Sundance: "Human Factors" review

by Jason Adams

How weird are those first moments when we realize our parents are people? Not super-humans, not saints, not actually the best baker of cakes or baseball player in the world — when the freckles on their fingers come into focus; the scabs and flabby knees. Mom stares at the wall for too long; Dad knee shakes when he’s trapped in thought. This disillusionment of experience, of aging, rides hand in hand with the becoming of our own selves — their armor dissolves down in order to make us stand stronger, separate.

There is an inciting incident at the near-start of Ronny Trocker’s strategically incisive Human Factors that seems to set the white upper-middle-class family unit at its center spinning of their axis...

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Those extensive GLAAD nominations

by Nathaniel R

Despite being a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community there is one organization that I've rarely understood: GLAAD or The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The things they've backed over the years have been puzzling though obviously their purpose is just. All minority groups can benefit from organizations that work to prevent systemic discrimination and in the case of what we see and hear in the arts, harmful depictions. But anyway... on to this season's nominations!  In completely nonsensical news they've maintained their "wide" and "limited" categorizations for movies -- which were previously smart distinctions in the world of cinema -- but applied them to the world of streaming where we all live now. The categories are instantly rendered comical. How can The Prom be a wide release but The Boys in the Band be a limited release when they're both available on the exact same platform in the exact same amount of households for the exact same price? 

Ah well, nothing about 2020 made sense so it's naturally bleeding into 2021 now. After the jump their nominations...

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Interview: Emil Gallardo on his Oscar Hopeful Short "1,2,3, All Eyes on Me"

by Nathaniel R

In November this year a few of us here at The Film Experience had the pleasure of attending the HollyShorts festival virtually. Shorts festivals are a great way to catch exciting talent on the rise. My favourite of the shorts I screened was a drama on the very tough topic of school shootings called 1,2,3, All Eyes on Me by debut filmmaker Emil Gallardo. Gallardo won the top prize at HollyShorts and with it Oscar consideration, attention from managers, and a HBO Directing Fellowship. He's also working on a feature now with his writing partner Derek Ho.

But success wasn't as instant as it sounds. He worked for years as a Production Assistant and Assistant Director starting in the Aughts before opting for film school himself. He humorously compares himself to a fish and the set to a fish bowl; if he's not there he's just squriming around -- Plop him back in! But making a film is never an easy swim. "I literally had pneumonia," he says recalling post-production. "I dragged myself out of bed to meet the Sundance deadline only to get rejected. But I wasn't going to miss the deadline!"

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Sundance Opening Night: CODA

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

It’s never the biggest movies that premiere on opening night of the Sundance Film Festival, but they’re always worth looking at carefully since they do set the tone for what comes next. I reviewed the first films I saw in 2020 and 2019 for this site, and they were both among the best films I saw each year – Summertime, director Carlos López Estrada’s follow-up to another Sundance opening night premiere, Blindspotting, coming out sometime this summer, and the Alex Gibney documentary The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, which ended up debuting on HBO.

That impressive club adds a new member this year in the form of CODA. I didn’t realize until I finished watching the film that its title is an acronym for Child of Deaf Adults...

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Showbiz History: Black Panther, Sweet Charity, and Paul & Joanne Marry

10 random things that happened on this day, January 29th, in showbiz history

1937 The Good Earth has its world premiere in Los Angeles though it won't really be playing for the general public until the summer. It later receives five Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Luise Rainer in "yellow face" (sigh) becomes the first actor, male or female, to win consecutive Oscars. 

1951 Elizabeth Taylor divorces her first husband, hotel heir Conrad Hilton Jr, after 8 months of marriage. She would marry 7 more times in her much gawked-at life but the first was her shortest marriage...

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