Uniquely set in the fictional Iranian village where the film derives it’s title, Arsalan Amiri’s Zalava is a masterfully crafted example of how to effectively build powerful on-screen tension using the absolute minimum required ingredients from a production standpoint. Following an increasingly skeptical military officer who’s growing tired of the locals’ extremist beliefs regarding the existence of demonic entities which […]
On June 24-29 I had the luxury of virtually attending the 2021 Chattanooga Film Festival (which seems to have basically set the standard for virtual festivals last year, from what I’ve been told) for the first time ever and had an absolute blast! It was easy to feel the overwhelming amount of excitement from all the active users in the […]
Timothy Covell’s “Blood Conscious” is a brilliantly executed, cerebral exercise in managing paranoia that within the first few minutes has the characters juggling with who they can trust, what’s actually going on, and deciphering how they’re going to get out of this situation without being killed or suffering an even worse fate. It’s a film that submerges the viewer in […]