Movie Review

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched Tuner, and it completely surprised me. What starts as a story about a gifted piano tuner quickly transforms into one of the most original crime thrillers I’ve seen in a while. Niki’s extraordinary hearing, the very thing that ended his career as a concert pianist, becomes the … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched Leviticus, and it’s one of the most emotionally affecting horror films I’ve seen in quite a while. On the surface, it’s a supernatural thriller. Two teenage boys fall in love in a conservative Australian town, only to find themselves hunted by an entity born from a brutal … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched Time and Water, and it’s one of those documentaries that quietly settles into your thoughts long after you’ve left the theater. This isn’t a film built around dramatic revelations or urgent narration. Instead, it invites you to slow down and pay attention. To landscapes. To history. To … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched The Power Ballad, and honestly, it reminded me why music-centered films can hit so hard when they get the emotional side right. At its heart, this is a story about reinvention. About people looking back at old dreams, old versions of themselves, and trying to figure out … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched The Silent Friend, and it’s the kind of film that sneaks up on you emotionally. At first, it feels incredibly restrained, almost delicate in the way it moves through everyday moments and quiet interactions. But underneath that stillness is a deeply human story about loneliness, connection, and … Read more

Last night at SIFF Cinema Uptown I watched Marama, and it’s one of those films that moves slowly enough to let you fully settle into its emotional world. The story unfolds through memory, family, identity, and connection to place, but what really stayed with me is how grounded the entire film feels in atmosphere and … Read more

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