Film Review

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched Crystal Cross, and it’s one of those films that feels dreamlike right up until it suddenly cuts emotionally deeper than you expected. The film moves through obsession, intimacy, identity, and loneliness in a way that feels almost hypnotic. Scenes drift between tenderness and tension so naturally that … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched Drunken Noodles, and it completely pulled me into its atmosphere. Directed by Lucio Castro, the film drifts through two summers in New York, following a young art student as intimacy, memory, desire, and grief begin to blur together. It’s sensual without ever feeling performative, emotional without forcing … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched Steal This Story, Please!, and it’s the kind of documentary that starts with one subject and opens into something much bigger. On the surface, it’s about storytelling, who gets to tell a story, who gets credit, and what gets lost when real lives are turned into public … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched The Christophers, and it feels exactly like the kind of story Steven Soderbergh excels at telling, controlled, layered, and quietly intense. Written by Ed Solomon, the film leans into character and conversation rather than spectacle. It’s a story about relationships under pressure, about the things people choose … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown, I watched Exit 8, and it’s one of those films that quietly gets under your skin and stays there. The premise feels deceptively simple, a man trapped in an underground corridor, searching for an exit that may or may not exist. But what unfolds is something far more unsettling. … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched Two Prosecutors, and it’s the kind of film that builds its tension quietly, then refuses to let go. Directed by Sergei Loznitsa, the story follows a young prosecutor in the Soviet Union who stumbles upon a prisoner’s letter that shouldn’t exist, and decides to follow it anyway. … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched Alpha, and it’s one of those films that doesn’t ease you in, it pulls you under almost immediately. Directed by Julia Ducournau, the film carries that same visceral intensity she’s known for, but this time it feels even more focused, more internal. It’s less about shock and … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched Sirat, and it’s one of those films that doesn’t just tell a story, it pulls you into a state of mind. Directed by Oliver Laxe, the film follows a father and son crossing a vast desert in search of someone they’ve lost. On the surface, it’s a … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched By Design, and I’m still trying to put words around it — which honestly feels like the point. Directed by Amanda Kramer, this surreal, quietly unsettling film takes a premise that sounds almost absurd on paper, a woman slowly transforming into a chair, and turns it into … Read more

Last night I caught The Bride! at SIFF Cinema Uptown, and it’s one of those films that feels both classic and wildly modern at the same time. Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, this reimagining of the Frankenstein legend takes the familiar story in a completely new direction. Jessie Buckley plays the Bride, a woman literally created … Read more

Last night’s SIFF screening was one of those films that sticks with you long after the credits roll. Suburban Fury is a fascinating documentary that digs into one of the strangest political crimes in modern American history. In 1975, a suburban California mother became the prime suspect in a bombing aimed at President Gerald Ford. … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched Wuthering Heights — Emerald Fennell’s bold and feverish reimagining of Emily Brontë’s immortal classic. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi embody Cathy and Heathcliff with a raw, aching chemistry that makes every glance and every storm-tossed embrace feel electric. Fennell doesn’t just retell this story — she throws … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched The Moment, an infectious mockumentary that feels like Cinema of Pop in motion. Directed by Aidan Zamiri and built around an original idea by Charli XCX, the film stars Charli as a wildly magnetic version of herself — a rising pop sensation balancing arena tour dreams with … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched Magellan, a film that feels as vast as the Pacific itself. Directed by Lav Diaz and anchored by a quietly commanding turn from Gael García Bernal, this isn’t your classic age-of-exploration epic — it’s a meditation on power, myth, and consequence. Instead of glorifying conquest, Magellan slows … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I saw The Voice of Hind Rajab — and it’s one of those films that leaves a quiet echo in your bones. Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, this powerful docudrama reconstructs the real emergency call of six-year-old Hind Rajab, trapped in a car under relentless fire during the war … Read more

haunted echo from a world pushed past its breaking point. This isn’t just zombies and flesh-eating horror. It’s a meditation on what remains of the human spirit when civilization falls apart. Brutal, poetic, and unflinching, The Bone Temple reminded me that sometimes the scariest monsters are made of flesh and fear, not infection. #28YearsLaterTheBoneTemple #FilmFriday … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I saw The Testament of Ann Lee — and it was nothing short of revelatory. Dee Rees turns this 18th-century story into a living breathing fever dream about faith and rebellion. Danielle Deadwyler shines as Ann Lee, the visionary Shaker leader whose feminist theology challenged both the church and … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched Song Sung Blue — a film that’s as joyful and gritty as a weathered guitar and twice as honest. Directed by Craig Brewer and starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, it tells the true story of Milwaukee couple Mike and Claire Sardina, who form a Neil Diamond … Read more

Walked into SIFF Cinema Uptown on New Year’s Day with a head full of confetti and a heart craving something unexpected — and Marty Supreme was just that. It’s a strange, electric ride through 1950s ambition and absurdity, with Timothée Chalamet giving what many critics are calling one of his best performances yet as Marty Mauser, a … Read more

Last night I stepped into the towering scope of Avatar: Fire and Ash in glorious 3D at SIFF Cinema Downtown — massive, immersive, and strangely intimate all at once. James Cameron returns us to Pandora with Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), this time asking how we survive after loss and what it … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown, I stepped into a film that, much like the mist that clings to Seattle’s piers in December, slowly wraps itself around you — The Secret Agent. Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and anchored by Wagner Moura’s quietly devastating performance, it’s not your typical thriller. It’s a political fable woven … Read more

I caught Hamnet last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown, and I don’t think I’ve stopped thinking about it since. Directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, Hamnet reimagines the story of William Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes, and the loss of their son. But calling it a “period drama” doesn’t quite do it … Read more

Last night I dove head-first into Wicked: For Good, and I’m still riding the aftermath of Oz’s neon glow and smoke. Chu’s vision fills the screen with color, magic, and heartbreak — but what struck me most was the ache beneath the spectacle. Elphaba and Glinda’s fractured bond, now twisted by fame, fear, and betrayal, … Read more

Last night I watched Sentimental Value, and it feels like one of those films that reaches out to you in waves — at once tender, regretful, and quietly fierce. Joachim Trier has crafted a deeply personal family drama about two sisters, Nora and Agnes, whose estranged father Gustav re-enters their lives with big plans. Gustav … Read more

Last night I watched Bugonia, and it was one of those films that slips under your skin before you even realize it’s happening. There’s something mesmerizing about the way it blends political tension with this creeping sense of unease — like you’re watching a world that’s both familiar and completely off-kilter. The pacing, the performances, … Read more

Last night I watched It Was Just an Accident — and I’m still sitting with it. Jafar Panahi has this rare gift for turning the ordinary into something hauntingly intimate, and here, he does it again. The story unfolds with that quiet, patient tension only he can pull off — where every glance, every silence, … Read more

Last night I sat in the warm dark of SIFF Uptown and let If I Had Legs I’d Kick You crawl under my skin. Mary Bronstein’s film is a fevered, tender, and unforgiving look at motherhood in pieces — Rose Byrne gives a performance that lands like a punch and then keeps unfolding into something … Read more

Last night, I slipped into the neon world of TRON: Ares at SIFF Downtown, and wow — it’s rare to see a film that feels both nostalgic and new. Joachim Rønning takes what we loved about the original TRON universe — the pulse, the glow, that sleek digital dream — and injects it with modern … Read more