pin cushion 4 7.5

PIN CUSHION Review

Pin Cushion is comparable to dipping your toes into the waters of Todd Solondz in its display of preternatural lapses in human decency and empathy.

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DUKUN STILL 1 6.5

NYAFF 2018: DUKUN Review

What is so interesting about Dukun's tackling of witchcraft as a horror subject is that the tension does not come from whether or not it is real, but from what the sadistic soul who practices it will do with her unregistered power.

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#1 THE HUNGRY LION STILL 4 5.5

NYAFF 2018: THE HUNGRY LION Review

Attempting to highlight the idea that rumors have real-world consequences for the unlucky ones they concern, The Hungry Lion is a meditation on the effects of schoolyard buzz on one of its victims in a monopolizing, objective manner, which dryly makes its opinions heard through blank, repetitive sermonizing about the ills of the young people.

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underthetree_01 4

UNDER THE TREE Review

Under the Tree just kinda likes to wallow in its unearned misery, and that just bores me. I’d much rather watch Neighbors.

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RIVER'S EDGE STILL 1 MAIN 9

NYAFF 2018: RIVER’S EDGE Review

The assembled teenage tragedies that populate River's Edge aren't suffering in their nihilistic angst to provide a lesson, however, so much as they are there to exist and envelop you into their dead-end state of mind, living as they do in presumably hazardous proximity to an industrial district that is polluting the rivers that run behind the school from which they frequently skip.

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KAKEKOMI STILL 5 6

NYAFF 2018: KAKEKOMI Review

There exists good intentions behind Harada's want to focus on the plight of Edo women and the disproportionate favoritism of the institution of marriage at the time, but lacking the follow-through and giving into broad populist appeals to entertainment makes these intents inherently shallow.

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dynamite graffiti 7.5

NYAFF 2018: DYNAMITE GRAFFITI Review

When it is knee-deep in prowling the ins and outs of the porn industry, the film shines as provocatively as Boogie Nights, but peering past this fun surface confronts you with little to no depth for the avatar doing the prowling.

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icarus_2 7

THE ICARUS LINE MUST DIE Review

Like most No Wave films, it is not necessarily what is on screen that will make you invested but the all-too-clear production details lingering just beneath the poor dramatizations that elevate the film to something more than its means.

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la-1528393061-87b607bmlh-snap-image 5.5

PRESSING ON: THE LETTERPRESS FILM Review

Sadly Pressing On isn't so much interested in the technology's history or mechanics as much as the people who have propped up the letterpress community as this all-important subculture, nor does it translate as well as it thinks it does.

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hotel_artemis_sterling_k_brown_-_photofest_-_h_2018 6.5

HOTEL ARTEMIS Review

As a walls-closing-in-type espionage thriller, the originality of his idea sours to serve the need of some weak action scenes and a script that believes it is more snappy and fluid than it is.

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_MG_1042.CR2 4

211 Review

211 proves itself to be of the lesser-spiralling Cage films that think his presence alone can elevate unremarkable, paint-by-numbers thrillers to cult-approved schlock.

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