When Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) takes her girlfriend Bee (Maria Bakalova) to David’s (Pete Davidson) mansion for a hurricane party, their reception is tepid at best. Sophie is out of rehab and had stayed away from her booze and drug loving friends for a bit of space. As the group starts to get acquainted, they play a murder mystery game called “Bodies Bodies Bodies” where its tag you’re dead. What starts off as an innocent game starts to get deadly when friends start turning up dead and the hurricane has knocked out the power and cell phone reception.
Directed by Halina Reijn, Bodies Bodies Bodies is a helluva lot of fun. I attended the world premiere at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas and the crowd roared with laughter. Rachel Sennott has a standout role as Alice, the daft friend whose much older boyfriend Greg (Lee Pace) becomes the first suspect. She’s got some great lines and is really the heart of the film’s comedic core.
When the lights are off, the characters must navigate through darkness guided by only the light of their smartphones. This adds a cool and creepy element to the movie. There is also a delicious twist at the end. Bodies Bodies Bodies offers a great combination of spooks and laughs that is sure to please horror fans.
Director and cast of Bodies Bodies Bodies at the world premiere.
Bodies Bodies Bodies had its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival.
Written and directed by Morrisa Maltz, The Unknown Country stars Lily Gladstone as Tana, a young native woman who, upon learning of her grandmother’s death, sets out in her car to travel from Minnesota to Texas. She’s been estranged from her Oglala Lakota family and this journey is a way to reconnect with her roots and herself. Set against the backdrop of the 2016 election, Tana navigates vast open space of the midwest and southwest. Along the way she reconnects with her community, interacts with strangers, attends a friends wedding, develops a romantic connection and even has a couple of scares.
There is a poetic beauty to this film. The cinematography is absolutely stunning with some fantastic shots of the open highway, wintry landscapes and the Gladstone traversing the natural space of her final destination. The Unknown Country takes a hybrid approach melding elements of a feature film and a documentary. Tana’s story is fictional but the events happening around her are real. Interspersed throughout the film are documentary vignettes that tell the story of real people Tana meets during her travels.
Made over three years, the project began with a concept of a beginning and ending and everything in the middle came to be organically. In Morrisa Maltz’s director’s statement she writes:
“We feel very proud that the film shows people and aspects of humanity in the American Midwest that are often overlooked. In such a continuously divided America, we did our best to create a film that shows a patchwork of people and places that can bring us together as humans, rather than to further divide us.”
Unknown Country had its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival.
“Money doesn’t solve your problems, it just makes them prettier.”
Lindsay (Britt Rentschler) and Jack (Michael Tennant) are in a rut. Lindsay’s dreams of becoming a fashion designer have been put hold while she works a menial boutique job to pay back her student loan debt. Jack’s on probation and disbarred from being a working attorney putting him in a career limbo. As life continues to drag them down, Lindsay and Jack go through the motions of their everyday lives, losing their romantic spark and any desire for intimacy.
Everything changes when one day Cat (J.J. Nolan) waltzes into Lindsay’s work. Cat is instantly taken with Lindsay and wants to boost her self-esteem and help her manifest her dreams. But Cat and Lindsay are from completely different worlds. Cat has more money than she knows what to do with and Lindsay can’t afford to do anything other than what she’s doing. Cat invites Lindsay and Jack for a weekend away in Sonoma County and the couple are thrust into a world of outrageous privilege. $300 bottles of wine, privately distributed tequila, a 1920s murder mystery game and a drug fueled disco party has the couple torn between their plebeian existence and the lifestyles of the rich and jaded. Fun is there to be had but not everything is as it seems.
Directed by Kestrin Pantera, Pretty Problems is a gratifying comedy with a decidedly poignant message. Its endlessly fascinating to watch how different social classes come together and ultimately clash because of their vastly different lifestyles and personal priorities. The rich people here are bored and emotionally numb. Lindsay and Jack are there for their own amusement and manipulation. Rentschler and Nolan play beautifully off each other and the surrounding cast of characters spotlight just how ridiculous the ultra-privileged lifestyle can be.
Pretty Problems had its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival.
The 2022 SXSW Film Festival is about to start and I’m thrilled to be back in Austin. This year’s festival is hybrid and while I will be doing some of my coverage from the virtual space I’ll also be on site sharing my thoughts on my experiences and all the wonderful films I get to watch from this year’s slate.
Here are the films I’m most excited to check out this year!
Documentaries
Facing Nolan — dir. Bradley Jackson
This sports documentary explores former baseball pitcher Nolan Ryan’s extraordinary, yet overlooked career. As a kid I was a big Ryan fan so this is a must-see for me.
Nolan Ryan at Dell Diamond in Round Rock | Credit: The Ranch Productions, LLC
Clean— dir. Lachlan McLeod
Trauma cleaning is both difficult and important job. This documentary explores the business with a particular focus on one cleaner as she approaches both her work and her search for her birth mother.
Sandra Pankhurst attending a trauma cleaning job. | Credit: Louis Dai
Diamond Hands: The Legend of WallStreetBets — dir. Drea Cooper and Zackary Caneperi
Reddit users threw the stock market for a loop when they single-handedly made both AMC and GameStop surge. This documentary focuses on GameStop and how Reddit users tried to “democratize trading”.
Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story — dir. Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern
SXSW always offers up some great music documentaries. I’m most interested in this one which features performances, interviews as well as archival footage of this iconic music festival.
The Kennedy-Marshall Company. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Feature Film Highlights
The Cow — dir. Eli Horowitz
This thriller follows a couple to a remote cabin where they discover the place has been double booked and another couple is already staying there. They all agree to stay together for one night until two of them mysteriously disappear. Stars Winona Ryder and Dermot Mulroney.
Raquel 1:1 — dir. Mariana Bastos
I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to watch a film about another Raquel! This Brazilian drama follows a religious teenager who believes she’s received a mission from God.
Credit: Vans Bumbeers
Out of the Past
The following films will be reviewed at my sister site Out of the Past.
Still Working 9 to 5 — dir. Camille Hardman and Gary Lane
The iconic workplace comedy 9 to 5 (1980) shed light on how women are treated in the workplace. Four decades later the film still resonates. This documentary revisits the film as well as workplace culture and includes interviews with Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Rita Moreno.
Photo by Steve Schapiro/Corbis via Getty Images
The Last Movie Stars— dir. Ethan Hawke
The first chapter of this six chapter film will be premiering at SXSW and will have a future release on CNN+ and HBO Max. It follows the story of the beloved movie star couple Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. I can’t wait for this one!
Genre films
Linoleum — dir. Colin West
This sci-fi drama starring Jim Gaffigan, Rhea Seehorn, Michael Ian Black, Tony Shalhoub follows the story of middle-aged father who tries to transform a satellite into a rocket ship after it fell and hit their home.
Bodies Bodies Bodies —dir. Halina Reijn
This horror film follows a group of wealthy 20-somethings who throw a hurricane party that ultimately turns deadly. Stars Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Pete Davidson, Rachel Sennott, Myha’la Herrold, Chase Sui Wonders and Lee Pace.
Credit: Gwen Capistran
Sissy— dir. Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes
This horror film follows two best friends who have grown apart. After being reunited, things take a turn for the worst when they become isolated in a remote cabin. Stars Aisha Dee and Hannah Barlow.
Aisha Dee as Cecilia in SISSY | Credit: Steve Arnold ACS
What I missed from Sundance
Fire of Love — dir. Sara Dosa
I’ve been hearing nothing but rave reviews about this documentary. It follows the love story of French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft whose fascination with volcanoes led to their untimely demise.
Cha Cha Real Smooth — dir. Cooper Raiff
Another hit from Sundance that had everyone buzzing, Cha Cha Real Smooth stars Cooper Raiff as a 20 something college grad trying to find his way in life. Also in the cast are Dakota Johnson and Leslie Mann.
“What happens to brown girls who never learn who to love themselves brown?”
Dominicans have a long and tortured relationship with their hair. As a Dominican-American woman I know this all too well. My mother and grandmother were both hairstylists who specialized in relaxing Dominican hair to a more culturally appealing state. Wearing one’s hair “natural” was looked down upon. The pain of not being something acceptable and having to change yourself to fit an aesthetic is passed on from generation and the harm lingers for years.
This is why I’m grateful for the precious gift that is The Ritual of Beauty (2022). Directed by Shenny De Los Angeles and Maria Marrone, is a short documentary that sheds light on the social custom of straightening hair and how it keeps Dominican women from loving themselves. The doc focuses on a young Dominican woman who is on a journey to embrace her natural hair. And in doing so, she examines the stories of her mother and grandmother whose different relationships with their own hair spoke volumes of what they thought about themselves. The doc is haunting and poetic and revealing. A truly amazing film.
The Ritual to Beauty was part of the 2022 Slamdance FIlm Festival line-up.
