Lorry Kikta

The most important thing in Marriage Story really isn’t the divorce itself. It’s Charlie and Nicole as people on their own individual journeys through one of the hardest things a person can ever go through. It’s a beautiful character piece that revels in its protagonists’ quirks and tics.

Liberté is shocking, but it is staged as banally as possible.

It’s so much more than a story about mobsters. It’s a story of hope, success, and failure. It’s a sprawling behemoth of a film that surprisingly, considering its length, I already want to watch again.

The Disappearance of My Mother is rife with grand philosophical questions about beauty, capitalism, love, life, and death, while still maintaining the intimacy of a family connection.

The film is truly gorgeous and interesting for fans of literature.

Overall I would say that Travis Scott: Look Mom I Can Fly is an incredibly wholesome, feel-good film that shows us that hard work and determination really can bring you grand success in some cases.

Tabernacle 101 is undeniably entertaining in a trash-tv sort of way.

Official Secrets is an incredibly smart film that celebrates the whistleblowers of the world. It also shows the occasional futility in these efforts as well. It illustrates the all-powerful machine that is government and how that machine can destroy whoever it wants pretty damn easily.

I highly recommend this decades-spanning, engrossing, hilarious, sad, and informative documentary to all music fans, whether you liked Davis beforehand or not.

The film is fast and tight and hits all the beats perfectly.

Director Sam Dunn weaves wonderful mythology that leaves you happy for the band’s longevity and ready for more from the sharp-dressed men.

The movie is also just plain out fun, and I feel like a lot of other horror films could take a lesson from it.

Only a little over an hour-long, yet manages to be one of the most compelling subversions of the possession genre I’ve ever seen.

Sword Of Trust is one of the most well-written and acted comedies I’ve seen in quite some time and definitely the best I’ve seen so far this year. It has a high absurdity factor but simultaneously the set, costume, and production design is so life-like, you willing go along for this truly weird adventure that really only could happen in the south.

It should be memorable for fans of thrillers, especially for those of the home invasion variety.

This deep-thoughts comedy is a must-watch for fans of Greg’s, but also for anyone who wants something beyond frat boy comedy or the typical Apatovian-adjacent improv stuff that has become de rigueur at this point. It’s a special movie that I hope people enjoy as much as I did.

Hampstead is a perfectly good romantic dramedy.

It’s a darkly funny allegory about technology with awesome practical gore.

The cool thing about this film is that instead of the normal talking heads and formulaic path of the typical biographical documentary, we are shown photos and films from Wyman’s personal archive, which is one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen.

Into the Mirror is, as the kids say, a “#mood” but in all honesty, that is a great way to describe the film. It’s based on feelings and the subconscious seen through Daniel’s eyes, rather than being objective.

The great thing about this documentary, other than seeing some very provocative dancing, is that it goes beyond the superficial and talks about the socioeconomic situations that most black people in America face.

I recommend this film more for fans of Jarmusch than for hardcore fans of the zombie genre. Although I hope that it does serve as an introduction to Jarmusch to people who haven’t seen his other films. Hopefully, most audiences can take away the message from the movie and don’t get too thrown off by the jokes or the star power involved.

Maya Erskine is hilarious, which is no surprise, given how funny she is on Hulu’s Pen15.

Overall, Nothing Stays The Same: The Story of The Saxon Pub is a feel good movie. The ending is happy and it’s wonderful because all of these people deserve a place to showcase their art. Music is very important. Community is as well.

This film is filled with bursts of color. The high energy visuals counterbalance the tragic malaise of Goldie’s life perfectly.

This new interpretation of the beloved classic absolutely deserves to be seen in theaters.

Walking on Water is essential for any devotee of the arts, as this shows a project from fruition to dismantling, a full life cycle of an art installation if you will. I, for one, found it very fascinating.

Regardless of how someone might feel about what she’s done, XY Chelsea will definitely give you some insight into why she did it and maybe will help inform a better understanding of what’s going on behind the scenes in these long, awful wars that America keeps getting into.

The performances are inspired.

A beautifully told, deeply personal story ... for people who can dig the mumblecore.

My one complaint about the film is that it is probably about half an hour too long for my liking (it’s almost 2.5 hours long). Otherwise, I thought it was one of the more honest portrayals of growing up in less than idyllic circumstances with a less than perfect family I’ve seen in quite some time.

My favorite horror offering of the year so far. It’s smart, uncompromising, inventive and just downright hilarious.

Ask Dr. Ruth is a lovely tribute to the renowned sex therapist, but it’s not blazing any trails of its own as its subject matter has. As a documentary, it’s pretty formulaic.

It’s perfectly entertaining, it’s just not going to win any Oscars, but it doesn’t need to, it’s a summer movie for fans of the comic and adults who still feel like kids. If that’s you, go see it!

Victor Goodview is definitely goofy. There’s terrible ADR, a lot of weird time spent in bathrooms, too much man-butt, but it’s still got a heart of gold underneath. Which makes it fit into the Troma canon quite nicely, if you ask me.

If you like quiet, meditative supernatural thrillers, you will ultimately enjoy The Wind quite a bit.

There’s something for everyone in Amazing Grace. I would definitely recommend checking this out if you’re a fan of concert docs, or of the queen of soul. Even if you’re none of those things, it’s an interesting historical document, so give it a go!

Some moments are a bit corny, such as subliminal messages coming from a tape played backward. However, I find the spin that writer/director Daniel Farrands puts on one of the most gruesome murders in history, will make all who see The Haunting of Sharon Tate examine the Tate murders, and maybe our own lives differently.

Insofar as low-budget horror goes, The Edge of Isolation is successful at exploring its subject matter without becoming to cheesy or hackneyed. The acting and writing are good, as well as the score and cinematography. I think Houkal, who is also a prolific actor, has a good career ahead of him as a filmmaker.

I highly suggest seeking out Knife+Heart if you like 70s & 80s B-movie and exploitation films. This was a spot-on homage to the beloved genre. It’s hilarious and haunting and genuinely beautiful, an ambitious film that the more prudish amongst us will be squirming in their seats during. So this is definitely not something to go see with your parents, regardless of your and their ages.

This is a very inventive, original story, in a cinematic landscape that sometimes seems bereft of such things.

Essential viewing for those who want a complete perspective on the history of film. Tons of information is packed into an hour and thirty-seven minutes and much of it I didn’t know before watching.

There’s a lot of emotional and intellectual material that writer/director Josephine Mackerras grapples with in Alice, and she is quite successful in doing so.

The film also has some hilarious moments and some that tug at your heartstrings.

It’s a funny, sad, and ultimately joyous journey into a world that most Westerners will not understand. It highlights the resilience of people, particularly women, in a place where the system has set them up for failure. Yet somehow, they strive, survive, and sometimes succeed.

Something is an incredibly solid debut feature.

Woman At War is one of the best films I’ve seen about climate change that isn’t either a documentary or an extremely pedantic horror story.

Overall, I would recommend seeing this film if you are a fan of Mapplethorpe’s work, the New York art world, or of Matt Smith. He gives a bravura performance which outshines everything and everyone on screen.

This short but powerful film is extremely important in the MAGA era when all our civil rights victories as a nation are constantly in danger of being overturned. I also think it’s important for people to know that the true message of Christianity is love and acceptance, despite however many of the religion’s followers have twisted it to the contrary.

It’s a delightful comedy about some of the darkest stuff we can go through as humans, which can only be pulled off by certain writers and directors. Gus Van Sant is definitely one of them.

Some people, including a couple of people I watched the film with, may see The House That Jack Built as pretentious nonsense. Others will see it as the glorification of violence. I see it for what it was intended to be, a work of complicated, violent, hilarious art.

This film is definitely the Mads Mikkelsen show, and it is one of his most powerful, emotive performances to date.

It’s a very exciting, sad, yet extremely funny film.

The most critical element of Winter’s documentary is not the scandal itself, but the fact that hundreds of journalists from around the world were able to work together to expose this corruption, despite the consequences, and their egos.

Ghostbox Cowboy is a wonderful mishmash of mockumentary that lends comparisons to Ulrich Seidl’s work or Harmony Korine’s earlier films such as Julien Donkey Boy and Gummo, with the weirdness of Terry Gilliam and the idiosyncratic brutality of Werner Herzog, while also being a completely unique animal apart from these influences.

While nothing horrifying happens within the first half hour, what comes after is enough to give you some anxiety for at least the rest of the day after watching it.

The Marriage shows us this problematic side of love with no judgment, which is incredibly refreshing.

It’s a beautiful visual and spiritual journey through the glorious highs and devastating lows of a brilliant artist who was ahead of his time.

I found the entire emotional journey on which Weightless takes viewers to be rewarding as well as heartbreaking.

The Clovehitch Killer is one of the best horror films to come out this year. It’s intelligent and subversive, and it captures the banality of small-town life perfectly.

Please see this film, if only to hear victims speak truth to power.

Go see this movie. Take your pre-teen who’s going through an awkward phase to see it (if you let them watch stuff with bad language and underage drinking, I should say). Or if you were a kid who came of age in the actual mid 90’s, this will give you an aching nostalgia for your youth.

One definitely has to have an appreciation of the absurd to enjoy Diamantino.

It’s yet another piece of Coen Brothers’ gold that just makes me curious about what kind of magic they’re going to make next.

It’s a parody, a biopic, a comedy, a tragedy, an experimental film, and God knows what else. It may sound crazy to say, but The Other Side of The Wind is quite possibly Orson Welles’ most ambitious picture and that might explain why it remained unfinished for so long.

Non-Fiction is incredibly witty, fast-paced, and unmistakably French.

The cast in this film is incredible.