This is the second in a series of articles about personal losses suffered in April. To read Part 1, “Hurricane Bettye,” click here. Because my mom and dad got divorced and remarried when my brother and I were young, we had four parental figures growing up.  Only one was really worth a damn, and that was my…

Dead white men. It may seem strange to open a review of Lisa Rovner’s “Sisters with Transistors,” a film about women that pushed the boundaries of music with electronics, talking about men, but the above is a phrase repeated during the picture that tells us why this story needed to be told. Music is haunted…

Torrential rain soaks director Anthony Chen’s “Wet Season” with a melancholic yearning for warmth. As water pours outside, the interpersonal storms of two solitary people also rage on. Though it’s a facile metaphor, its desired effect mostly pays off. For his new subdued drama, the Singaporean director reteams with Malaysian actress Yann Yann Yeo and…

“Bloodthirsty” is essentially a werewolf movie, but it’s also more of a character piece than a creature feature. That distinction isn’t necessarily a good thing though, since you can only build-up a monster movie so much without delivering a halfway decent monster, werewolf or otherwise. The makers of “Bloodthirsty” spend more time trying to highlight…

On November 10, 1969, I had stayed home from school with a sore throat. And that is how I may have been the only teenager to watch the very first episode of “Sesame Street.” I loved it from the first “Wanda the Witch lived somewhere west of Washington” animated short about the letter W. I…

The Film Independent Spirit Awards are usually held in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica, but for the first time in its existence, it was viewed virtually in a Zoom-like setting with break-out rooms imitating private tents for attendees to mingle before and after the show. Chloé Zhao‘s “Nomadland” affirmed its frontrunner status moving…