The Obsessive Viewer
Film and TV Reviews and Podcasts
International Falls Narrative Feature/Official Selection 96 Minutes/2019/USA Comedy/Drama Director: Amber McGinnis Premise: A woman stuck in a small, snowbound border town has dreams of doing comedy when she meets a washed up, burned out comedian with dreams of doing anything else.
Last Year at the Crossing (2018) Documentary Feature/Indiana Spotlight 75 Minutes/USA/2018 Education Director: Kathy Bruner Premise: An alternative high school in small-town Indiana is the last, best chance for four struggling teens to earn a diploma. Their dedicated school administrator holds out hope that this is the year they can overcome their obstacles. A heartbreaking and hopeful portrait of teens […]
Man Camp (2019) Narrative Feature/Official Selection 94 Minutes/USA/2019 Comedy/Drama Director: Nate James Bakke Premise: It’s Man Camp weekend, the few days every year when brothers Adam, Tim, and Kevin head to the family cabin to memorialize their dad. When they arrive to discover their mom with some new guy she apparently plans on marrying, the trip becomes a wild test […]
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019) Premise: A sequel, of sorts, to Breaking Bad following Jesse Pinkman after the events captured in the finale of Breaking Bad. Jesse is now on the run, as a massive police manhunt for him is in operation.
Whelm (2019) Narrative Feature/Indiana Spotlight 114 Minutes/USA/2019 Thriller/History Director: Skyler Lawson Premise: “Whelm” is a thriller set deep in the Great Depression where two estranged brothers get tangled in a rivalry between a legendary bank robber and an eccentric young criminal. Through a series of bizarre occurrences, they find they are part of a larger historic scheme.
Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace (2019) Documentary Feature/Official Selection 85 Minutes/USA, Australia/2019 History Director: April Wright Premise: “Going Attractions” celebrates the splendor and grandeur of the great cinemas of the United States, built when movies were the acme of entertainment and the stories were larger than life, as were the venues designed to show them.
A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader Problem (2019) Documentary Feature/Official Selection 81 Minutes/USA/2019 Directed by Yu Gu Premise: Football and feminism collide in this documentary that follows former NFL cheerleaders battling the league to end wage theft and illegal employment practices that have persisted for 50 years.
Rewind (2019) Documentary Feature/Official Selection 87 Minutes/USA/2019 Drama/Social Justice Director: Sasha Joseph Neulinger Premise: Drawing upon an immense home video archive, Sasha Joseph Neulinger exposes the family secret which destroyed his world. The camera that followed his footsteps from the day he was born also captured the story of an unraveling childhood, a high-stakes court battle, and a generational reckoning.
Safe Spaces (2019) Narrative Feature/Official Selection 92 Minutes/USA/2019 Comedy/Drama Director: Daniel Schechter Premise: A comedy about a New York City professor (Justin Long) who spends a week reconnecting with his family while defending his reputation over controversial behavior at his college.
Greener Grass (2019) Narrative Feature/Finalist in Competition 95 Minutes/USA/2019 Comedy Directors: Jocelyn DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe Premise: A deliciously twisted comedy set in a demented, timeless suburbia where every adult wears braces on their straight teeth, couples coordinate meticulously pressed outfits, and coveted family members are swapper in more ways than one in this competition for acceptance.
The Last Black Man in San Francisco Premise: A young man searches for home in the changing city that seems to have left him behind. A young black girl stares up at a man in a hazmat suit while a street preacher rants and raves about the contaminated water poisoning the residents. This is the introduction we get to Jimmie […]
Jawline (2019) Premise: The film follows 16-year-old Austyn Tester, a rising star in the live-broadcast ecosystem who built his following on wide-eyed optimism and teen girl lust, as he tries to escape a dead-end life in rural Tennessee. What is the American dream, if not to get rich and famous? In 2019, the quickest and easiest way to get rich […]
Her Smell (2019) Premise: A self-destructive punk rocker struggles with sobriety while trying to recapture the creative inspiration that led her band to success.
The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot is a melancholic study of a man who has closed himself off from the world as he deals with what he did in the war. – 3 stars
Escape Room (2019) Premise: Six strangers find themselves in circumstances beyond their control, and must use their wits to survive. Escape Room was a fairly decent thriller for about 2/3s of its runtime. For the other 3rd, it was pretty rote with underdeveloped characters, derivative set pieces, and an ending that felt like a first draft fever dream.
The Obsessive Viewer 