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Mongrel Media

Reviews

Immediate Family

Denny Tedesco’s Immediate Family is the ideal spiritual sequel to his doc debut The Wrecking Crew, and a great example of a comfort film.  I’ve seen this documentary twice now: once to review it, the second just to revisit the groovy atmosphere.

Reviews

The Delinquents

A reclusive bank employee, Morán (Daniel Elías), is tempted to use his privilege to take advantage of his workplace.  His plot to rob the bank is on standby until the perfect moment – cue Román (Esteban Bigliardi), a teller who leaves work early and is used as an incidental accomplice once Morán steals $650,000.  Román, now more aware, is brought into the fold by the amateur thief and is told to hold the money while…

Reviews

The Persian Version

As the youngest child in a large family of Iranian immigrants, Leila (Layla Mohammadi) has always felt like she hasn’t lived up to expectations;  especially her often distracted mother Shireen (Niousha Noor).  In her current years as a young adult, Leila has felt more distance grown between her and her mom.  And as an expectant mother after a one-night-stand with an eccentric actor (Tom Byrne), Leila only anticipates the worse.

Reviews

Passages

Passages has a great introduction.  Film director Tomas (Franz Rogowski) orders actors around and painstakingly focuses on someone’s inability to walk down a flight of stairs.  As Tomas shows the actor how to walk down the stairs, it becomes very obvious that Tomas wants to be idolized.  He does this by being intimidating to get what he wants.

Reviews

Shortcomings

By: Jolie Featherstone Adorable funnyman and prolific Hollywood actor Randall Park (seriously, look at his IMDB page) makes his feature film directorial debut with the much-anticipated Shortcomings, based on the lauded graphic novel series by Adrian Tomine who also adapted the screenplay.

Reviews

Kokomo City

The discussion about which older movies wouldn’t be made today because of current sociocultural identities and relations is occasionally debated, but chats about which contemporary movies couldn’t be made “back then” are not discussed enough.  I’m grateful for D. Smith’s Kokomo City, a revealing documentary that belongs in the latter exchange, because of its progressive existence.  It challenges transgressive opinions and uses the medium to address, and bring awareness to, important issues of personal representation…

Reviews

Blue Jean

The growing tension in Blue Jean is unmatched;  clouding the titular character’s life until they feel they have no choice but to act rashly to protect themselves, and underestimating the fallout.