The Film Gang from KSQD

  The films of French filmmaker Claire Denis are elliptical and often sacrifice plot-driven narrative for poetic visuals steeped in humanism. They tend to alternate between dark, like her second-to-last film, Bastards, and light, like her penultimate film, Let the Sunshine In. With her latest release, High Life, Denis once again gravitates to the darker […]

  “Friends are the family we choose.” That simple aphorism, offered by a character played by Bruce Dern, perfectly encapsulates the central theme of South By Southwest’s Audience Award-winning indie film, The Peanut Butter Falcon. Written and directed by first-time feature filmmakers Michael Schwartz and Tyler Nilson, it was brought to fruition by the indie […]

  Richard Linklater is a director who alternates between doing commercial fare such as School of Rock, and more personal, quasi-experimental films such as Boyhood. With his latest film, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Linklater has both feet firmly planted in the land of commerce. Boasting a talented cast led by Cate Blanchett as the titular […]

  Who would’ve thought that one of the most interesting and entertaining films about today’s culture war would be about Satanists? But such is the case with Hail Satan, the irreverent new documentary directed by Penny Lane. Or, I should say “Hail Satan?” because the title includes a question mark that emphasizes the absurdity of […]

  Quentin Tarantino is arguably the most influential filmmaker in the world. His nonlinear storytelling, trademark outbursts of stylized violence, dark humor and rich dialog are so distinctive, “Tarantinoesque” has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Capitalizing on his celebrity status, his latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is being marketed as […]

  The Last Black Man in San Francisco won the Special Jury Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It’s the directorial debut of Joe Talbot who won the Best Director prize. Talbot co-wrote the script with his longtime friend Jimmie Fails, who plays the lead character, also named Jimmie Fails due to its semiautobiographical […]

  “Every single one of us has the capacity to be captivated, manipulated, controlled.” That’s a direct quote taken from Faults, a little gem-of-a-film from 2014 about mind-control, written and directed by Riley Stearns. With his recently released second film, The Art of Self-Defense, Stearns has once again crafted a dark and funny examination of […]

  In June of 2018 writer/director Ari Aster released his highly acclaimed first feature, Hereditary. Now, barely a year later, Aster has firmly established himself as one of the leading auteurs of art-house horror with his sophomore follow-up, Midsommar. Unlike more mainstream horror films that try to startle their audiences with cheap jump scares and […]

  Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos was born in Athens where he also went to Film School. But as an aspiring film director, getting projects off the ground was a challenge because there is no real film industry in Greece. So, Lanthimos shot commercials and music videos, invested his money, and by working with friends he […]