The filmmakers don’t take themselves too seriously, and the special effects are the best you can find at the Dollar Store If you like Portlandia and Best In Show, but wish they were wackier, you’ll enjoy Time Travel Is Dangerous. Bay Area premiere.
HACKING CINEQUEST
Cinequest resumes its Downtown San Jose vibe, with concurrent screenings at the 1122-seat California, the 550-seat Hammer and the more intimate 3Below – all within 1600 feet of each other (and the VIP lounge at the Continental ).
At Cinequest, you can get a festival pass for as little as $199 (a ten-pack for $110), and you can get individual tickets as well. Take a look at the entire program, theschedule and the passes and tickets.
As usual, I’ll be covering Cinequest rigorously with features and movie recommendations. I usually screen (and write about) twenty to thirty films from around the world. Bookmark my CINEQUEST 2025 page page, with links to all my coverage.
David Allen White in Fabio D’Orta’s THE COMPLEX FORMS. Courtesy of Slamdance.
The visually striking atmospheric The Complex Forms is set in a centuries-old Italian villa, where Christian (David Allen White) and other down-on-their-luck middle-aged men sell their bodies for a period of days to be “possessed”. Possessed how? By who or by what? As the dread builds, Christian resolves to pry the answers from the secretive masters of the villa.
Director Fabio D’Orta unspools the story with remarkably crisp black-and-white cinematography, a brooding soundtrack and impeccable editing. In his astonishingly impressive filmmaking debut, D’Orta wrote, directed, shot and edited The Complex Form.
David Allen White is excellent as Christian, who begins resigned to endure whatever process that he has committed to, but becomes increasingly uneasy as his probing questions are deflected. So are Michael Venni as Christian’s talkative roommate Luh and Cesare Bonomelli as the impassive roommate simply called The Giant.
Like his countrymen Fellini and Leona, D’Orta has a gift for using faces to heighten interest and tell the story. He makes especially effective use of Bonomelli’s Mt. Rushmore-like countenance.
I screened The Complex Forms for its United States premiere at Slamdance. The Complex Forms was my favorite Slamdance film and won the festival’s Honorable Mention for Narrative Feature. The Complex Forms is playing Cinequest on March 12 and 13.
Photo caption: Naomi Watts and Bill Murray in THE FRIEND, the closing night film nd Cinequest. Courtesy of Bleecker Street.
Cinequest, Silicon Valley’s own major film festival, returns March 11-24 to downtown San Jose, with screenings at the California Theatre, the Hammer Theater and 3Below. Selected films from the program then move to to Cinequest’s virtual platform, Cinejoy, March 23-30.
Highlights of the 2025 Cinequest include:
110 world and US premieres and many directorial debuts.
Films from 45 countries, including from Italy, Russia, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, China, India, Vietnam, Iran, Serbia, Korea, Kenya, Switezerland and the United Kingdom.
New movies with Naomi Watt, Bill Murray, Glenn Close, Patricia Clarkson, David Straithern, Gillian Anderson, Walton Goggins, Paul Walter Hauser, Lou Diamond Phillips, Constance Wu, Ken Jeong, Carla Gugino and Jon Heder.
A personal appearance by film star Gillian Anderson (The X-Files, The Crown), who will receive an award and present her latest film, The Salt Path.
Directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel make very few films but they’re superb (The Deep End, Montana Story); they’re contributing their latest to Cinequest – The Friend, starring Bill Murray and Naomi Watts.
Two films of local historical interest: American Agitators (about famed organizer Fred Ross mentoring Cesar Chavez in San Jose) and A Little Fellow The Legacy of A.P. Gianni (about the founder of Bank of Italy/Bank of America – his first branch still stands in San Jose, three blocks from Cinequest).
Cinequest’s Silent Cinema Event will present F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (the seminal 1922 Dracula film, starring the scary Max Schenk) accompanied by master organist Dennis James on the historic California Theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer.
And, at Cinequest, it’s easy to meet the filmmakers.
At Cinequest, you can get a festival pass for as little as $199 (a ten-pack for $110), and you can get individual tickets as well. The prices have not been raised SINCE 2019!) Take a look at the entire program, theschedule and the passes and tickets
I’ll be rigorously covering Cinequest for the fourteenth straight year with features and movie recommendations. I usually screen (and write about) over twenty Cinequest films from around the world. Bookmark my CINEQUEST 2025 page, with links to all my coverage (links on the individual movies will start to go live on Sunday, March 9.
Yana Osman (right) in her TWIN FENCES. Courtesy of Slamdance.
In her quirky, and finally profound, documentary Twin Fences, writer-director Yana Osman starts us off with what seems like a a droll, absurdist film about a ridiculously obscure subject, a prefab concrete fence design replicated thru the USSR. Osman stands, hands down at her side, facing the camera, spouting random facts. It may be off-putting at first, but the approach grows to be intoxicating. When she finds talking heads who are actually experts on the fences, we wonder if we’re watching a parody of a talking head expert documentary. We even hear about a Soviet who returned from Chicago in the 1920s, inspired to improve public health with a proprietary sausage.
Osman’s story takes us through Russia, Afghanistan and Ukraine, until there’s a pivotal tragedy in her family. The ending, with her grandfather, is sweet and heartbreaking. Only then do we realize that we’ve just watched a clear-eyed comment on contemporary Russia.
TWIN FENCES. Courtesy of Slamdance.
I’ve never seen a film that wanders across such disparate topics over 99 minutes, seemingly randomly, but which turns out to get somewhere unexpected and worth arriving at. This is Osman’s first feature; Twin Fences is very well-edited, and unsettling tones on the soundtrack help tell the story. Osman is an idiosyncratic, and, I think, pretty brilliant filmmaker.
Audiences who hang withTwin Fences will be rewarded. I screened Twin Fences for its North American premiere at Slamdance.
Slamdance is all about discovering new filmmakers and unveiling their work. The 146 films in this year’s program hail from 20 countries and were selected from 9,381 submissions. Slamdance alumni include: Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer, Memento,Dunkirk), Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin, Green Room), Lynn Shelton (Outside In,Sword of Truth), Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine), Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Brick), Benny & Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems) and the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War).
Here are my recommendations from Slamdance:
Universe25: This thoughtful, ever-surprising and mysterious film embeds a fable of self-discovery in a dystopian sci-fi framework. Mott the Angel (Giacomo Gex) is sent to Earth, essentially on a cleanup mission, by a Creator who is ready to pull the plug on our world. In a singular and impressive feature debut, writer-director Richard Melkonian has imagined a look at humanity from an space alien’s point of view. As he careens from Britain to Romania, Mott questions just what/who he aspires to be. Hilariously, the story is revealed when the scroll that Mott writes for the Creator ends up in the lost mail bin, where it is read by a bitter postal clerk. World premiere.
Banr: The star here is writer/director/editor Erica Xia-Hou’s innovative storytelling – in her first feature film. An elderly husband, is struggling to hold on to his wife as she sinks into Alzheimer’s, with the support of their adult daughter (Xia-Hou herself). That main story is told in a cinéma vérité documentary style, but that’s just what the husband and daughter see in their lucidity. Those segments are interwoven with fragments of the wife’s memory and her delusions and dreams. In depicting the most ordinary daily activities, Xia-Hou keeps us continually off-guard by shifting the points of view between the clear-eyed and the muddled. Banr is an immersive film, filled with humanity. World premiere.
FOUL EVIL DEEDS: This deadpan anthology depicts a range of aberrant human behavior, most of it darkly funny. The deeds themselves arise from a variety of root causes: inner rage, social clumsiness, youthful stupidity, an uncommon sexual need, entitlement – and one from deep-seated evil. It’s a wry, clever and very cynical movie that veers to the misanthropic. Richard Hunter’s debut feature is consciously an art film; Hunter says he is influenced by the work of Ulrich Seidl, Michael Haneke and Roy Andersson, and it shows. It’s a slow burn, and the audience wonders, why is that guy checking out the remote wooded wetland? Alexander Perkins is excellent as a man grinding his teeth through workaday drudgery as a consequence of anger management issues that he can’t shake, and there’s an unexpectedly riveting performance by Oengus MacNamara in a minor role. The segment about a neighbor’s cat could have been written by Larry David about George Costanza. I think that FOUL EVIL DEEDS is likely to secure US arthouse distribution. North American premiere.
Twin Fences: Director Yana Osman starts us out with a droll, absurdist doc on a ridiculously obscure subject, then hits us with a pivotal family tragedy, and finishes, with her own grandfather, in a sweet and heartbreaking ending. Only then, do we realize that we’ve just watched a clear-eyed comment on contemporary Russia. Audiences who hang with this first feature by Osman will be rewarded. Osman is an idiosyncratic, and I think, pretty brilliant filmmaker. North American premiere.
Memories of Love Returned: On a 2002 trip to his native Uganda, actor Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (Treme, The Chi, The Lincoln Lawyer) happened upon a rural studio portrait photographer named Kibaate. Over a span of decades, Kibaate had documented everyday people over decades in thousands of portrait, many of them stunningly evocative. Mwine helped Kibaate preserve his body of work, and after Kibaate’s death 20 years later, organized a public showcase of Kibaate’s collection. The revelation of the unknown Kibaate as an artistic genius, is a compelling enough story, but the exhibition prompts a complicated and sometimes awkward exploration of Kibaate’s siring a prodigious number of children with a bevy of surviving mothers. The filmmaker’s own health and family story takes Memories of Love Returned seamlessly into another direction, topped off by Kibaate’s documentation of Ugandan LGBTQ culture. The second documentary feature directed by Mwine, Memories of Love Returned has been piling up awards from film festivals.
FISHMONGER (short): I rarely write about short films, but this is such a very funny gross-out horror comedy, that I can’t resist. The story is about a pudgy Irish fishmonger who must mate with a sea monster to save the soul of his dying mother. Lots of bursting lesions and vomited objects. Beautifully photographed in Gothic horror black and white.
Remember, you can watch ALL of them at home through March 7 for only fifty bucks.
Baoqing Li and Sui Li in BANR. Courtesy of ShangJia Picture Film Culture.
Photo caption: Trey Holland and Romina D’Ugo in Woody Bess’ PORTAL TO HELL. Courtesy of Portal to Hell LLC
It’s time for the 31st Slamdance Film Festival, which is all about discovering new filmmakers and unveiling their work. After 30 years in Utah, this is the first Slamdance in Los Angeles. It’s a hybrid festival with live events (February 20-26) and online via the Slamdance Channel (February 24-March 7). Three LA venues will host the screenings – The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood, Directors Guild of America and Quixote Studios.
All Slamdance feature films selected in the competition categories have traditionally bee directorial debuts without U.S. distribution, with budgets of less than $1 million. The 146 films in this year’s program hail from 20 countries and were selected from 9,381 submissions.
Slamdance was founded in 1995 by filmmakers reacting to the gatekeeper role and growing marketplace focus of a nearby Utah film festival with a similar name. Whenever I cover a film festival, I’m on the lookout for first films and world premieres – and here’s a festival essentially entirely made up of first films and world premieres.
Slamdance alumni include: Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer, Memento,Dunkirk), Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin, Green Room), Lynn Shelton (Outside In,Sword of Truth), Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine), Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Brick), Benny & Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems) and the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War).
Photo caption: Giacomo Gex in Richard Melkonian’s UNIVERSE 25. Courtesy of Slamdance.
MUST SEE
Here are four narrative features, two documentaries and a short from the 2025 Slamdance program that you shouldn’t miss. Each features at least one original and fresh element:
Universe25: This thoughtful, ever-surprising and mysterious film embeds a fable of self-discovery in a dystopian sci-fi framework. Mott the Angel (Giacomo Gex) is sent to Earth, essentially on a cleanup mission, by a Creator who is ready to pull the plug on our world. In a singular and impressive feature debut, writer-director Richard Melkonian has imagined a look at humanity from an space alien’s point of view. As he careens from Britain to Romania, Mott questions just what/who he aspires to be. Hilariously, the story is revealed when the scroll that Mott writes for the Creator ends up in the lost mail bin, where it is read by a bitter postal clerk. World premiere.
Portal to Hell: In this witty, dark comedy, a hangdog bill collector named Dunn (get it?) discovers a portal to hell, replete with hellfire and brimstone, in his local laundromat, and he strikes a bargain with its proprietor. Dunn is too nice for his wretched job, but just what is he capable of? And how about the insipid pop band who sings your least favorite earworm – who wouldn’t want to consign THEM to hell? Portal to Hell considers the question, what is a good person? but never too seriously. This is an imaginative, comic triumph for writer/director/cinematographer Woody Bess. Trey Holland and Romina D’Ugo are excellent as the leads, and Portal to Hell benefits from very rich supporting performances from lauded actors Keith David and Richard Kind. Portal to Hell could be the most sure-fire crowd-pleaser at this year’s Slamdance. World premiere.
Banr: The star here is writer/director/editor Erica Xia-Hou’s innovative storytelling – in her first feature film. An elderly husband, is struggling to hold on to his wife as she sinks into Alzheimer’s, with the support of their adult daughter (Xia-Hou herself). That main story is told in a cinéma vérité documentary style, but that’s just what the husband and daughter see in their lucidity. Those segments are interwoven with fragments of the wife’s memory and her delusions and dreams. In depicting the most ordinary daily activities, Xia-Hou keeps us continually off-guard by shifting the points of view between the clear-eyed and the muddled. Banr is an immersive film, filled with humanity. World premiere.
FOUL EVIL DEEDS: This deadpan anthology depicts a range of aberrant human behavior, most of it darkly funny. The deeds themselves arise from a variety of root causes: inner rage, social clumsiness, youthful stupidity, an uncommon sexual need, entitlement – and one from deep-seated evil. It’s a wry, clever and very cynical movie that veers to the misanthropic. Richard Hunter’s debut feature is consciously an art film; Hunter says he is influenced by the work of Ulrich Seidl, Michael Haneke and Roy Andersson, and it shows. It’s a slow burn, and the audience wonders, why is that guy checking out the remote wooded wetland? Alexander Perkins is excellent as a man grinding his teeth through workaday drudgery as a consequence of anger management issues that he can’t shake, and there’s an unexpectedly riveting performance by Oengus MacNamara in a minor role. The segment about a neighbor’s cat could have been written by Larry David about George Costanza. I think that FOUL EVIL DEEDS is likely to secure US arthouse distribution. North American premiere.
Twin Fences: Director Yana Osman starts us out with a droll, absurdist doc on a ridiculously obscure subject, then hits us with a pivotal family tragedy, and finishes, with her own grandfather, in a sweet and heartbreaking ending. Only then, do we realize that we’ve just watched a clear-eyed comment on contemporary Russia. Audiences who hang with this first feature by Osman will be rewarded. Osman is an idiosyncratic, and I think, pretty brilliant filmmaker. North American premiere.
Memories of Love Returned: On a 2002 trip to his native Uganda, actor Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (Treme, The Chi, The Lincoln Lawyer) happened upon a rural studio portrait photographer named Kibaate. Over a span of decades, Kibaate had documented everyday people over decades in thousands of portrait, many of them stunningly evocative. Mwine helped Kibaate preserve his body of work, and after Kibaate’s death 20 years later, organized a public showcase of Kibaate’s collection. The revelation of the unknown Kibaate as an artistic genius, is a compelling enough story, but the exhibition prompts a complicated and sometimes awkward exploration of Kibaate’s siring a prodigious number of children with a bevy of surviving mothers. The filmmaker’s own health and family story takes Memories of Love Returned seamlessly into another direction, topped off by Kibaate’s documentation of Ugandan LGBTQ culture. The second documentary feature directed by Mwine, Memories of Love Returned has been piling up awards from film festivals.
FISHMONGER (short): I rarely write about short films, but this is such a very funny gross-out horror comedy, that I can’t resist. The story is about a pudgy Irish fishmonger who must mate with a sea monster to save the soul of his dying mother. Lots of bursting lesions and vomited objects. Beautifully photographed in Gothic horror black and white.
I’ll start rolling out full reviews of some Slamdance films on February 24th. Remember, even if you don’t get to the fest in LA, you can sample these films on the Slamdance Channel from February 24 thru March 7.
Filmmaker Yana Osman (right) in TWIN FENCES. Courtesy of Slamdance.
