In writer/director Charles Davis' Tender Kisses, psychologist Dr. Barto Helius (Davis) breaks so many rules. He fixates on one of his patients and even shows her lewd pictures of himself, asking her what she thinks. The feature is an absurdist comedy/murder mystery and a look into Helius' twisted delusions, but it's also a very tedious [...]

Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival 2023 - Writer/director Eddie Alcazar's Divinity is a trip alright, a film where the visuals are likely to be remembered more than the storyline. It's not that the feature doesn't have a plot per say, but the narrative often takes a backseat to the arresting images and sound design. Whatever flaws [...]

Overlook 2023 Film Festival - Monolith does so much with so little. It's a single-location work featuring one on-screen actress who carries the film through a riveting and unsettling performance. Despite how scaled down this feature is, there are some truly tense and eerie moments here that make stellar use of the limited cast and [...]

Overlook 2023 Film Festival - The Exorcist can be viewed as a reaction against the 1960s, free love, and the generally rebellious spirit of the decade. It's fair to read into the film that structural powers, be it priests or doctors, try to control Regan as she comes of age. There's also the fact her [...]

Overlook 2023 Film Festival - Night of the Bride presses its foot on the gas and doesn't relent for its full seven minutes. It's a harrowing and uncomfortable look at forced marriages in India, before morphing into a powerful revenge tale. Written and directed by Virat Pal, the short kicks off with the bride  (Gurleen [...]

Overlook 2023 Film Festival - With previous roles in Band of Brothers and Chernobyl, Philip Barantini will be a familiar name to some. Over the last few years, he's taken up directing, with a couple of shorts and a previous feature, Boiling Point, to his credit. His second feature, Accused, is a tense film that [...]

Overlook 2023 Film Festival - Smoking Causes Coughing is a superhero movie for people who don't like superhero movies. It's gory, extremely weird, and slightly philosophical. The French film blatantly riffs on everything from The Avengers, to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," to "The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," all while putting a dark twist on each [...]