Magical Girl Transformation: Alice Maio Mackay’s ‘The Serpent’s Skin’
For all that feels familiar about “The Serpent’s Skin” — a horror film featuring demonic possession, witchcraft and characters connecting…
Boston
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Liz Sargent Talks Emotional Authenticity and Systemic Fragility for People with Disabilities and Their Caregivers in her Feature Debut, ‘Take Me Home’
Following the film’s festival run, “The Independent” spoke with Sargent about the deeply personal origins of the project such as the risks of building a film around her own sister’s lived experience and the larger questions around disability, autonomy and care that emerged throughout her filmmaking process.
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Caught Between Tragedy and Utopia: A Review of Liz Sargent’s ‘Take Me Home’
Within minutes of the feature, L. Sargent’s intention to shift away from her proof-of-concept 2023 short becomes obvious. Though captured by different cinematographers, both films share similar documentary-style camera work and capture a tone of devastating and tender social realism. A striking difference, however, is the father’s, Bob’s (Victor Slezak), absence in the short and significant presence in the feature, in which he almost completely replaces Anna’s fellow adoptee sister, Emily (Ali Ahn). This drastically shifts the film from a depiction of sisterhood to one of parenthood complimented by sisterhood.
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I Can’t Feel My Dad’s Love, and I Won’t. But I Know It’s There: An Essay on ‘Sentimental Value’
“Everyone’s mad at dad, huh?” There’s a lot trapped within the Borg house. (Literal) writing on the wall, domestic disputes…
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Repetition and Hopelessness in “Taste of Cherry”
The Independent was invited to cover “Taste of Cherry” during the Boston Festival of Films from Iran at the Museum…
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“Nirvanna: The Band – the Show – the Movie” the Review
The film is a celebration of a style that has largely disappeared from mainstream media. The comedy relies almost entirely on pop culture references and situational humor. It is a return to a simpler style of comedy, similar to that made by early YouTubers who had little but their friends and a webcam. While it still has that “early internet” feeling, Johnson and McCarroll find a way to make it relevant. Meta 4th-wall breaking and seamless restitching of never before seen archival footage are used tastefully rather than shoved in the viewer’s face. The movie is almost entirely set in real Toronto locations, harkening back to the 2000s style of mockumentary filmmaking popularised by projects like “The Office” and “Borat.”
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In ‘We Had a World,’ monotony is a theatrical device
In “We Had a World,” now having its New England premiere at The Huntington, playwright Joshua Harmon does the opposite. True, the one-act play is filled with explosive family arguments and petty vendettas, but is equalized so much by its genuine writing that the tender and sweet moments, though buried underneath the drama, are just as potent.
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‘Stardew Valley’: The Quintessential Indie Game
The indie charm of “Stardew Valley” shines through in this extreme, video-gamey design that prioritizes player freedom and connection with the world.
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Guam’s Sainas talk cultural dance in “Something to Call Our Own”
Project Inspire and PBS Guam’s enculturating dance documentary, “Something to Call Our Own,” distinguishes itself as a canonizing force for…
