Phreaker
| B | Fantastic Fest 2026 | A very enjoyable movie. Very good story. I don't think the main character (a blind teenager) was based on anyone specific, but perhaps…
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
| A | Austin Film Festival 2025 | Another excellent film from Rian Johnson and the cast and crew he pulled together. And what a cast! Playing interesting characters. The…
Ikatan Darah
| B | Fantastic Fest 2025 | Another good action movie. Good fights. Some amped-up bad guys. Plenty of blood. And boy, did these filmmakers love breaking furniture! One interesting…
Penance
| C | Fantastic Fest 2025 | This film was made by a stuntman and a bunch of his stunt-friends he pulled together. For $7,000. Yes, that few zeros. I…
Luger
| B | Fantastic Fest 2025 | Good crime thriller about two lower-rung thugs for hire who get into a situation that is over their heads. They can’t just fight…
The Forbidden City
| B+ | Fantastic Fest 2025 | There was a lot going on in this movie. Martial arts, both Italian and Chinese crime families, romance—all going on in the multi-cultural…
The Order
| A | Austin Film Festival 2024 | I often skip the big-studio films playing at Austin Film Festival, since they will be released soon and I want to see…
Lake George
| A | Fantastic Fest 2024 | A marvelous movie. The description in the program sums it up perfectly: “A darkly comedic neo-noir, a road trip movie, and a redemption…
I, The Executioner
| B | Fantastic Fest 2024 | A very good Korean cop thriller. I enjoyed the characters and the crime they were investigating. There was one twist I guessed early…
The Hidden Web
| B | Austin Film Festival 2023 | An engaging mystery. It seemed slow at times, but paid off with the twists and the gruesome depiction of the crimes underneath…