Category: Arts and Entertainment

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2022 South by Southwest: SXSW Film Festival award winners announced

March 23, 2022

The following is a press release from the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals:

The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference and Festivals announced the 2022 Jury and Special Award winners of the 29th SXSW Film Festival. Feature films receiving Jury Awards were selected from the Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature Competition categories. SXSW also announced all other juried sections, including Shorts, Design and XR Experience Awards. Special Awards announced included: Louis Black “Lone Star” Award, Adobe Editing Award, Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award, ZEISS Cinematography Award, the Mailchimp Support the Shorts Award and the Fandor New Voices Award.

All 2022 film categories will be eligible for category-specific Audience Awards, which will be certified by the accounting firm of Maxwell Locke & Ritter. Online Screenings and Audience Award Voting will conclude at 9am CT on Monday, March 21. Winners will be announced via sxsw.com that week.

“It was extraordinary to gather together in person again after so long and we are so grateful to the filmmakers and audience who joined us at SXSW 2022 in Austin, Texas for our first in-person event since 2019,” said Janet Pierson, VP, Director of Film. “The program was celebrated across the board and tonight we get to give a special shout-out to the award winners.”

The 2022 SXSW Film Festival Juries consisted of:

Narrative Feature Competition: Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter; Siddhant Adlakha, filmmaker and critic; Jenelle Riley, Variety
Documentary Feature Competition: Jason Bailey, critic, historian and author; Carlos Aguilar, film critic and journalist; Beandrea July, freelance film critic
Louis Black “Lone Star”: Richard Whitaker, The Austin Chronicle; Kathy Blackwell, Executive Editor, Texas Monthly; Karen Valby, author and freelance writer
Narrative Shorts Program: Mohammad Gorjestani, filmmaker; Natalie Haack Flores, VP Development, Nuyorican Productions; Inga Diev, GM Ouat Media
Documentary Shorts: Greg Rhem, writer, director, producer and creative consultant for MTV Documentary Films; Ryan Harrington, Head of film, Kinema; Yvonne Ashley Kouadjo, series producer, New York Times‘ Op-Docs
Animated Shorts: Julia Pott, animator; John Agbaje, SVP of Animation, Bad Robot; Brook Keesling, Head of Animation Talent Development, Bento Box Entertainment
Midnight Shorts: Barbara Crampton, actor and producer; Dana Gills, SVP of Development and Production, Monkeypaw; Bea Sequeira, producer, Blumhouse
Music Videos: Andrew Unterberger, Deputy Editor, Billboard; Shanna Green, Director of Communications, Commercials and Short-Form Content, Anonymous Content; Meghan Oretsky, Senior Curator, Vimeo
Texas Shorts: Cat Cardena, Associate Editor, Texas Monthly; Eric Webb, Entertainment Editor, Austin-American Statesman; Monique Walton, filmmaker 
Texas High School Shorts: Bart Weiss, Educator and Founder, Dallas VideoFest; Lindsey Ashley, Deputy Director, Texas Film Commission; Dr. Tere Garza, Professor of Communication, St Edward’s University
Episodic Pilot Competition: Randi Kleiner, Co-Founder and CEO, SeriesFest; Selome Hailu, Variety; Augustine Frizzell, filmmaker 
Excellence in Title Design: Victoria Nece, Principal Product Manager, Motion Graphics, Adobe; Hazel Baird, Creative Director and Designer, Elastic; Saskia Marka, independent designer
Excellence in Poster Design: Barak Epstein, Texas Theatre in Dallas, producer; Becky Cloonan, illustrator and cartoonist; Kevin Tong, illustrator
XR Experience Jury: Nonny de la Peña, founder, Emblematic Group; Kent Bye, Voices of VR; Loren Hammonds, Producer, Co-head of Documentary, TIME Studios

The 2022 Film Festival program includes 100 features including 76 World Premieres, 4 International Premieres, 4 North American Premieres, 2 U.S. Premieres, 14 Texas Premieres + 111 Short Films including 24 Music Videos, 12 Episodic Premieres, 6 Episodic Pilots, 30 XR Experience projects (formerly Virtual Cinema), and 19 Title Design Competition entries.

Films will continue to be available on the SXSW platform until 9:00am CT on Monday, March 21. SXSW will continue running the Online Shift72 Screening Library through March 31, 2021, for those films that have opted-in to the extended timeframe. 

The SXSW 2022 Film Festival Awards: 

Feature Film Grand Jury Awards

NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION Presented by Panavision

James Morosini and Patton Oswalt in “I Love My Dad” (Photo courtesy of I Love My Dad LLC/Hantz Motion Pictures)

Winner: I Love My Dad
Director/Screenwriter: James Morosini, Producers: Bill Stertz, Patton Oswalt, Sean O’Grady, Dane Eckerle, Phil Keefe, Daniel Brandt, Sam Slater

“A bold, funny film that marks an impressive feature debut for writer-director-star James Morosini, I Love My Dad finely threads the needle with its tale of an estranged father (Patton Oswalt) who catfishes his son (Morosini) in an attempt to reconnect. Working from a screenplay based on his own real-life story, Morosini displays massive empathy as a filmmaker to get into the mind of the father he feels betrayed by, and also as an actor portraying the impact of that betrayal. He’s aided by a great cast, particularly Oswalt.”

Special Jury Recognition for Extraordinary Cinematic Vision: Cast and Crew, It Is in Us All

“Every creative element of It Is in Us All, from its editing and music to its performances and cinematography, works in tandem to craft a haunting atmosphere. Writer-director-actor Antonia Campbell-Hughes’ extraordinary feature debut is a remarkable example of how the various artistic facets of a movie can converge to create something cinematic, in the purest and most soulful sense: a work that accesses some part of you that feels hidden away.”

Special Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Performance: Elizaveta Yankovskaya, Nika

“In her first lead role in a feature, Elizaveta Yankovskaya delivers a knockout portrait brimming with rage, joy, despair, uncertainty and 20-something yearning. She plays Nika Turbina, a real-life figure who, after fame was thrust upon her as a child poet, finds herself past her prime before she’s 30. Whatever narrative conjectures the intimate drama might make, there isn’t a moment in Yankovskaya’s breathtaking performance that doesn’t ring true with messy emotional complexity, or that doesn’t feel like unpredictable life itself unfolding before our eyes.”

A big thanks to our Narrative Feature Competition presenting sponsor Panavision, the global provider of optics, cameras, and end-to-end services that power the creative vision of filmmakers.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION Presented by IMAX

“Master of Light” (Photo by Jurgen Lisse)

Winner: Master of Light
Director: Rosa Ruth Boesten, Producers: Roger Ross Williams, Anousha Nzume, Ilja Roomans

“In both substance and form, Master of Light is a gift. The earnest and gifted painter George Anthony Morton embeds viewers in his world as he struggles to render his mother — both on the canvas and in his psyche. Boesten disabuses us of static tropes about America’s merciless drug war and about contemporary art. With astonishing intimacy, the film’s visuals build an artful bridge between two- and three-dimensional realms that are deeply rooted and utterly transcendent. Put this painting of a film in a museum, next to a Rembrandt and a Morton.”

Special Jury Recognition for Exceptional Intimacy in Storytelling: Bad Axe
Director: David Siev, Producers: Jude Harris, Diane Quon, Katarina Vasquez, David Siev

“Stories centered on the pursuit of the “American Dream” abound. Rarely do they portray the sacrifices and recurrent trials that the promise of a better life entails the way director David Siev accomplishes with Bad Axe. Examining those closest to him with profound compassion and incisive curiosity, he paints a distinct and easily recognizable portrait of the alienation many feel in the place they call home, by birth or by circumstance. For its ability to reveal something unexpected about the American fabric and the American family, Bad Axe deserves celebration.”

Special Jury Recognition for Acting in a Documentary: Steve Glew, Pez Outlaw
“Steve Glew is the kind of colorful character that most documentarians dream of capturing, a born storyteller with a crackerjack sense of scene-setting and comic timing. In the tradition of Muhammad Ali in The Greatest and Evel Knievel in Viva Kneivel!, The Pez Outlaw‘s reenactment sequences cast the only actor who could credibly bring Mr. Glew’s exploits to life: the man himself. There’s something uniquely American about Glew’s mixture of chutzpah, ingenuity, charisma, and grievance that makes him a mesmerizing onscreen presence.”

Since 1970 IMAX Documentaries have immersed audiences in real-life stories told on a grand scale. In 2022 that tradition continues as a new generation of filmmakers turns its lens to a theatrical experience like no other. Today, IMAX is honored to present this year’s documentary award to recognize the future — gifted storytellers who are bringing their stories to audiences in powerful and wondrous ways.

SHORT FILM GRAND JURY AWARDS Presented by IMDbPro

NARRATIVE SHORT COMPETITION

“All the Crows in the World”

Winner: All the Crows in the World
Director/Screenwriter: Tang Yi, Producer: Haozheng Li

“The jury recognizes All The Crows in the World as the Jury Award Winner, a film that reminded us of the power of short-form cinema as a stand-alone art form on its own. The film’s balancing of surrealism, bizarreness, tenderness, and reality was only outdone by its inventive narrative and critiques of patriarchal culture, paired with execution by a director who is clearly in command of her craft.” 

Special Jury Recognition for Directing and Community Filmmaking: Glitter Ain’t Gold
Director/Screenwriter: Christian Nolan Jones, Producers: Maia Miller, T. Popps, O. Valerie Nicolas

“The jury awards Glitter Ain’t Gold a Special Jury Recognition for Directing and Community Filmmaking, which stood out for its vibrant narrative and authentically palpable energy filled with compelling visuals and inventive editing harmoniously coupled with powerfully nostalgic music. It was clear that its level of specificity was a direct result of a community that came together to make a profound piece of art that touched us deeply.”

Special Jury Recognition for Outstanding Performances: Aphrodite Armstrong, ​​Kyle Riggs, West by God

“The jury awards a Special Jury Recognition for Outstanding Performances to Aphrodite Armstrong and ​​Kyle Riggs for West by God. Their dynamic and visceral performances beautifully emulate the powerful themes within the film about the human condition and the need for love, no matter what your walk of life.”

DOCUMENTARY SHORT COMPETITION 

“A Long Line of Ladies” (Photo by Sam Davis)

Winner: Long Line of Ladies
Directors: Rayka Zehtabchi, Shaandiin Tome, Producers: Garrett Schiff, Pimm Tripp-Allen, Rayka Zehtabchi, Sam Davis, Dana Kurth

“Long Line of Ladies presents an affecting perspective on celebrated generational cultural traditions. The tapestry of beautiful cinematography and vivid character moments elevates the filmmakers’ vision, inviting us into a devoted community that is committed to preserving their heritage.”

Special Jury Recognition for Visual Reflection: not even for a moment do things stand still
Director: Jamie Meltzer, Producers: Annie Marr, Jamie Meltzer, Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg

“In a simple, yet profoundly moving way, not even for a moment do things stand still allows us to sincerely reflect on the lives we have lost over the past two years. The poetic visual language gives us a new perspective on a sadly familiar topic of love, life and loss.”

MIDNIGHT SHORTS

Winner: Moshari
Director/Screenwriter: Nuhash Humayun, Producers: Bushra Afreen, Nuhash Humayun

“Moshari is a terrifying, spine-chilling horror tale centering two sisters that renders a fresh take on blood sucking creatures set in an non-traditional post-apocalyptic world. The compelling performances, the haunting visuals and the layered storytelling highlight the director’s command of the genre and make him someone to watch. Nuhash Humayun has the ability to take recognizable elements, flip them on their head and turn them into nightmares. Moshari has created an allegorical story that will resonate with the viewer on a deeper level.”

Special Jury Recognition for Powerful “Short Trip”: Omi
Director: Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, Screenwriters: Tamar Bird, Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, Producer: Tamar Bird

“Unexpected, effective and engaging film that in under three minutes manages to set up the lore, get us invested in the characters, while leaving us fulfilled and still craving more. Kelly Fyffe-Marshall has created a grounded supernatural story that is provocative, mysterious and unforgettable.”

ANIMATED SHORTS

“Bestia”

Winner: Bestia
Director: Hugo Covarrubias, Screenwriters: Martín Erazo, Hugo Covarrubias, Producers: Tevo Díaz, Hugo Covarrubias

“Bestia is an exquisite, intimate peek at the dreams and memories of a sadistic secret agent, set in a tactile stop-motion non-wonderland, where a porcelain exterior isn’t enough to keep the damage away.”

Special Jury Recognition for Unexpected Emotion: Les Larmes de la Seine
Directors/Screenwriters: Yanis Belaid, Eliott Benard, Producer: Carlos De Carvalho

“The magic trick of this film is that it describes great tragedy almost entirely with joy. History comes alive as we are immersed in raw beautiful humanity that jokes, laughs, feels nervous, fights, and dies. By illustrating extreme distress with astonishing euphoria, the directors create a fever dream “photo negative” glimpse of what we’ve missed by living with hatred and abuse rather than love and understanding. Like a sad melody played in major key, the film is both haunting and uplifting while stirring emotions like no film we’ve ever seen.” 

Special Jury Recognition for Visceral Storytelling: Something in the Garden
Director/Screenwriter/Producer: Marcos Sánchez

“It is so important to keep your brain open to play, and we commend this film’s playful spirit combined with its beautiful animation, reminiscent of a graphic novel. It felt at the perfect cross section of horror and ASMR, using impeccable pacing and sound design to take us on a visceral journey that thrilled, scared and delighted us. A brilliant use of the animated short form medium!”

MUSIC VIDEOS 

Ishaval Gill and Kamaldevinder Gill in “Meet You at the Light.”


Winner: Desirée Dawson – ‘Meet Me at the Light’
Director/Screenwriter: Alexander Farah

“Without a single detail wasted, we were all moved to tears by this powerful story from a first-time music video director. Featuring equally beautiful performances, editing, and cinematography, we present the Best Music Video award to Desirée Dawson – Meet Me at the Light by Alexander Farah.”

Special Jury Recognition for Going the Extra Mile: Myd – ‘Let You Speak’
Director/Screenwriter: Dan Carr

“Funny, unexpected, and with a meta wink to the industry, our special jury mention went above and beyond our expectations, taking us around the world to various locations with a group of ragtag misfits that made us LOL along the way. Hence, the ‘Extra Mile’ award. The Special Jury Award for Going The Extra Mile Goes to Myd “Let You Speak” by Dan Carr.”

TEXAS SHORTS

“Folk Frontera”

Winner: Folk Frontera
Directors: Alejandra Vasquez, Sam Osborn

“Centered around characters who call the desert borderlands of Texas their home, Folk Frontera turns the traditional documentary form on its head. Filmmakers Alejandra Vasquez and Sam Osborn imbue the documentary with the same magic and surrealism that feels authentic to the Chihuahuan Desert and its communities. Dreamlike visuals and nuanced presentation of the subjects’ stories make for a special experience.”

Special Jury Recognition for Vision: Birds 
Director/Screenwriter: Katherine Propper, Producer: Sophia Loffreda

“Katherine Propper’s Birds feels both fresh and warmly familiar to anyone who’s grown up during a Central Texas summer. Members of the film’s exceptional young ensemble shine in natural performances that help us see gorgeously shot scenery in a new light.”

TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SHORTS 

Honeybee (Photo by Emilio Vazquez Reyes)

Winner: Honeybee
Director/Screenwriter/Producer: Emilio Vazquez Reyes
“Honeybee is a beautifully-written, thoughtfully-crafted film that unfolds with a gentle and disciplined reveal, helping to humanize the experience of an undocumented immigrant. We felt this film was a graceful way to tell a difficult story, using all of the important elements like cinematography, music and editing to both advance the story and sincerely engage with the audience.”

Special Jury Recognition for Artistic Expression: It’s Getting Bad Again 
Director/Screenwriter: Sarah Reyes, Producers: Sarah Reyes, Kenneth Rogers
“As an artist, Sarah Reyes captures a roller-coaster of an emotional exploration that balances darkness, humor and music in a poetic and refreshing way, all the while prompting an important dialogue about mental health awareness.”

A big thanks to our presenting sponsor, IMDbPro. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, IMDbPro is the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals. This membership-based service empowers entertainment professionals with information and tools designed to help them achieve success throughout their career. IMDbPro has an ongoing commitment to supporting and collaborating with organizations that create greater diversity, equity and inclusion in the entertainment industry and is a service of IMDb, the #1 movie website in the world. Learn more at www.imdbpro.com and follow @IMDbPro

MailChimp is another proud supporter of the Shorts program and have created their own award to help further the career of one lucky filmmaker, as well as provided financial prize support for all of the SXSW Shorts Jury Awards winners.

EPISODIC PILOT COMPETITION

“Something Undone” (Photo by Marie Davignon)

Winner: Something Undone
Director: Nicole Dorsey, Screenwriters: Michael Musi, Madison Walsh, Producers: Max Topplin, Jordan Hayes

“The jury honors Something Undone for cleverly rethinking and repurposing oft-used elements of mystery/horror storytelling. The subtlety of the episode’s writing and acting are complemented by specific and stylized direction and cinematography. And above all, Something Undone sets itself apart with its smart use of diegetic sound, establishing quietly humorous commentary on the sounds of the genre at large — while also totally terrifying us in just ten minutes.”

Special Jury Recognition for Unique Vision in Writing and Directing: Pamela Ribon and Sara Gunnarsdóttir, My Year of Dicks

“For its thoughtful curation of imagery combined with a funny and inventive script, the Special Jury Recognition for Unique Vision in Writing and Directing goes to Pamela Ribon and Sara Gunnarsdóttir for My Year of Dicks. Their bold voices overlap to make for an experience of feminine youth and sexual exploration that is both relatable and entirely its own.”

SXSW Film Design Awards Presented by Adobe

POSTER DESIGN COMPETITION

“More Than I Remember” (Image by Maya Edelman)

Winner: More Than I Remember
Designer: Yen Tan, Maya Edelman

“This poster evokes so many feelings at once, from the captivating gaze to the lush swirl of colors that surround you — it draws you in, tempting you to look harder, to try and unlock whatever secret is hidden just beyond reach. The text and illustration are perfectly integrated to create something powerful and mysterious, catching not just your attention, but your imagination as well.”

Special Jury Recognition: The Sentence of Michael Thompson
Designer: Juan Miguel Marin

“Understated intensity and a timeless quality make this poster truly effective — from across the room it immediately catches the eye. Type, design, and image work together to form a complete narrative, one you want to know more about. Understated intensity and a timeless quality make it truly effective.”

TITLE DESIGN COMPETITION

“Foundation” (Image courtesy of Imaginary Forces)

Winner: Foundation Title Sequence
Designer: Ronnie Koff
Company: Imaginary Forces

“A beautifully constructed sequence that encapsulates the show’s futuristic setting as humans have colonized the galaxy. Using a particle system to form these incredible images each frame is a visual triumph as we journey through this vibrant main title.”

Special Jury Recognition: The White Lotus Title Sequence
Designers: Katrina Crawford, Mark Bashore
Company: Plains of Yonder

“This title’s distinctive design perfectly sets up the audience for the show and reflects the suffering before enlightenment of its protagonists. Its stunning illustrations capture the soul of the story and are enhanced by the flawless score.”

XR EXPERIENCE COMPETITION

“On the Morning You Wake (To the End of the World)” (Image courtesy of Atlas V & Novelab)

Winner: On the Morning You Wake (To the End of the World)
Directors: Dr. Jamaica Heolomeleikalani Osorio, Mike Brett, Steve Jamison, Pierre Zandrowicz, Arnaud Colinart, Screenwriters: Mike Brett, Steve Jamison, Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, Producers: Arnaud Colinart, Mike Brett, Steve Jamison, Jo-Jo Ellison

“On The Morning You Wake (To the End of the World) is an emotionally impactful and beautifully told story, delivered with stunning technical craftsmanship. This project explores the potential of immersive experiences, refining the grammar of spatial narrative. This particular story deals with the urgency of nuclear disarmament that has very unfortunately come into sharp focus due to current events. It effectively presents a massive geopolitical issue and grounds it in emotional and personal stories, translating what are usually abstract concepts into an embodied context.”

Special Jury Recognition for Immersive Storytelling: (Hi)story of a Painting: The Light in the Shadow
Directors: Quentin Darras, Gaëlle Mourre, Screenwriter: Gaëlle Mourre, Producers: Charlotte Mikkelborg, Gaëlle Mourre

“(Hi)story of a Painting: The Light in the Shadow receives a Special Jury Recognition for immersive storytelling. This experience uses the medium of VR to transport us into history, revealing the story of a lesser-known female baroque artist, her resistance to the patriarchy and determination in the face of adversity.”

SXSW Special Awards

“What We Leave Behind” (Photo by Monica Wise)

Fandor New Voices Award
Fandor is proud to present the first ever Fandor New Voices Award, celebrating an outstanding feature making its worldwide premiere this year at the 35th annual SXSW festival. At Fandor, we are delighted to elevate the work of inspiring, imaginative, and independent storytellers, so it is with great pleasure that we present the Fandor New Voices Award to a female or person of color who is making their directorial debut with a Narrative Feature or Documentary. Fandor is and always will be proud to uplift the work of these amazing filmmakers.

Fandor New Voices Award
Presented to: What We Leave Behind
Director: Iliana Sosa, Producers: Emma D. Miller, Iliana Sosa, Isidore Bethel (co-producer)

“Chee$e” (Photo by Damian Marcano)

Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award
In honor of a filmmaker whose work strives to be wholly its own, without regard for norms or desire to conform. The Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award is presented to a filmmaker from our Visions screening category.

Adam Yauch Hörnblowér Award
Presented to: Chee$e
Director/Screenwriter: Damian Marcano, Producer: Alexa Marcano

Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Michelle Yeoh in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (Photo by Allyson Riggs/A24)

Adobe Editing Award
Adobe is committed to celebrating creativity for all and empowering everyone to bring their stories to life. By creating greater opportunity for all voices, we can enact change in our communities and move the world forward. We are proud to celebrate the art and craft of editing as we grant the Adobe Editing Award at the SXSW Film Awards. We are also pleased to spotlight this year’s incredible title and poster designers through the Film Design Awards presented by Adobe.

Adobe Editing Award 
Presented to: Everything Everywhere All At Once
Editor: Paul Rogers

“What We Leave Behind”

Louis Black “Lone Star” Award
To honor SXSW co-founder/director Louis Black, a jury prize was created in 2011 called the Louis Black “Lone Star” Award, presented to a feature film world premiering at SXSW that was shot primarily in Texas or directed by a current resident of Texas. (Opt-in Award)

Louis Black “Lone Star” Award 
Winner: What We Leave Behind
Director: Iliana Sosa, Producers: Emma D. Miller, Iliana Sosa, Isidore Bethel (co-producer)

“Iliana Sosa’s exquisite documentary What We Leave Behind is a love letter to her Mexican grandfather, whose final decline she chronicles with artful grace. It is also a moving look at a family disconnected by both border and dreams, and how their patriarch, too old now for his monthly 20-hour bus rides from Durango into Texas, worries who will hold the center once he’s gone. Eighty-nine year old Julian has the face and gravitas of an old time movie star. Sosa has made a profound, gorgeous movie worthy of her precious subject.”

“A Vanishing Fog” (Photo courtesy of @ Schweizen)

ZEISS Cinematography Award
ZEISS Cine Lenses is honored to be returning this year to support the SXSW film community in the Cinematography category.  We believe that by supporting the art within the frame, ZEISS helps filmmakers realize their creative vision.

ZEISS Cinematography Award
Winner: A Vanishing Fog
Cinematographer: Gio Park

“The Voice Actress”

Mailchimp Support the Shorts Award
Mailchimp is committed to uplifting and supporting creators. We’re so proud to support SXSW by helping short films win big. We congratulate the honorees of the Support the Shorts Award as well as the entire SXSW-invited filmmaking community.

Mailchimp Support the Shorts Award
Presented to: The Voice Actress
Director/Screenwriter: Anna J. Takayama, Producer: Joe Skinner

“With its impeccable compositions and captivating lead performance, The Voice Actress offers a sensitive peek behind the scenes of an ever-changing industry. This patient study of imagination and aging achieves extraordinary depth thanks to Anna J. Takayama’s soulful direction, and we are delighted to support the career of such a remarkable talent.”

SXSW is proud to be an official qualifying festival for the Academy Awards® Short Film competition. Winners of our Best Animated, Best Narrative and Best Documentary Short Film categories become eligible for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards (Oscars). Any British Short Film or British Short Animation that screens at SXSW is eligible for BAFTA nomination. Films are also eligible for the Independent Spirit Awards, more information on eligibility here.

The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference and Festivals announced the Audience Award winners for the 29th SXSW Film Festival. The Audience Awards follow the previously announced 2022 Jury Awards and the 40 Years of Massive Talent Award presented to Nicolas Cage at The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent screening on Saturday night. For the complete list of 2022 Award Winners, visit www.sxsw.com/festivals/film-awards/.

Over the course of nine days the SXSW Film Festival screened 101 features including 76 World Premieres, 4 International Premieres, 4 North American Premieres, 2 U.S. Premieres, 14 Texas Premieres, plus 111 Short Films including 24 Music Videos, 12 Episodic Premieres, 6 Episodic Pilots, 30 XR Experience projects (formerly Virtual Cinema), and 19 Title Design Competition entries.

Films in the SXSW 2022 lineup screened in the following categories: Headliners; Narrative Feature Competition presented by Panavision; Documentary Feature Competition; Narrative Spotlight; Documentary Spotlight; Visions; Midnighters; Global presented by MUBI; 24 Beats Per Second; and Festival Favorites. The Episodic program consisted of Episodic Premieres and the Episodic Pilot Competition. The SXSW 2022 Shorts Film Program presented by IMDbPro featured seven competitive sections. Our XR Experience Competition, Spotlight and Special Events programming were held in-person with a selection of works in our XR Experience World in VRChat, presented by Non-Fungible Labs. All Categories with the exception of Special Events were eligible for section-specific Audience Awards.

Select conference sessions and music festival content is available to registrants through April 17 on the SXSW Online Schedule and Connected TV app. A full list of available content can be found here.

2022 SXSW Film Festival Audience Award Winners:

NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION presented by Panavision

James Morosini and Patton Oswalt in “I Love My Dad” (Photo courtesy of I Love My Dad LLC/Hantz Motion Pictures)

Audience Award Winner: I Love My Dad
Director/Screenwriter: James Morosini, Producers: Bill Stertz, Patton Oswalt, Sean O’Grady, Dane Eckerle, Phil Keefe, Daniel Brandt, Sam Slater  

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION

“Bad Axe” (Photo by David Siev)

Audience Award Winner: Bad Axe
Director: David Siev, Producers: Jude Harris, Diane Quon, Katarina Vasquez, David Siev

NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT

Audience Award Winner: Pretty Problems
Director: Kestrin Pantera, Screenwriters: Michael Tennant, Britt Rentschler, Charlotte Ubben, Producers: Katya Alexander, Britt Rentschler, Charlotte Ubben, Michael Tennant 

DOCUMENTARY SPOTLIGHT

Yvonne Bradley in “We Are Not Ghouls” (Photo courtesy of AP-LefterisPitarakis)

Audience Award Winner: We Are Not Ghouls
Director: Chris James Thompson, Producers: Jessica Farrell, Jack Turner, Andrew Swant

HEADLINERS

Britt Rentschler and Charlotte Ubben in “Pretty Problems” (Photo by Alyssa Brocato)

Audience Award Winner: Atlanta
Director: Hiro Murai, Producers: Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Hiro Murai, Stefani Robinson, Paul Simms and Dianne McGunigle

VISIONS

“Shadow” (Photo by Jeff Busby)

Audience Award Winner: Shadow
Director: Bruce Gladwin, Screenwriters: Michael Chan, Mark Deans, Bruce Gladwin, Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price, Sonia Teuben, Producers: Alice Fleming, Meret Hassenen 

MIDNIGHTERS

“Bitch Ass” (Photo by Shane Brown)

Audience Award Winner: Bitch Ass
Director: Bill Posley, Screenwriters/Producers: Bill Posley, Jonathan Colomb 

GLOBAL presented by Mubi

“Without Prescription”

Audience Award Winner: Without Prescription
Director: Juliana Maite, Screenwriter: Marietere Vélez, Producer: Vilma Liella

24 BEATS PER SECOND

Tanya Tucker and Brandi Carlile in “The Return of Tanya Tucker – Featuring Brandi Carlile”

Audience Award Winner: The Return of Tanya Tucker – Featuring Brandi Carlile
Director: Kathlyn Horan, Producers: Kathlyn Horan, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn 

FESTIVAL FAVORITES 

Chris Watts (pictured at left) in “The Art of Making It.” (Photo by Sebastian Lasaosa Rogers/Wischful Thinking Productions
)

Audience Award Winner: The Art of Making It
Director: Kelcey Edwards, Producer: Debi Wisch 

Shorts Film Program presented by IMDbPro

NARRATIVE SHORTS COMPETITION

“Aspirational Slut” (Photo by Michael Greenwood)

Audience Award Winner: Aspirational Slut
Director/Screenwriter: Caroline Lindy, Producers: Kate Hamilton, Ellyn Jameson, Maddy Nimoy, Emily Wolfe

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS COMPETITION

“The Sentence of Michael Thompson” (Photo by Logan Triplett)

Audience Award Winner: The Sentence of Michael Thompson
Directors: Kyle Thrash, Haley Elizabeth Anderson, Producers: W. Ian Ross, Kyle Thrash

ANIMATED SHORTS COMPETITION

“Five Cents”

Audience Award Winner: Five Cents
Director/Screenwriter/Producer: Aaron Hughes

MIDNIGHT SHORTS COMPETITION

“Tank Fairy” (Photo by Danny Wang)

Audience Award Winner: Tank Fairy
Director/Screenwriter: Erich Rettstadt, Producers: Anita Tung, C.K. Hugo Chung

TEXAS SHORTS COMPETITION

“Act of God” (Photo by Taylor Camarot)

Audience Award Winner: Act of God
Directors/Screenwriters: Spencer Cook, Parker Smith, Producer: Matthew Harrington

TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL SHORTS COMPETITION

“Football.” (Photo by Peyton Randolph)

Audience Award Winner: Football.
Director: William Herff, Screenwriters/Producers: William Herff, Nicholas Campos, Peyton Randolph

MUSIC VIDEO COMPETITION

Ishaval Gill and Kamaldevinder Gill in “Meet You at the Light.”

Audience Award Winner: Desirée Dawson – ‘Meet You at the Light’
Director/Screenwriter: Alexander Farah

Episodic Program 

EPISODIC PREMIERES

Audience Award Winner: 61st Street
Showrunners: Peter Moffat, J. David Shanks, Director: Marta Cunningham, Screenwriter: Peter Moffat, Producers: Annie Rhodes, Frank Baldwin, Allison Davis 

EPISODIC PILOT COMPETITION

Courtney B. Vance and Aunjanue Ellis in “61st Street” (Photo by George Burns/AMC)

Audience Award Winner: Brownsville Bred
Showrunner/Director/Screenwriter: Elaine Del Valle, Producers: Adrienne Lovette, Elaine Del Valle, Leslie Cohen, Debbie Esko-Gold, Eddie Frente  

XR Experience 

XR EXPERIENCE COMPETITION

“Gumball Dreams” (Image by Christopher Lane Davis)

Audience Award Winner: Gumball Dreams
Director: Deirdre V. Lyons, Screenwriters: Deirdre V. Lyons, Christopher Lane Davis, Producers: Ferryman Collective, Screaming Color

XR EXPERIENCE SPOTLIGHT

“The Choice” (Photo by Tom C. Hall)

Audience Award Winner: The Choice
Director: Joanne Popinska, Producers: Joanne Popinska, Tom C. Hall

SXSW Film Design Awards (three-way Tie)

EXCELLENCE IN TITLE DESIGN 

Audience Award Winner (tie): ‘Blade Runner: Black Lotus’ Title Sequence
Company: CO3/Method Made / Creative Director: John Likens

Audience Award Winner (tie): ‘See’ Season 2 Title Sequence 
Company: CO3/Method Made / Creative Director: John Likens 

Audience Award Winner (tie): ‘WandaVision’ Main On End Title Sequence 
Company: Perception / Creative Director: John LePore

About SXSW Film Festival
Now in its 29th year, SXSW Film Festival brings together creatives of all stripes over nine days to experience a diverse lineup and access to the SXSW Music and Comedy Festivals plus SXSW Conference sessions with visionaries from all corners of the entertainment, media, and technology industries. 

About SXSW
SXSW dedicates itself to helping creative people achieve their goals. Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, SXSW is best known for its conference and festivals that celebrate the convergence of tech, film, music, education, and culture. An essential destination for global professionals, the annual March event features sessions, music and comedy showcases, film screenings, exhibitions, professional development and a variety of networking opportunities. SXSW proves that the most unexpected discoveries happen when diverse topics and people come together. SXSW 2023 will take place March 10 – 19, 2023. For more information, please visit sxsw.com. To register for the event, please visit sxsw.com/attend.

SXSW 2022 is sponsored by White Claw, Blockchain Creative Labs, Porsche and The Austin Chronicle.

Review: ‘Hypochondriac’ (2022), starring Zach Villa

March 22, 2022

by Carla Hay

Zach Villa in “Hypochondriac” (Photo by Dustin Supencheck/XYZ Films)

“Hypochondriac” (2022)

Directed by Addison Heimann

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the horror film “Hypochondriac” features a cast of white, Latino and African American characters representing the working-class middle-class.

Culture Clash: A pottery maker is haunted by his traumatic childhood in ways that begin to affect his relationship with his boyfriend. 

Culture Audience: “Hypochondriac” will appeal primarily to people in horror movies that explore themes of mental illness and generational trauma.

Zach Villa in “Hypochondriac” (Photo by Dustin Supencheck/XYZ Films)

Although it can get a little repetitive, “Hypochondriac” skillfully shows the blurred lines between psychological horror and mental illness. The movie’s plot is fairly simple, but the striking and often horrifying visuals in the movie will leave an impact. “Hypochondriac” is the feature-film debut of writer/director Addison Heimann, who shows promise as a filmmaker who can craft stories and characters that hold people’s interest. “Hypochondriac” had its world premiere at the 2022 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival.

In “Hypochondriac,” which takes place in an unnamed U.S. city, the opening scene shows a mentally ill woman (played by Marlene Forte) having paranoid delusions in her home. She looks frantically out of the window, because she thinks people are out to get her. And then, this unnamed mother turns hostile toward her only child—a 12-year-old son named Will (played by Ian Inigo)—and she accuses him of “being in collusion with them.” After Will denies her accusation, she does something horrifying: She tries to kill him by strangling him.

Later, another incident that’s not shown in the movie involves this mother, a knife and a lot of blood in the house’s kitchen. Viewers find out that this incident is the one that caused the mother to be sent to a psychiatric facility. Will’s unnamed father (played by Chris Doubek) tells Will that Will’s mother has been taken away to get psychiatric help, and he orders Will to not look in the kitchen until it can be cleaned up. But, of course, Will does look in the kitchen. And he sees that it’s a blood-splattered mess.

“Hypochondriac” then fast-forwards 18 years later. Will (played by Zach Villa), who is openly gay, is now a pottery maker for a small company that caters to upscale clients. He seems to be fairly happy, and he has settled into a loving relationship with his boyfriend Luke (played by Devon Graye), who is as laid-back as Will is neurotic. Will and Luke (who is an AIDS counselor) have been dating each other for the past eight months.

Will has been guarded with Luke about his past. But things happen in the movie that cause Will to open up to Luke about the childhood trauma that still haunts him. Will also has a co-worker named Sasha (played by Yumarie Morales), who is a sassy friend, but she has her own personal struggles too. There’s a scene in the movie where Sasha has a panic attack, and Will helps her get through it.

It isn’t long before Will’s seemingly stable life starts to unravel. He gets mysterious headaches. Then he seems to be having random fainting spells. Throughout the story, Will visits a series of clinic doctors and other medical professionals, who can’t find anything that’s physically wrong with him. Michael Cassidy has a satirical cameo role as a nurse practitioner named Chaz, who insists on being called “NP Chaz” and who gives off-the-cuff, incompetent diagnoses.

Will also starts getting phone calls from his mother, whom he does not want to hear from at all. His mother repeatedly warns him not to trust Luke. She also leaves a lot of rambling messages on Will’s voice mail. And there are recurring visions of someone dressed in a wolf costume that have to do with Will’s Halloween memories from when he was a child.

It’s very easy to tell at a certain point in the movie how much is reality and how much is a hallucination. Thanks largely to Villa’s riveting performance and the engrossing direction of the movie, the entire journey of “Hypochondriac” is a harrowing ride that takes viewers into the mind of an increasingly disturbed person. “Hypochondriac” has an ending that might not satisfy some viewers, but it realistically shows how mental illness remains with people throughout their lives and isn’t like a nightmare that goes away when someone wakes up.

UPDATE: XYZ Films will release “Hypochondriac” in select U.S. cinemas on July 29, 2022. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on August 4, 2022.

Review: ‘A Lot of Nothing,’ starring Y’lan Noel, Cleopatra Coleman, Justin Hartley, Lex Scott Davis and Shamier Anderson

March 21, 2022

by Carla Hay

Pictured clockwise, from top left: Y’lan Noel, Cleopatra Coleman, Lex Scott Davis, Shamier Anderson and Justin Hartley in “A Lot of Nothing” (Photo by John Keng)

“A Lot of Nothing”

Directed by Mo McRae

Culture Representation: Taking place in Los Angeles, the comedy/drama film “A Lot of Nothing” features a racially diverse cast of characters (African American, white and some Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An African American husband and wife, who both work for the same law firm, kidnap and hold their white neighbor captive in their home after the spouses find out that he’s the cop who’s in the news for killing an unarmed young man.

Culture Audience: “A Lot of Nothing” will appeal mainly to people who think they are supporting a Black Lives Matter advocacy movie, but this horrendous misfire is anything but supportive of civil rights and positive portrayals of black people.

A complete tonal mess, the comedy/drama “A Lot of Nothing” makes a disgusting mockery of the Black Lives Matter movement and insults African American women the most. Apparently, the filmmakers think the best way for black people to fight racism is to become criminals and perpetuate racist stereotypes. If this trashy movie wanted to be a satire, it demolishes any credibility because it can’t decide if it wants to be an absurd farce or a serious thriller. Worst of all, it takes real-life trauma that families and other loved ones experience because of unjustified killings committed by cops, and uses this trauma as a gimmicky plot device, just so the filmmakers could get a cash grab out of this heinous movie. “A Lot of Nothing” had its world premiere at the 2022 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival.

The fact that “A Lot of Nothing” was directed by an African American (Mo McRae) does not excuse the utter depths of stupidity where this movie goes when it comes to exploiting these real-life tragedies. McRae wrote the abysmal screenplay for “A Lot of Nothing” with Sarah Kelly Kaplan. And they both seem to have particular contempt for black women, because of how black women are portrayed in this movie. That’s because out of all the dimwitted characters in “A Lot of Nothing,” the black women characters are the dumbest and the flakiest.

The moronic story of “A Lot of Nothing,” which takes place in Los Angeles, is that an African American married couple named James (played by Y’lan Noel) and Vanessa (played by Cleopatra Coleman)—who both work at the same law firm—kidnap and hold captive a white cop named Brian Stanley (played by Justin Hartley), who happens to be their next-door neighbor. Brian is divorced and lives alone, so there’s no one in his house who immediately notices that he’s missing when he’s kidnapped from his home. James is a lawyer, while Vanessa (who has an MBA degree) is some kind of business manager at the law firm.

What would cause this highly educated, upper-middle-class, respectable couple to commit such a drastic crime? Vanessa is angrily triggered because she saw on the news that Brian is under investigation for the shooting death of an unarmed, young adult man, who was killed during a traffic stop. Some of this incident was captured on video footage that went viral on the Internet and was shown on TV. Brian has been put on leave from his job, pending the investigation.

Before the kidnapping takes place, Vanessa rants to James in their home about how she’s tired of hearing about cops killing innocent black people. James tells Vanessa repeatedly that they need to hear all the facts of this case before they jump to conclusions. But that doesn’t stop Vanessa from obsessing over the idea that she needs to lecture and interrogate Brian about what happened, as if she’s a prosecutor questioning him during a trial. She marches over to Brian’s house and demands that he talk to her and explain what happened during the shooting. Brian doesn’t want to talk to her, but she insists.

As someone who’s married to a lawyer and as a business manager who works for a law firm, Vanessa should know that Brian is probably under an attorney’s orders not to talk about the investigation to anyone without an attorney present. As a black woman (and as a human being who should have common sense), Vanessa should also know how stupid it is to pick a fight with a cop who’s under investigation for shooting and killing an unarmed person. The filmmakers of “A Lot of Nothing” don’t care, because they want to make Vanessa the worst stereotype of an angry black woman.

Brian’s response to Vanessa’s hostile confrontation? He tells her: “As an officer of the law, I suggest you take your high yellow ass back to your nice little house and drop it.” That racist remark is enough for Vanessa to later go over to Brian’s house with a gun, while James is trying to smooth things over with Brian. Vanessa wants to provoke a racist cop, and apparently doesn’t care about making things worse, and possibly doing something that could get people killed.

Vanessa pulls a gun on Brian, forces him into the couple’s garage, and orders James to tie up Brian. James is shocked and horrified. At first, James objects to Vanessa’s unhinged actions, but then he reluctantly goes along with this idiotic abduction and the rest of the crimes that Vanessa wants to commit in the name of Black Lives Matter. In other words, the movie is saying that educated black people with no criminal records are actually irrational, violent criminals who’ll use any racial excuse to commit crimes, thereby embodying the worst stereotypes that racists have of black people.

Vanessa is such an obnoxious lunatic, she commits this cop kidnapping less than an hour before James’ brother Jamal (payed by Shamier Anderson) and his pregnant fiancée Candy (played by Lex Scott Davis) are due to arrive for a family dinner. Candy and Jamal show up, find out about the kidnapping, and participate in the crime too. Jamal turns into a thug, while Candy is an airhead who spouts a lot of New Age gibberish.

There’s really no point in describing this awful movie anymore, except to say that the movie’s writing and direction are trash; the pacing is erratic; and all the cast members’ performances get worse as the story goes down a steep slide into a putrid abyss of racial hatred that’s hell-bent on making black people look as bad as possible. The movie ends with a “reveal” that just makes everyone involved look even more insanely stupid, with no real consequences. “A Lot of Nothing” is really just a lot of nonsense and a worthless train wreck that should be avoided at all costs.

UPDATE: RLJE Films will release “A Lot of Nothing” in select U.S. cinemas and on VOD on February 3, 2023.

Review: ‘Skate Dreams,’ starring Nora Vasconcellos, Mimi Knoop, Nicole Hause, ‘Tin’ Kouv Chansangva, Alex White, Cara-Beth Burnside and Lisa Whitaker

March 20, 2022

by Carla Hay

Nicole Hause in “Skate Dreams” (Photo by Jenni Morello)

“Skate Dreams”

Directed by Jessica Edwards

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the United States and in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the documentary film “Skate Dreams” features a nearly all-white group of people (with a few Asians, Latinos and African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class who are connected in some way to female skateboarding.

Culture Clash: Female skateboarders have a continual battle to get the same salaries, resources, media attention, job opportunities and respect as male skateboarders.

Culture Audience: “Skate Dreams” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in skateboarding and gender rights issues in sports.

“Tin” Kouv Chansangva in “Skate Dreams” (Photo by Jenni Morello)

“Skate Dreams” is a conventionally made but still inspirational and informative documentary about women and girls involved in skateboarding. Directed by Jessica Edwards, the movie strikes the right balance of telling personal stories with giving historical context and business details about the skateboarding industry. “Skate Dreams” might get some comparisons to director Amelia Brodka’s 2013 documentary “Underexposed: A Women’s Skateboarding Documentary,” which covered many of the same issues. “Skate Dreams” had its world premiere at the 2022 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival.

“Skate Dreams” admirably puts a lot of the narrative over to female skateboarders, but the documentary could have used more perspectives from the male-dominated decision makers who still control the industry. That’s why “Skate Dreams” (which was filmed from 2019 to 2021) sometimes comes across an echo chamber. All of the complaints and concerns about sexism in skateboarding are absolutely valid and are rightfully in the documentary.

But after a while, when people who feel oppressed just complain about this oppression amongst themselves, not enough gets done to make progress in eradicating the oppression. At some point, there needs to be more of an open dialogue with the people who have the power to make changes in the skateboarding industry (and the people in those power positions are usually men), in order to bring gender equity in how skateboarders are treated in the industry. That open dialogue is largely missing in “Skate Dreams.”

The women skateboarders interviewed in the documentary include an impressive list of trailblazers, including celebrity skateboarder Nora Vasconcellos, Women’s Skateboarding Alliance founder Mimi Knoop, Action Sports Alliance founder Cara-Beth Burnside and Girls Skate Network founder/filmmaker/archivist Lisa Whitaker. However, “Skate Dreams” shut a lot of male influencers out of the conversation by not interviewing them. The only man who’s actually shown doing a sit-down interview for “Skate Dreams” is Drew Mearns, who passed away in 2021. Mearns was a teacher, sports coach, athlete manager/agent and an ESPN analyst, who was an ally to Action Sports Alliance.

“Underexposed: A Women’s Skateboarding Documentary” made some attempt to present more of a gender-balanced perspective about skateboarding. For example, the men interviewed in “Underexposed” included editors at Thrasher and Skateboarding magazines, the founder of Acme Skateboards and a Skate One marketing executive. However, “Underexposed” didn’t go far enough in asking them what they were going to do to help change the culture of misogyny and male sexism in skateboarding. The prevailing attitude of the men interviewed in the documentary was almost like a shrugging brushoff of admitting that sexism exists in skateboarding, but they also pretended as if they have nothing to do with enabling, condoning, or perpetuating this sexism.

A lot has changed since “Underexposed” was released. The #MeToo movement has brought more awareness and activism for issues related to sexism and sexual harassment. Skateboarding is now an Olympic sport. There’s more global enthusiasm/support for women and girls in skateboarding. And there’s even been a documentary that won an Oscar about the international influence of skateboarding: 2019’s “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl),” which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject.

But some things haven’t changed. Champion female skateboarders still earn only a fraction of what their male counterparts earn. Female skateboarders are still rarely given prominent coverage in skateboarding media. Women are rarely the leaders at major skateboarding events. Some of the best parts of “Skate Dreams” are how it shows the history of female skateboarding, and when pioneers such as Knoop, Burnside and Whitaker tell their stories in the movie. This history is very important for people to understand how far female skateboarders have come, and to know more about the people who paved the way. (Knoop and Burnside were also interviewed in the “Underexposed” documentary.)

In 2005, Action Sports Alliance famously threatened a female skateboarder boycott of the X Games to demand three main things for female skateboarders: (1) an increase in the prize money so that it was on a more equitable level to the prize money given to male skateboarders; (2) increased exposure; and (3) women getting the ability to run female skateboard events. The threat of a boycott woke people up into making those changes. The people in the documentary acknowledge that more progress needs to be made.

Most professional skateboarders began skateboarding when they were children. Some of the more poignant aspects of the documentary are when the skateboarders talk about what inspired them and how the sport changed their lives. Knoop remembers taking up skateboarding at the age of 6, when her family lived in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, because of her military father.

Knoop didn’t actually see women competing in skateboard events until she was a college student. She was so inspired by skateboard culture, she moved to California (the skateboarding mecca of the U.S.) and took up professional skateboarding at age 24. Burnside became a mentor to Knoop and many other female skateboarders, including Nicole Hause, who is prominently featured in “Skate Dreams,” which follows Hause’s journey as an Olympic hopeful. Knoop became a mentor to other female skateboarders too.

Burnside remembers her skateboarding origins and goals: “It was a long time ’til I started skating around other girls. I want to grow the sport. If only one girl is out there being good, it’s not going anywhere.” Even with Burnside’s successes in skateboarding, because of gender pay disparities in skateboarding, Burnside says she couldn’t make a living from the sport and turned to snowboarding to make money: “The reason why I went to snowboarding was because I did so much skating and I couldn’t get paid.”

Vasconcellos and Hause, who were roommates in the San Diego area at the time “Skate Dreams” was filmed, have a sisterly camaraderie that’s very entertaining to watch. Hause (who says her daredevil father was her earliest inspiration) praises Vasconcellos achievements for female skateboarders of their generation, by saying: “Nicole has paved the way for all of us.”

Adidas senior marketing manager Jessie Van Roechoudt comments on Vasconcellos becoming one the highest-paid female skateboarders in the industry and being a rare female skateboarder to have an endorsement deal with a major athletic shoe corporation: “It’s really significant for Nora to have this because it will move the needle in the industry versus how it used to be for us when we were just literally going to these contests to try to make our rent money.”

The documentary includes footage of Vasconcellos seeing her own custom-made athletic shoe brand during an Adidas business meeting, as well as interacting with fans during a meet-and-greet session. Vasconcellos, who began skating at age 5 or 6, describes how she feels about skateboarding: “The process is very addictive … You get high from learning a new a new trick … I love that people skate, and they’re true to themselves through skateboarding.”

Many of the women interviewed also talk about how skateboarders often grow up feeling like misfits and outsiders, but they can find a welcoming community in skateboarding, especially among other female skateboarders. This sense of community has inspired many female skateboarders to start their own skateboarding groups, where they mentor and inspire other skateboarders.

That’s certainly the case with “Tin” Kouv Chansangva, who lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she operates Skateistan, a non-profit group that uses skating and education to empower children. Chansangva says she grew up being abused by her father, but skateboarding helped boost her self-esteem: “I was afraid of everything … Skating made me feel confident. I forgot my fear.”

Chansangva explains that many of the kids in Skateistan don’t go to regular school because of poverty issues. Several of the children have to drop out of high school because they have to work to support their families. For many of these kids, Skateistan is the closest thing they have to getting an education with their peers. The documentary includes footage of Chansangva in Phonm Penh, as well as traveling to the U.S. for skateboarding meetups and events. She says, “I wish I could have a skater girl crew in Cambodia.”

The documentary has a very good variety of footage from women’s skateboarding events. They include the X Games 2019 in Minneapolis, Zumiez 2019 in Chicago, Wheels of Fortune 2019 in San Diego and USA Skateboarding Media Day in 2020. The overall sense that viewers get at the competition events is that women skateboarders are generally more supportive of each other than other sports where individuals compete against each other. There’s the desire to win, of course, but many female skateboarders seem to care more about surpassing their own personal goals than having the sport being about defeating and humiliating others.

American skateboarders are the main focus “Skate Dreams,” as is the case with “Underexposed.” Chansangva is the only skateboarder interviewed in “Skate Dreams” who is not from the United States. “Skate Dreams” could have had more exploration of diversity issues among female skateboarders.

The only women of color skateboarders interviewed are Chansangva, Jaime Reyes (who is Latina) and Jessyka Bailey (who is African American), who don’t really talk about racism issues in female skateboarding, maybe because the “Skate Dreams” filmmakers didn’t ask them. Bailey does say that she grew up in a predominantly white environment in Arizona, and she didn’t feel like she fit in anywhere until she moved to New York City. At the time she was interviewed for the documentary, Bailey was working at KCDC Skateshop in Brooklyn.

Other skateboarders interviewed in “Skate Dreams” include KCDC Skateshop owner Amy Gunther Ellington, Alex White, Jordyn Barratt and Alexis Sablone. It’s not really an oversight, but it’s a little surprising that “Skate Dreams” doesn’t mention HBO’s 2020-2021 dramedy series “Betty,” which was about of a diverse group of young, female skateboarding friends in New York City. It was certainly the first time that female skateboarding culture got its own primetime series on a major U.S. TV network.

“Skate Dreams” is more than a documentary about female empowerment. It speaks to many universal truths about overcoming obstacles, often in the face of a lot of adversity and skepticism. You don’t have to a skateboarding enthusiast to be inspired by the people in this movie.

Review: ‘Sell/Buy/Date,’ starring Sarah Jones

March 19, 2022

by Carla Hay

Sarah Jones (as herself, as the Nereida character and as the Bella character) in “Sell/Buy/Date” (Photo courtesy of Sell/Buy/Date Film)

“Sell/Buy/Date”

Directed by Sarah Jones

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York, California and Nevada, the documentary film “Sell/Buy/Date” features a racially diverse group of people (African American, white, Latino and Native American) from the working-class, middle-class and wealthy discussing American society’s attitudes and laws about sex workers.

Culture Clash: People offer different perspectives on whether or not certain types of sex work should be legal and what the repercussions would be if the laws changed.

Culture Audience: “Sell/Buy/Date” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching an unusual documentary about sex workers that blends comedy and the seriousness of hard-hitting issues.

In the very unique documentary “Sell/Buy/Date,” director Sarah Jones takes viewers on a personal journey exploring diverse perspectives of sex workers in America. The movie’s tonal shift from lighthearted to tragic is jarring but necessary. The first two-thirds of the film put more emphasis on Jones alternating between comedic sketches and interviews that she conducted with sex workers and celebrities. The last third of the film is when the documentary takes a much darker and more realistic turn, when sex workers talk about the exploitation and abuse that’s part of the sex industry, whether the sex work is legal or not.

“Sell/Buy/Date” is based on Jones’ one-woman stage show “Sell/Buy/Date,” which had a limited off-Broadway run in New York City in 2016 and a limited engagement in Los Angeles in 2018. In the stage show, Jones (who says she’s never been a sex worker) played various characters representing various perspectives of the sex industry. Jones is also known for her one-woman, off-Broadway show “Bridge & Tunnel,” which won a special Tony Award in 2006. Meryl Streep was an executive producer of “Bridge & Tunnel,” and Streep has the same title for the “Sell/Buy/Date” documentary.

In the “Sell/Buy/Date” stage show, Jones played 19 fictional characters of various races, ethnicities and genders. In real life, Jones (who usually identifies as African American and sometimes as biracial or multiracial) is the child of “an African American father and mother of mixed Euro-American and Caribbean descent,” according to Jones’ Wikipedia page. She calls herself a “woman of color” in the documentary.

In the “Sell/Buy/Date” documentary, Jones portrays four fictional characters: Lorraine, an outspoken 85-year-old white Jewish grandmother; Bella, an academic-minded white college sophomore, who’s majoring in sex-work studies and who’s “ashamed of her white privilege”; Nereida, a sassy half-Dominican, half-Puerto Rican advocate for female rights; and Rashid, a working-class African American man who’s an aspiring entrepreneur and who works as an Uber driver to pay his bills. The “Sell/Buy/Date” stage show also had fictional characters in the sex industry, but none of the play’s sex-worker characters are in the “Sell/Buy/Date” documentary, because Jones interviews real-life sex workers in the film.

Jones interviewed people in New York state (where Jones is based), California and Nevada. The interviewees range from sex workers to activists to people who are not in the sex industry but who know Jones personally. It’s clear from watching the tonal shift of the film that Jones started off thinking that the film was going to go one way, and it turned out going another way. “Sell/Buy/Date” had its world premiere at the 2022 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival.

The movie opens with a scene of Jones, Lorraine, Bella and Nereida gathered in Jones’ dressing room, as they talk about the “Sell/Buy/Date” stage show, which will soon close. It’s a comedy sketch where the four women discuss the controversy over the show, such as protestors and critics who call Jones and “Sell/Buy/Date” a “danger to women.” Nereida comments that with the “Sell/Buy/Date documentary, Jones was trying so hard to be the “wokest” to please everybody, the play has just ended up angering “everybody.” In a staged scene, Jones is seen getting criticism on social media for being a SWERF: Sex Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminist, which is a label that Jones says does not apply to her.

In a voiceover, Jones says of the “Sell/Buy/Date” characters that she created: “On stage, in my play, they help me share different sides of a topic that’s not often talked about in the sex industry.” As time goes on in the documentary, Jones eventually reveals that she’s created “Sell/Buy/Date” (the play and the movie) as a way to try to emotionally heal and come to terms with the death of her 18-year-old sister Naomi, whose drug addiction led to her becoming a sex worker. Jones doesn’t go into too many details about this tragedy in the movie, but she has said in media interviews that Naomi died at the start of Jones’ career in the entertainment industry.

Early on in the documentary, Jones mentions dreading the anniversary of Naomi’s death. She also talks about keeping Naomi’s journal for three years and being afraid to read it, although she eventually does read parts of the journal on camera in the documentary. It’s one of the best parts of the movie, when Jones is being herself and showing a very vulnerable side to her, instead of playing characters to get some laughs.

Jones’ mother Leslie (an obstetrician/gynecologist) appears briefly in the documentary and mostly shows support for Jones in making this movie, but she also expresses her disapproval of her daughter having to spend so much time with people whom Leslie thinks are unsavory characters because of their line of work. These mother/daughter scenes are mostly heartwarming, but viewers can tell that the subject of Naomi is too painful for them to talk about in depth on camera. (Jones’ parents are divorced, and her father does not appear in the documentary.)

There’s a little bit of Leslie that comes across in Jones’ grandmotherly Lorraine character. The character of Bella represents people who think all sex work should be legal everywhere. The character of Nereida is vehemently opposed to prostitution being legal, because she believes that prostitutes (especially female prostitutes) will still be exploited. In the beginning of the movie, Nereida argues with Jones about Jones glorifying prostitution in the documentary. And later, Nereida gives a passionate monologue that’s one of the movie’s best scenes. As for Rashid, this character is in the movie for pure comic relief as Jones’ driver. He doesn’t have much to say about the sex industry except to hint that he’s had experience in hiring sex workers.

People have different definitions of “sex work,” so “Sell/Buy/Date” talks mostly to sex workers whose primary sex work involves sex acts that are done in person. For example, there are no interviews with people who work only in phone sex or Internet/webcam sex. It’s debatable whether or not getting paid to strip and dance nude is considered “sex work,” but the movie includes a segment where Jones goes to a pole-dancing class taught by Amy Bond, founder of Pole + Dance Studios in San Francisco. During her interview, Bond opens up about her puritanical Mormon background and how she used to do porn. Bond encourages Jones and other people in the pole-dancing class to have more of a mind/body connection.

One of the more ironically interesting parts of the documentary is when Jones is in Las Vegas for a Sex Industrialist Revolution Conference taking place right next to an anti-sex trafficking conference. However, the documentary could have used more exploration of what making prostitution legal would really mean for sex-trafficking activities and how it all relates to gender issues. Men are the majority of customers for prostitutes, but the customers are punished less than the prostitutes, when it comes to the law and society’s judgments. It’s debatable if legal prostitution really erases the society stigma that prostitutes (who are usually female) have to bear more than their customers.

Some celebrities make cameos as themselves in the documentary. Rosario Dawson gives words of encouragement to Jones about making the movie. Ilana Glazer and Jones talk about the controversy over the “Sell/Buy/Date” play. Bryan Cranston appears toward the end of the film and shares a very personal story with Jones about how he lost his virginity to a prostitute.

At various points in the scripted parts of the movie, Jones is seen interacting by phone only with two characters from her “support team”: her manager Roger and her publicist Nora. These are fictional characters that could be based on real-life people. In the movie, it’s mentioned that Jones is in a “dead-end relationship” with Roger and that they are “just using each other.” Roger is also evicting her from a home that he’s been renting for her because he doesn’t want to pay her rent anymore. It’s never really explained in the movie how true any of this information is, but it looks out of place in a documentary.

For most of the documentary, the fictional characters drift in and out of the narrative. Other scenes not involving these fictional characters are deliberately staged, such as a scene where Jones is in a waiting room for a doctor’s appointment, and she’s sitting near a sex worker named Tish “The Dish” Roberts. The scene is staged to make it look like Roberts and Jones are meeting as random strangers for the first time, as Roberts sees Jones and gushes to Jones that she’s a fan of the “Sell/Buy/Date” play.

In this waiting room, the two women then talk about Roberts’ experiences as a sex worker. Roberts (who is African American) says she became a sex worker at age 17, when a white male schoolteacher she had at the time gave her a lot of attention that she craved. The teacher knew that Roberts came from an impoverished, broken home, so the attention that he gave her eventually turned to paying her to perform sex acts with him.

Roberts says that these payments for sex acts continued on more than one occasion, and she obeyed the teacher’s orders to keep everything a secret. She comments to Jones about that sexual experience: “It felt like a transaction. I learned to detach from it.”

In the conversation, Roberts thanks Jones for doing the “Sell/Buy/Date” play and movie for giving a voice to sex workers. Jones doesn’t pass judgment on Roberts, but neither does Jones call this teacher-student experience for what it really is: sexual exploitation. And depending on the age-of-consent-law in the state where it took place, it would have been illegal sexual abuse.

Lotus Lain, a sex worker who is also described as a “sex worker advocate,” warns Jones about the pitfalls of directing this documentary and not being in the sex industry herself: “You’re about to get yourself cancelled. You’re an outsider. You are what we call a ‘civilian.’ You do not understand what it is we go through to be telling our stories.” The conversation between Jones and Lain ends on a cordial note, but Jones does seem very aware throughout the film that she’s learning more about the sex industry as she goes along in making the documentary.

At first, some of the sex workers interviewed in the documentary paint a rosy picture of being in control of their work and their bodies. A common theme in this talk is that sex work can equal “empowerment.” But what “Sell/Buy/Date” eventually does is expose the different layers of the sex industry to show that the people who push the most for prostitution to be legal are the ones who are most likely to get the most financial gain from it. And men are the vast majority of the business owners in the sex industry.

In the documentary, these business owners include porn entrepreneur/actor Evan Seinfeld (also known as a musician who used to be the lead singer/bassist for the rock band Biohazard), who essentially brags about how much money he can make from porn and talks about how his employees (who are mostly women) can make a lot of money too. What he doesn’t mention (but is obvious to anyone who knows anything about business) is that because Seinfeld owns his company, he still makes more money than the people who work for him.

In Nevada (where prostitution is legal), brothel owner Alice Little gives Jones a cheerful tour of her Chicken Ranch brothel, which has only women as sex workers. Little talks about how the brothel is safe and regulated, but she glosses over any negative experiences her employees have had with customers. Little admits that she’s one of the very few women in the United States who owns a legal brothel. What Seinfeld and Little have in common is promoting their businesses in this documentary, so of course their agenda is to make the sex industry look as glamorous as possible.

But then, Jones shows another side of the sex industry that is more common: the workers who don’t own businesses in the sex industry, and who are at the mercy of customers, pimps/madams and other people who can exploit them. The documentary starts to get real when sex workers/activists such as Esperanza Fonseca (a transgender woman) and Pueblo tribe member Terria Xo open up about the violence and other abuse they’ve experienced in their line of work. Addictions to drugs and alcohol are also occupational hazards. When people talk about making prostitution legal, no one likes to talk about who’s going to pay the medical bills when these sex workers get viciously assaulted during their work.

Jones interviews Xo with other Native American activists, such as Jennifer Marley (who is Tewa, part of the Pueblo tribe) and Becki Jones (from the Diné/Navajo tribe), who give honest and direct talk about how sex workers who are women of color and transgender women are disproportionately more likely than any other sex workers to experience violence and death because of sex work. And therefore, they say that even if prostitution became legal everywhere in America, it still would not change the violence that can happen, and the racial and gender disparities in who gets to profit the most from sex work. “Sell/Buy/Date” doesn’t force viewers to think one way or another about these issues, but it admirably presents enough perspectives for viewers to make up their own minds.

UPDATE: Cinedigm will release “Sell/Buy/Date” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on October 14, 2022.

Review: ‘The Outfit’ (2022), starring Mark Rylance, Zoey Deutch, Dylan O’Brien, Johnny Flynn, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Simon Russell Beale

March 18, 2022

by Carla Hay

Zoey Deutch and Mark Rylance in “The Outfit” (Photo courtesy of Focus Features)

“The Outfit” (2022)

Directed by Graham Moore

Culture Representation: Taking place in Chicago in 1956, the dramatic film “The Outfit” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: A mild-mannered British man, who owns a men’s clothing shop in Chicago, has local gangsters as his clients, and he becomes embroiled in the gang’s problems. 

Culture Audience: “The Outfit” will appeal primarily to people who like watching above-average mystery thrillers that have some unpredictable plot twists.

Johnny Flynn and Mark Rylance in “The Outfit” (Photo by Rob Youngson/Focus Features)

The suspenseful thriller “The Outfit” keeps viewers guessing about who are the heroes and who are the villains. It’s a well-crafted movie with a very talented cast that brings impressive energy to this unique story. If people ever say that good old-fashioned mystery films aren’t being made anymore, then point them in the direction of “The Outfit.” It pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock-influenced films of the mid-20th century while avoiding being a misguided, “stuck in a time warp” mess.

“The Outfit,” which takes place in 1956, is the feature-film directorial debut of Graham Moore. He won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, for 2014’s “The Imitation Game,” another well-made movie about an intelligent British man who gets caught up in a web of lies and treacherous conspiracies. Moore co-wrote the “The Outfit” screenplay with Jonathan McClain.

Unlike the sprawling settings of “The Imitation Game,” the setting of “The Outfit” is contained entirely in one place: the small clothing shop of Leonard Burling (played by Mark Rylance), a British immigrant who has been living in Chicago for the past several years. It would be easy for viewers to assume that “The Outfit” was adapted from a stage play, but this movie has an original screenplay.

Leonard’s specialty is high-priced, custom-made men’s suits. He also does clothing repairs. He’s very meticulous and takes pride in his work. He’s also quick to tell people that he’s a cutter, not a tailor. As time goes on in the movie, viewers see that the movie’s title of “The Outfit” has a double meaning: the type of clothing that Leonard can make and the gang syndicate that causes the dangerous predicament that Leonard becomes involved with in this movie.

Leonard is a reclusive, middle-aged bachelor with no children. He lives alone in a back area of the shop. Leonard has one employee: a woman in her 20s named Mable (played by Zoey Deutch), who is the shop’s administrative assistant/receptionist. She has a perky personality and is very reliable. However, Mable is honest in telling Leonard that she doesn’t love his line of work and only has this job to make enough money to pay her bills. Her dream is to travel around the world, including go to Paris, a city that has a special place in her heart.

Leonard tells people that he moved from the United Kingdom to Chicago because the popularity of denim clothing made his bespoke line of work fairly obsolete in his native country, where he used to have a shop on London’s Savile Row. Leonard’s reason for immigrating to America doesn’t sound very plausible, because denim clothing is popular in the United States too. Leonard is very private and doesn’t divulge much about his personal life, although he mentions that he served in the British military during World War I.

Among the people who are Leonard’s loyal clients are some local Irish gangsters. Leonard stays out of the gang’s dirty dealings and doesn’t pass judgment. The wealthy Irish mob boss in the area is named Roy Boyle (played by Simon Russell Beale), who doesn’t appear until about halfway through the movie. Roy is grooming his only son Richie Boyle (played by Dylan O’Brien), who’s in his 20s or early 30s, to eventually take over the gang’s business.

However, Richie has a rival for this position of power: a cunning manipulator named Francis (played by Johnny Flynn), who’s about five to eight years older than Richie. Francis was orphaned at an early age and taken in by Roy as somewhat of a foster son. Francis is as cold and calculating as Richie is hot-headed and impulsive. Richie feels a lot of jealousy and resentment toward Francis, whom Richie suspects is his father Roy’s top choice to be Roy’s successor as the mob leader. Richie gripes to Leonard about Francis: “He not even Irish!”

Something happens during this story that forces Leonard to be caught in increasingly elaborate deceptions and traps involving a coveted surveillance tape and a missing person. Complicating matters, Francis and Mable are romantically involved with each other. All of the cast members give exemplary performances, but Rylance is the obvious standout because his Leonard character is the most complex. Nikki Amuka-Bird shares top billing in “The Outfit” as an enigmatic woman named Violet, but viewers should know that Violet gets very limited screen time (about five minutes) toward the end of the film. After a somewhat slow-paced start, “The Outfit” goes on a thrilling ride that keeps viewers on edge throughout this entire memorable mystery.

Focus Features released “The Outfit” in select U.S. cinemas on March 18, 2022. UPDATE: Peacock will premiere “The Outfit” on May 2, 2022.

2022 Academy Awards: Where to watch the Oscar-nominated films in theaters and on video

March 18, 2022

Now that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has announced the nominees for the 94th annual Academy Awards, people might be wondering where to see the nominated films before the winners are announced. The Oscar ceremony will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 27, 2022. ABC will have the live telecast of the show in the United States. Here is where the nominated films can be seen in theaters and on video before the Oscar ceremony. (This information applies to U.S. theaters only, and remains current until March 27, 2022.)

NOTE: “Home video” means available for rent or purchase in various formats.

BEST PICTURE

“Belfast”

Nominated for:
Best Picture
Best Director (Kenneth Branagh)
Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench)
Best Supporting Actor (Ciarán Hinds)
Best Original Screenplay
Best Sound
Best Original Song (“Down to Joy”)

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.
Available on digital and VOD.

“Culture Mix review: “Belfast” 

“CODA”

Nominated for:
Best Picture
Best Supporting Actor (Troy Kotsur)
Best Adapted Screenplay

Where to watch:
Streaming on Apple TV+.

Culture Mix review: “CODA”

“Don’t Look Up”

Nominated for:
Best Picture
Best Original Screenplay
Best Film Editing
Best Original Score

Where to watch:
Streaming on Netflix.

Culture Mix review: “Don’t Look Up” 

“Drive My Car”

Nominated for:
Best Picture
Best Director (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best International Feature Film

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.
Streaming on HBO Max.

Culture Mix review: “Drive My Car”

“Dune”

Nominated for:
Best Picture
Best Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Film Editing
Best Sound
Best Original Score
Best Production Design
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Best Costume Design
Best Visual Effects

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on HBO/HBO Max.

Culture Mix review: “Dune”

“King Richard”

Nominated for:
Best Picture
Best Actor (Will Smith)
Best Supporting Actress (Aunjanue Ellis)
Best Original Screenplay
Best Film Editing
Best Original Song (“Be Alive”)

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on HBO/HBO Max.

Culture Mix review: “King Richard”

“Licorice Pizza”

Nominated for:
Best Picture
Best Director (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Best Original Screenplay

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.
Available on digital and VOD.

Culture Mix review: “Licorice Pizza”

“Nightmare Alley”

Nominated for:
Best Picture
Best Cinematography
Best Production Design
Best Costume Design

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Hulu and HBO/HBO Max.

Culture Mix review: “Nightmare Alley”

“The Power of the Dog”

Nominated for:
Best Picture
Best Director (Jane Campion)
Best Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch)
Best Supporting Actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee)
Best Supporting Actor (Jesse Plemons)
Best Supporting Actress (Kirsten Dunst)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Production Design
Best Film Editing
Best Sound
Best Original Score

Where to watch:
Streaming on Netflix.

Culture Mix review: “Power of the Dog”

“West Side Story”

Nominated for:
Best Picture
Best Director (Steven Spielberg)
Best Supporting Actress (Ariana DeBose)
Best Cinematography
Best Production Design
Best Film Editing
Best Costume Design
Best Sound

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Disney+ and HBO/HBO Max.

Culture Mix review: “West Side Story”

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

“Ascension”

Where to watch:
Streaming on Paramount+.

“Attica”

Where to watch:
Available on Showtime.
Streaming on You Tube (free).

“Flee”

Also nominated for:
Best International Feature Film
Best Animated Feature Film

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Hulu.

“Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)”

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.

“Writing With Fire”

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.
Available on digital and VOD.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

“Encanto”

Also nominated for:
Best Best Original Song (“Dos Oruguitas”)
Best Original Score

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Disney+.

“Flee”

Also nominated for:
Best Documentary Feature
Best International Feature Film

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Hulu.

“Luca”

Where to watch:
Streaming on Disney+.

“The Mitchells vs. The Machines”

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Netflix.

“Raya and the Last Dragon”

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Disney+.

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

“Drive My Car”

Also nominated for:
Best Picture
Best Director (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
Best Adapted Screenplay

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.
Streaming on HBO Max.

“Flee”

Also nominated for:
Best Documentary Feature
Best Animated Feature Film

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Hulu.

“The Hand of God”

Where to watch:
Streaming on Netflix.

“Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Kanopy. (Free with participating libraries.)

“The Worst Person in the World”

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.

OTHER OSCAR-NOMINATED FEATURE FILMS

“Being the Ricardos”

Nominated for:
Best Actor (Javier Bardem)
Best Actress (Nicole Kidman)
Best Supporting Actor (J.K. Simmons)

Where to watch:
Streaming on Prime Video.

“Coming 2 America”

Nominated for:
Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Where to watch:
Streaming on Prime Video.

“Cruella”

Nominated for:
Best Costume Design
Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Disney+.

“Cyrano”

Nominated for:
Best Costume Design

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.
Available on digital and VOD.

“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”

Nominated for:
Best Actress (Jessica Chastain)
Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Hulu and HBO/HBO Max.

“Four Good Days”

Nominated for:
Best Original Song (“Somehow You Do”)

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Kanopy (free with participating libraries) and Hulu.

“Free Guy”

Nominated for:
Best Visual Effects

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Disney+ and HBO/HBO Max.

“House of Gucci”

Nominated for:
Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.
Available on digital and VOD.

“The Lost Daughter”

Nominated for:
Best Actress (Olivia Colman)
Best Supporting Actress (Jessie Buckley)
Best Adapted Screenplay

Where to watch:
Streaming on Netflix.

“No Time to Die”

Nominated for:
Best Sound
Best Original Song (“No Time to Die”)
Best Visual Effects

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.

“Parallel Mothers”

Nominated for:
Best Actress (Penélope Cruz)
Best Original Score

Where to watch:
Playing in select theaters.
Available on digital and VOD.

“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”

Nominated for:
Best Visual Effects

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Disney+.

“Spencer”

Nominated for:
Best Actress (Kristen Stewart)

Where to watch:
Available on digital and VOD.
Streaming on Hulu.

“Spider-Man: No Way Home”

Nominated for:
Best Visual Effects

Where to watch:
Playing in theaters.

“Tick, Tick…Boom!”

Nominated for:
Best Actor (Andrew Garfield)
Best Film Editing

Where to watch:
Streaming on Netflix.

“The Tragedy of Macbeth”

Nominated for:
Best Actor (Denzel Washington)
Best Cinematography

Where to watch:
Streaming on Apple TV+.

BEST SHORT FILMS (ANIMATED, LIVE-ACTION & DOCUMENTARY)

Every year, select theaters have special screenings of the Oscar-nominated short films. More information can be found here.

In addition, most cable and satellite TV companies have the Oscar-nominated short films available as a VOD package for subscribers.

These short films are currently available for streaming:

“Affairs of the Heart” 
Nominated for:
Best Animated Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on YouTube (free).

“La Bestia” 
Nominated for:
Best Animated Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on YouTube (free).

“Robin Robin” 
Nominated for:
Best Animated Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on Netflix.

“The Windshield Wiper” 
Nominated for:
Best Animated Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on YouTube (free).

“Audible” 
Nominated for:
Best Documentary Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on Netflix.

“Lead Me Home” 
Nominated for:
Best Documentary Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on Netflix.

“The Queen of Basketball” 
Nominated for:
Best Documentary Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on The New York Times website (free) and YouTube (free).

“Three Songs for Benazir” 
Nominated for:
Best Documentary Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on Netflix.

“When We Were Bullies” 
Nominated for:
Best Documentary Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on HBO/HBO Max, as of March 30, 2022.

“Ala Kachuu – Take and Run” 
Nominated for:
Best Live-Action Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on Vimeo (for a price).

“The Dress” 
Nominated for:
Best Live-Action Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on HBO Max.

“The Long Goodbye” 
Nominated for:
Best Live-Action Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on Vimeo (free) and YouTube (free).

“On My Mind” 
Nominated for:
Best Live-Action Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on YouTube (free).

“Please Hold” 
Nominated for:
Best Live-Action Short

Where to watch:
Streaming on HBO Max.

Review: ‘Umma’ (2022), starring Sandra Oh

March 18, 2022

by Carla Hay

Fivel Stewart and Sandra Oh in “Umma” (Photo by Saeed Adyani/Stage 6 Films)

“Umma” (2022)

Directed by Iris K. Shim

Some language in Korean with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed part of the U.S., the horror film “Umma” features a cast of Asian and white characters representing the working-class ad middle-class.

Culture Clash: A single mother, who works as a beekeeper/honey merchant, is haunted by memories of her abusive mother. 

Culture Audience: “Umma” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Sandra Oh, whose talent is wasted in this boring and predictable horror movie.

Tom Yi and Sandra Oh in “Umma” (Photo by Saeed Adyani/Stage 6 Films)

In the forgettable and formulaic horror flick “Umma,” the main character is a beekeeper with mother issues. Bees in a hive have more purpose and intelligence (and can scare more people) than this silly mess of a film. So much of “Umma” is a waste: A waste of a talented cast. A waste of a potentially good idea for a horror story. And a waste of time to anyone who watches this disappointing flop.

Written and directed by Iris K. Shim, “Umma” gets its title from the Korean word for “mother.” That’s because “mother issues” are at the center of a Korean American family haunted by abuse. “Umma” takes place in an unnamed part of the U.S. but was actually filmed in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

In “Umma,” Amanda (played by Sandra Oh) is the only child of Korean immigrants, who are now deceased. Amanda is a single mother to a daughter named Chris (played by Fivel Stewart), nicknamed Chrissy, who’s about 17 years old. Amanda is a beekeeper/honey maker who owns a small business called Chrissy’s Honey Bees, where Amanda and Chris are the only workers.

Most of their honey is sold online, with help from Amanda’s friend Danny (played by Dermot Mulroney), who owns a hardware store not too far away and who manages the website and social media for Chrissy’s Honey Bees. Business has recently been doing so well for Chrissy’s Honey Bees, many of the products are selling out. Danny tells Amanda that she might have to hire more people to help her keep up with customer demand.

Later in the movie, it’s revealed that Amanda started this business only because Chris became obsessed with bees, and Amanda wanted a way to have a closer bond with her daughter. Amanda previously had a less risky and more financially stable job as an accountant, and she had to overcome her fear of bees to start this business. Because of this personal sacrifice, Amanda expects Chris to work with her in the business as long as possible.

Amanda is extremely protective and controlling of Chris, who has been homeschooled her entire life and has no friends. Chris’ father is never seen or mentioned in the movie, and he’s never been involved in raising her. Later in the movie, when someone asks Amanda where her husband is, she replies defiantly that she’s never felt the need to have a husband.

Amanda is deeply fearful of electrical appliances and distrustful of modern technology—so much so that she doesn’t allow Chris to have a smartphone. Chris has to make do with an outdated mobile flip phone. And needless to say, there are no TVs or computers in their house, which is an isolated, rural area. Of course it’s in a remote area. This is a horror movie, but the scares in “Umma” are underwhelming.

The opening scene of “Umma” shows why Amanda has a fear of electrical appliances: As a child, Amanda’s domineering mother would physically abuse her with heated electrical wires. This abuse is not shown in graphic detail in the movie’s flashbacks, but enough is shown for viewers to know what’s happening. Hana Marie Kim portrays Amanda as a child in these flashbacks.

Amanda’s family history is revealed in bits and pieces through conversations and flashbacks. Amanda’s parents had a happy marriage until they moved from Korea to the United States. Amanda’s mother (played by MeeWha Alana Lee) became depressed and difficult to the point where Amanda’s father couldn’t take it anymore, and he abandoned his wife and daughter. (Amanda’s father is never shown in the movie.)

Amanda’s mother then became increasingly paranoid that Amanda would leave her. In the flashback shown in the movie’s opening scene, a young Amanda can be heard wailing in fear, “Umma, I promise I won’t run away again,” before she can be heard screaming as her mother inflicts some violent abuse on her. Expect to see several scenes of Amanda waking up from nightmares.

You know where all of this is going, of course. Amanda is afraid that she’ll end up just like her mother. Amanda has lied to Chris about her family background, by telling Chris that she was raised by two people named Gloria and Bill, who died before Chris was born. The movie shows whether or not Chris finds out the truth. Amanda is also upset that Chris intends to apply for admission to West Mesa University, which is in another state.

In the meantime, Amanda unexpectedly gets a visit from someone she doesn’t want to see: Her mother’s brother (played by Tom Yi), who does not have a name in the movie. However, he knows Amanda by her Korean birth name: Soo-Hyun, which is a name that Amanda hasn’t used since her very unhappy childhood.

What’s the reason for this unannounced visit from Amanda’s uncle? After he scolds her for not being in touch with the family and for making it difficult to find her, he tells Amanda that Amanda’s mother died a few months earlier. He’s there to deliver a small trunk that has her mother’s ashes and several of her mother’s most treasured belongings. One of these items is a Hahoetal, which is a Korean death mask.

It’s at this point in the movie that you know the ghost of Amanda’s mother will begin haunting Amanda’s home and the surrounding property. But does this ghost really exist? Or is she a figment of Amanda’s imagination? The movie wastes a lot of time with predictable jump scares in a weak attempt to confuse viewers over what’s real and what might be Amanda’s delusions.

And it should come as no surprise that it’s yet another horror movie where the main character’s mental stability is questioned because this person claims to be seeing an evil spirit. But what other people see is Amanda having blackouts while sometimes wearing her mother’s clothes. And predictably, Amanda becomes increasingly disturbed.

There’s nothing truly scary or unpredictable about anything that’s presented in “Umma.” Yes, there are violent attack scenes and people screaming when things get out of control, but too much of it is shown in a very stale manner that’s been done many times already in better horror movies. And for a movie that takes place mostly on a beekeeping farm, there’s surprisingly very little use of the bees in the movie’s terror scenes.

“Umma” has a somewhat time-wasting subplot about Chris becoming friendly with Danny’s teenage niece River (played by Odeya Rush), who gives Chris confidence-boosting pep talks about how it’s okay to be a weirdo and a misfit. Unfortunately, everyone in the movie, except for complicated and confused Amanda, is written as bland, two-dimensional characters. The movie also badly mishandles mental health issues.

The technical aspects of “Umma” are competent, except for an almost laughable visual-effects scene involving a very fake-looking fox with multiple tails. This creature is supposed to be terrifying, but looks like it belongs in a kiddie cartoon, not a horror movie. And with the manifestation of Amanda’s mother, “Umma” tritely uses the Hahoetal death mask as a symbol for how people sometimes hide their true selves from the world, since it’s implied that Amanda’s mother was able to keep her child abuse crimes a secret.

“Umma” missed some big opportunities to have quality depictions of generational trauma. The movie also has a very limited view of Korean heritage, which is mostly used in “Umma” as a plot device to invoke fear in the characters. “Umma” is just a series of half-baked jump scares and underdeveloped characters, with a rushed ending that leaves some important questions unanswered and audiences feeling like “Umma” is a just another ripoff horror movie.

Stage 6 Films released “Umma” in U.S. cinemas on March 18, 2022.

Review: ‘X’ (2022), starring Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Brittany Snow and Scott Mescudi

March 17, 2022

by Carla Hay

Mia Goth in “X” (Photo by Christopher Moss/A24)

“X” (2022)

Directed by Ti West

Culture Representation: Taking place in Texas in 1979, the horror film “X” features a cast of predominantly white characters (with one Latina and two African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Six people go to a rented farm to make a porn movie, but the elderly spouses who own the farm show their violent disapproval. 

Culture Audience: “X” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of writer/director Ti West and horror flicks that skillfully blend horror with satirical comedy.

Pictured clockwise, from left: Owen Campbell, Brittany Snow, Mia Goth, Scott Mescudi and Jenna Ortega in “X” (Photo by Christopher Moss/A24)

“X” is a horror film that doesn’t break any new ground, but this “slow burn” movie delivers some gruesome terror with touches of social satire that can bring some laughs. Written and directed by horror master Ti West, “X” is sure to count as one of his best movies. Will “X” be considered an iconic movie that influences countless other horror films? No. However, “X” takes a simple concept that other slasher movies mishandle and makes it something that horror fans can thoroughly enjoy, as long as people can tolerate watching some bloody violence that can be nauseating to some viewers.

“X” had its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. It’s fitting that the movie premiered in Texas, since the story takes place mostly in a rural and unnamed part of Texas. (“X” was actually filmed in New Zealand.) In “X,” the year is 1979, when porn movies made in the U.S. got an “X” rating for adults-only content. Six people in the adult film industry are going on a road trip to an isolated farm that the producer has rented, in order to make a porn film called “The Farmer’s Daughter.” This porn movie is a very low-budget film with only one camera.

The six people on this fateful trip are:

  • Wayne Gilroy (played by Martin Henderson), a brash, fast-talking middle-aged producer whose immediate goal in life is for “The Farmer’s Daughter” to be a blockbuster porn movie—or at least make a fraction of what “Debbie Does Dallas” made, so that Wayne can get out of debt.
  • Maxine Minx (played by Mia Goth), an up-and-coming actress who wants to be as famous as “Wonder Woman” TV star Lynda Carter. Off camera, Maxine (who’s in her 20s) is Wayne’s lover (he left his wife for her), and Wayne has promised to make Maxine a star. Maxine also has a cocaine habit, since she’s seen snorting coke several times in the movie.
  • Bobby-Lynne Parker (played by Brittany Snow), an experienced porn actress in her 30s, who styles her physical appearance like Marilyn Monroe, and who likes to think of herself as the reigning Southern belle of porn.
  • Jackson Hole (played by Scott Mescudi), the porn name of a well-endowed actor in his 30s who is the only male cast member doing the porn scenes in “The Farmer’s Daughter.” Bobby-Lynne and Jackson are also sex partners off-camera, in a “friends with benefits” relationship.
  • RJ Nichols (played by Owen Campbell), the director of “The Farmer’s Daughter.” RJ, who’s in his late 20s, likes to think that the porn movies he directs are cinematic art.
  • Lorraine Day (played by Jenna Ortega), RJ’s girlfriend, a “jack of all trades” crew member who is essentially RJ’s assistant. Lorraine is in her late teens or early 20s and is relatively new to the adult film industry. She’s eager to learn all that she can about filmmaking.

The movie’s opening scene shows viewers that this porn movie shoot will result in a massacre, since police officers arrive at the farm and see several bloody and mutilated dead bodies. The movie circles back to this crime scene at the end of the film. The rest of “X” shows what happened 24 hours earlier, leading up to the massacre.

It takes a while for “X” to get going, since the first half of the movie is about the road trip, arriving at the farm, and filming the sex scenes. The farm is owned by an elderly couple named Howard (played by Stephen Ure), nicknamed Howie, and his wife Pearl (also played by Goth), who have been married to each other for decades. Ure and Goth wear balding hair pieces and prosthetic makeup that give creepy and decrepit physical appearances to Howard and Pearl. Goth gives an absolutely maniacal performance as Pearl, who is much more disturbed and volatile than Howard.

Howard is a cantankerous veteran of World War I and World War II. The first thing that Howard does when he sees Wayne is pull a gun on him, until Wayne reminds Howard that he’s the movie producer who’s renting the farm for a film shoot. Wayne doesn’t tell this farm couple that this film shoot is for a porn movie, but Howard and Pearl inevitably find out because they’re on the property during this film shoot.

Pearl is starved for affection from her husband. When she tries to make amorous advances on Howard, he pushes her away and mentions his heart condition when he says, “You know I can’t. My heart.” Pearl is a former dancer who sees a lot of younger herself in Maxine and instantly fixates on Maxine. Pearl is also a voyeur, so it should come as no surprise that Pearl ends up watching one of the sex scenes that’s being filmed in the barn. And when she finds out that a porn movie is being made on her property, all hell breaks loose.

Before the murder and mayhem begin, “X” makes some sly commentary on how gender affects perceptions and judgments of people’s involvement in porn. This small cast and crew of “The Farmer’s Daughter” are a microcosm of larger issues in the adult film industry: Men are usually in charge and usually make the business decisions. The women are usually expected to follow orders.

Women in adult entertainment also get more of society’s stigma and degradation, compared to men in adult entertainment. A woman is much more likely than a man to be called a “whore” for doing porn. This derogatory name-calling happens in a scene in “X,” even though for “The Farmer’s Daughter” porn movie, a man is just as much of a participant in the sex scenes as the women. There’s a moment in the movie where one of the women flips the proverbial script and makes a decision that greatly upsets one of the men.

And because there are three couples on this trip, their dynamics also represent the types of relationships that can occur in the adult film industry. Wayne and Maxine represent a stereotypical older filmmaker who hooks up with a young actress and tells her a lot of big talk about making her a star. Bobby-Lynne and Jackson are swingers who don’t have any commitment in their relationship and don’t want to be bound by traditional sexual expectations. RJ and Lorraine represent people who are in the porn industry only to get filmmaking experience so that they can move on to mainstream movies.

“X” has the expected sex scenes, but there are also scenes that show the type of camaraderie that can happen during a film production. On their first night after filming scenes from “The Farmer’s Daughter,” the cast and crew hang out and have some drinks together. Bobby-Lynne leads a toast where she says, “Here’s to the perverts who’ve been paying our bills for years!”

After this toast, Bobby-Lynne sings Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” while Jackson plays acoustic guitar. Snow’s performance of “Landslide” is very good and one of the unexpected highlights in this horror film. This laid-back party scene is effective in showing how the people in this group have no idea what’s in store for them.

“X” has a few nods to 1970s horror classics, such as 1974’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and 1978’s “Halloween.” The comparisons to “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” are obvious. In “X,” Blue Oyster Cult’s 1976 song “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” song is played during a pivotal scene. Horror aficionados know that “Don’t Fear the Reaper” was also prominently featured in 1978’s “Halloween.”

Even though the first half of “X” doesn’t have any real terror, “X” still manages to keep viewers on edge over what might happen. There’s no real mystery of who the villains are, because this is a slasher flick that clearly forecasts who will be the perpetrators of the violence. Although the ideas in “X” aren’t very original, they’re still filmed in very suspenseful ways. And there’s an interesting twist/reveal toward the end of the film. Ultimately, “X” doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is: a worthy tribute to retro slasher films that makes “X” memorable in its own right.

A24 will release “X” in U.S. cinemas on March 18, 2022. The movie is set for release on digital and VOD is April 14, 2022.

Review: ‘Deep Water’ (2022), starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas

March 17, 2022

by Carla Hay

Ana de Armas and Ben Affleck in “Deep Water” (Photo by Claire Folger/20th Century Studios/Hulu)

“Deep Water” (2022)

Directed by Adrian Lyne

Culture Representation: Taking place in New Orleans, the dramatic film “Deep Water” features a cast of predominantly white characters (with a few Latinos and African Americans) representing the middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A wealthy husband, who has an open marriage, becomes the main focus of suspicion when some of his wife’s lovers end up dead. 

Culture Audience: “Deep Water” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of stars Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, who are the main attractions in this frequently dull and formulaic crime thriller.

Jade Fernandez, Tracy Letts and Kristen Connolly in “Deep Water” (Photo by Claire Folger/20th Century Studios/Hulu)

“Deep Water” is proof that it’s not enough to have good-looking people in a stylish-looking film. It has a basic mystery that’s not very suspenseful, in addition to monotonous mind games played by the central married couple. Perhaps most disappointing of all is that “Deep Water” does nothing new or clever in the seemingly endless stream of movies about marital infidelity that causes chaos in people’s lives.

“Deep Water” director Adrian Lyne has made a career out of these types of movies, with a filmography that includes 1987’s “Fatal Attraction,” 1993’s “Indecent Proposal” and 2002’s “Unfaithful,” his previous film before “Deep Water.” Zach Helm and Sam Levinson adapted the “Deep Water” screenplay from Patricia Highsmith’s 1957 novel of the same name. Unfortunately, the movie has a drastically different ending from the book. The movie’s conclusion is intended to be shocking, but it just falls flat.

Executives at 20th Century Studios obviously thought “Deep Water” was an embarrassing dud, because the movie’s theatrical release was cancelled. “Deep Water” was then sent straight to Hulu and other Disney-owned streaming services where Hulu is not available. It’s also not a good sign that the stars of “Deep Water” have distanced themselves from “Deep Water” by not doing any full-scale publicity and promotion for the movie.

Up until the ending, the “Deep Water” movie (which takes place in the early 2020s) adheres very closely to the book’s original story, with some modern updates and a change of location. Wealthy married couple Vic Van Allen (played by Ben Affleck) and Melinda Van Allen (played by Ana de Armas) live in New Orleans with their precocious 6-year-old daughter Trixie (played by Grace Jenkins), who has an interest in science and is somewhat fixated on the children’s song “Old McDonald.” (In the “Deep Water” book, the story takes place in a small, fictional U.S. town called Little Wesley.) The Van Allens seem to have a perfect life of privilege and leisure. Vic is a retired millionaire because he invented a computer chip that’s used in war drones. Melinda is a homemaker/socialite.

It’s common knowledge among Vic and Melinda’s close circle of friends that Vic and Melinda have an open marriage, although Vic and Melinda have never really come right out and told their friends the details of this arrangement. Melinda flaunts her extramarital affairs by inviting her lovers to the same parties where she and Vic will be. At these parties (the movie has several of these party scenes), Melinda openly flirts with her lovers and sometimes has sexual trysts with them at the parties. Vic ends up meeting these lovers and is mostly polite but distant with them.

Vic and Melinda’s close friends include musician bachelor Grant (played by Lil Rel Howery); married couple Mary Washington (played by Devyn A. Tyler) and Kevin Washington (played by Michael Scialabba); and married couple Jonas Fernandez (played by Dash Mihok) and Jen Fernandez (played by Jade Fernandez). Whenever these friends try to tactfully talk to Vic about Melinda indiscreetly showing off her lovers, Vic brushes off their concerns. Vic gives the impression that he doesn’t want to be a possessive and jealous husband, and that he and Melinda have a “don’t ask, don’t tell” agreement when it comes to any of her extramarital affairs.

During the course of the story, three of Melinda’s past and present lovers are shown in the movie: musician Joel Dash (played by Brendan Miller), who ends up moving away to New Mexico; lounge pianist Charlie De Lisle (played by Jacob Elordi), who has been giving piano lessons to Melinda; and real-estate developer Tony Cameron (played by Finn Wittrock), who is visiting the area to scout for some property. All three men are good-looking and younger than Vic, but Vic has a lot more money than they do. And at some point or another, all three of these lovers are separately invited into the Van Allen home for a social visit.

Melinda has apparently made it a habit to invite each of her extramarital lovers to parties and other social gatherings, but never so that all of the lovers are in the same place at the same time. At these events, Melinda introduces a lover as her “friend,” even though it’s obvious that he’s more than a friend. When Melinda and Vic are at these parties, Melinda spends more time and is more affectionate with her lovers than she is with her husband. Vic often just stands by and doesn’t confront her about it.

There are several scenes that show Melinda drunk at these parties, or coming home drunk, implying that she abuses alcohol. Some of the couple’s friends seem to feel sorry for Vic, because they think he doesn’t deserve to be a cuckold. More than once, Vic is told that he’s a “good guy” who’s well-respected in the community. Not much is told about Melinda’s background (she’s an immigrant who can speak English and Spanish), but several scenes in the movie show that Melinda thinks that she’s quite the seductress.

In the beginning of the movie, it’s mentioned that a man named Martin McCrae, who was one of Melinda’s lovers, has been missing for the past several weeks. Friends and acquaintances of the Van Allen spouses are gossiping that Vic could have had something to do with the disappearance. At a friend’s house party, where Melinda has invited Joel, the gossip goes into overdrive after Vic and Joel have a private conversation in the kitchen, and Vic tells Joel that he killed Martin. Joel can’t tell if Vic is joking or not, but he takes Vic’s comments as a threat, and he quickly leaves the party. Word soon spreads that Vic made this “confession,” and more people in the community begin to wonder if Vic could have murdered Martin.

Before Joel moves to New Mexico because of a job offer, he’s invited to dinner at the house of Vic and Melinda. Vic seems to delight in making Joel uncomfortable with snide remarks. Vic also makes backhanded insults at Melinda. When Vic and Joel are alone together, Vic once again tells Joel that he killed Martin by hitting Martin on the head with a hammer. However, Vic tries to make light of uneasy comments that he makes, by trying to pass them off as misguided sarcasm. Vic’s passive-aggressiveness is an obvious sign that Melinda’s extramarital affairs bother him.

Someone who doesn’t take Vic’s wisecracks lightly is fiction author/screenwriter Don Wilson (played by Tracy Letts), who has recently moved to the area. Don has had middling success by selling a few screenplays that haven’t been made into movies yet. One of these screenplays is about a man (whom Don based on his own personality/background) who uncovers a murder conspiracy in his town.

Vic and Melinda meet Don and Don’s much-younger wife Kelly Wilson (played by Kristen Connolly) at an outdoor party attended by many of the Van Allen couple’s friends. Don likes noir mysteries, so he fancies himself to be an amateur detective. Throughout the movie, Don lets it be known to anyone who’ll listen, including Vic, that he suspects that Vic has something to do with what happened to Martin, whose murdered body is later found shot to death.

Vic’s reputation appears to be saved when another man (who’s never seen in the movie) is arrested for Martin’s murder. However, Martin isn’t the only lover of Melinda’s who ends up dead. It’s enough to say that who’s responsible for the crimes is revealed about halfway through the movie. But even if that information didn’t happen until the end of the film, there are too many obvious clues. The only mystery in the story is if the guilty party will be caught.

One of the biggest failings of “Deep Water” is how it reveals almost nothing about how and why Vic and Melinda fell in love with each other, or even how long they’ve been married. Without this context, it might be difficult for a lot of viewers to care about this couple. Vic and Melinda’s marriage is presented as just a blank void, dressed up with a superficial parade of parties, squabbling and occasional sex. (Affleck and de Armas were a couple in real life when this movie was made, but they’ve since had a breakup that reportedly wasn’t very amicable.)

Vic and Melinda tell each other “I love you” several times, but viewers don’t see any credible passion or respect between these two spouses. The only thing that viewers will find out about what retired Vic likes to do in his free time at home is that he hangs out with his pet snails that he keeps in an aquarium room. The snails are supposed to be symbolic of how Vic acts in his marriage to Melinda.

It could be a marriage of convenience. It could be that Vic and Melinda don’t want the hassle of getting a divorce. They are also devoted parents to Trixie—Vic is more patient with Trixie than Melinda is—and these spouses might not want their child to grow up with divorced parents.

Regardless of the reasons why Vic and Melinda have decided to stay married to each other, “Deep Water” is more concerned with staging repetitive scenes where Melinda tries to make Vic jealous with her lovers, and then she tries to take his mind off of her affairs by getting Vic to have sex with her. Melinda also makes rude comments to Vic such as: “Joel might be dumb, but he makes me enjoy who I am,” and “If you were married to anyone else, you’d be so fucking bored. You’d kill yourself.”

In one of the movie’s party scenes, Vic makes an attempt to show Melinda that he’s attractive to other women when he does something he almost never does at a party: He dances. And he asks Don’s wife Kelly to be his dance partner, as they twirl together and snuggle flirtatiously on the dance floor. Other people, including Melinda, notice the chemistry between Vic and Kelly. Predictably, Melinda gets jealous and tries to re-assert her status as the most desirable and sexiest woman in Vic’s life.

In addition to the superficiality of Vic and Melinda’s marriage, another aspect of “Deep Water” that makes it look phony is that the movie repeatedly tells viewers that Vic is supposed to be very rich, but Vic and Melinda apparently have no house servants, since no servants are ever seen working for this family. Melinda does the family’s cooking, which is not entirely unrealistic for someone of her marital wealth. However, Melinda being the family cook doesn’t ring true when Melinda comes across as a pampered trophy wife who can stay out all night and party with her lovers whenever she feels like it. It wouldn’t have that been hard to cast a few people as background extras to portray servants, since it’s hard to believe that Melinda and/or Vic do their own housecleaning and upkeep of their large home.

An underdeveloped characteristic of “Deep Water” that should have been explored in a more meaningful way is how some people tend to think that those who are wealthy are automatically better than people who aren’t wealthy. In the scene where Don meets Vic for the first time, Don impolitely tells Vic that Vic is probably the person most likely to have done something harmful to Martin. Grant, who is Vic’s most loyal friend, tries to diffuse the tension by smiling and saying: “The moral of the story is Vic is a genius. And he’s rich as fuck.”

Grant’s comment is a reflection of how some people think that being smart and wealthy is the equivalent of being a “good person,” without taking into account that being a “good person” has nothing to do with how much intelligence or money someone has. This false equivalence is a huge dismissal of core values that define people’s true characters and personalities. “Deep Water” seems to make a half-hearted attempt to show how some people are more likely to excuse or overlook bad conduct from someone who is intelligent and rich, but the movie ultimately takes the lazy route by just going for cheap thrills that have been in similar movies.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the cast members’ performances, but there’s nothing that will make viewers feel any real emotional connection to any of these characters. Affleck and de Armas, regardless of their real-life romantic relationship while filming this movie, don’t have much that’s compelling about how they portray Vic and Melinda. After all, Affleck has played many privileged jerks on screen, while de Armas often has the role of a character who uses sex or sex appeal to get what she wants.

A chase scene toward the end of “Deep Water” is extremely hokey and not very believable. “Deep Water” was already paddling around in a sea of mediocrity for most of the movie. But by the time the movie reaches its terrible ending, it ruins any chances that “Deep Water” could have been a “guilty pleasure” thriller.

Hulu will premiere “Deep Water” on March 18, 2022.

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