Lost and Found Family-Oriented Film Reviews: Graduation and Rachel Getting Married

I wrote these now-revived reviews for Amazon and 

The Stranger. 

The review of Rachel Getting Married dropped off Amazon after awhile, though several versions of the DVD remain for sale; this tends to happen with consistently re-released home videos. Graduation, on the other hand, remains on The Stranger site, but the last third got cut off for some odd reason.

GRADUATION 

(Cristian Mungiu, Romania, 2016, 128 minutes) 

It's tragic that some kids don't get enough love. It's even more tragic that some don't get any at all, but Romanian master Cristian Mungiu's Graduation takes on a father whose love turns toxic when put to the test.

The shift from benevolent protector to poisonous antagonist occurs after an unknown assailant attacks Eliza (Maria Dragus from Michael Haneke's anti-fascist fable The White Ribbon). Granted, Romeo (Adrian Titieni, who recalls Belgian everydad Olivier Gourmet) is less of a model citizen than he appears. He's a control freak and an adulterer, but Eliza is one scholarship away from attending Cambridge, and she has to ace her exams, so the respected physician calls in favors and encourages her to play along.

It goes against everything for which he and his perma-fatigued librarian wife, Magda (Lia Bugnar), raised their only child: to reject the corruption that characterizes Romania, a country Mungiu portrays as a post-communist wasteland of Brutalist buildings and parched greenery.

Just as Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne directed Gourmet as the ultimate bad-good dad in 1993's The Promise--with Jérémie Renier as his son--DP Tudor Vladimir Panduru frequently depicts Romeo from the back such that his body speaks for him in a way his face and voice can't, reinforcing the constraints of his environment (fittingly, the Dardennes served as co-producers). 

Graduation isn't as harrowing as Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days or Beyond the Hills, but it's just as unsettling in a more restrained register.   

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED

(Jonathan Demme, USA, 2008, 108 minutes) 

Pitched somewhere between Robert Altman's A Wedding and Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding--but more cautiously optimistic than either--Rachel Getting Married marks a change in course for Jonathan Demme. Granted, few Oscar-winning directors have walked a more diverse path. 

After a series of documentaries and remakes, The Silence of the Lambs filmmaker tries his hand at the intimate chamber drama, and with the help of actress Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada) and actress-turned-screenwriter Jenny Lumet, daughter of director Sidney, he pulls it off.

The festivities kick into high gear once Kym (Hathaway, with smeared eyeliner and unkempt, blunt-cut hair) takes a break from rehab for her sister's big day. It soon transpires that Kym, who hides her wounded soul behind a veil of sarcasm, serves as the Buchman's resident black sheep. The problems go deeper than drugs to a tragedy in which she played a part.  

As Kym, Rachel (Mad Men's Rosemary DeWitt), their parents (Bill Irwin and Debra Winger), groom Sidney (TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe), and the rest of the bohemian Connecticut brood struggle with the past, the nuptials continue, graced by performances from past Demme collaborators, like Sister Carol East (Something Wild) and Robyn Hitchcock (Storefront Hitchcock). The hours between the reception and after-party toggle between humor, affection, and painful revelation. 

In the film's production notes, Demme claims that he and cinematographer Declan Quinn (In America) attempted to make a film that looked like "The most beautiful home movie ever made." By using handheld cameras and focusing on believably flawed characters, they've done just that.

Images from the IMDb (Adrian Titieni and Maria Dragus in Graduation and Anne Hathaway, Rosemary DeWitt, Tunde Adebimpe, and Mather Zickel in Rachel Getting Married) and RogerEbert.com (Hathaway and DeWitt).

SIFF Dispatch #7: Music, Movement, and Community in Sky Hopinka's Powwow People

POWWOW PEOPLE
(Sky Hopinka, USA, 2025,
88 minutes)

It takes a village to make a feature, and Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk, Pechanga) assembled the equivalent to make Powwow People; one in front of the camera and the other behind the scenes. 

Adam Piron (Kiowa, Mohawk), Sterlin Harjo (Seminole, Muscogee)--the creator of Reservation Dogs and The Lowdown–and other prominent Native American figures helped to produce the documentary, Hopinka's second full-length after 2020's maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore. 

Danny Glover's Louverture Films, known for backing projects of cultural importance, also loaned their support. Julian Brave NoiseCat (Secwepemc), the co-director of 2024's Sugarcane, even shows up as a dancer in the film. 

Since 2014, Ferndale-born Hopinka has worked primarily on short films, seven of which Seattle Film Critics Society presented on May 15 at Northwest Film Forum (below right). Eric Zhu, who put together the program, also presented Hopinka with SFCS's John Hartl Pacific Northwest Spotlight Award on May 17 after a SIFF screening of Powwow People. 

Hopinka built his second feature, which premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival, around an opportunity he created in 2023 for Indigenous singers, dancers, and drummers to come together to celebrate their culture, knowing that he would be documenting the whole thing for posterity.

Though the film plays as one day, the event took place from August 22-24 at Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center in Seattle. Throughout, Hopinka shows the hard work and camaraderie that goes into putting together a powwow, an event with which another recent Pacific Northwest feature culminates: Fancy Dance from Erica Tremblay (Seneca–Cayuga Nation) with Lily Gladstone (Piegan Blackfeet, Nez Perce), the first recipient of the John Hartl Award. 

As a structuring and thematic device, Hopinka follows four individuals: the down-to-Earth Gina Bluebird-Stacona (Oglala Lakota), who works on setup, the avuncular Ruben Little Head (Northern Cheyenne), the master of ceremonies, the soft-spoken Jamie John (Anishinaabe), a jingle dress dancer, and Cozad (Kiowa), a family drum group named after the gracious Freddie Cozad, a veteran drummer who had hoped to attend. He passed away that November, but Hopinka interviewed him earlier in the spring about powwowing, and his words form part of the communal voice-over.  

It says something about the Pacific Northwest that there's so much tribal diversity, though some participants came from as far away as Alberta. 

In his opening remarks, Little Head makes it clear that trans and nonbinary members are welcome--Jamie John describes themselves as gender non-conforming--which recalls Hopinka's Standing Rock short "Dislocation Blues," in which speaker Shaawan Francis Keahna (White Earth Band of Minnesota Ojibwe and Meskwaki) identifies as nonbinary. 

Bearings established, the bulk of the film plays as a riot of color, movement, and sound. Beyond the singers, dancers, and drummers, vendors sell food ("Navajo Fry Bread & Tacos" reads one sign), jewelry, and other handmade items, from t-shirts and hoodies to salmon for two dollars an ounce. 

I particularly enjoyed the free-spirited dancing of the Tiny Tots; most in Native regalia, but a few in conventional summer clothes. Some dance in a traditional manner, others just bop about to "Old McDonald Had a Farm" performed on tribal drums--and all receive "day money" for their efforts.    

I'm sure most of these dancers would perform for cultural and social reasons without the lure of awards, but dancers in every category qualify for prizes including retro jackets and cash--adult dancers can win as much as $4,000. The film ends with an unbroken 30-minute take centered on a special elimination round, adding a little tension to Hopinka's pure cinema approach.  

New Mexico filmmaker Shaandiin Tome (Diné) served as cinematographer, while Hopinka provided additional camera work. The results prove less experimental than I expected based on his short films, but there's always something engaging happening on screen. In his work as a whole, he sometimes blurs images while transitioning from one sequence to another. 

In the case of Powwow People, he mostly applies the blurring to the bright, beaded, shimmering, and feathered costumes. It's a lovely effect. 

Other than the voices in the film and a few on-screen inter-titles, Hopinka doesn't spell anything out explicitly, so Powwow People works more as an experiential documentary than an educational one by allowing viewers to see and hear what it might be like to attend or participate in a powwow. 

I wouldn’t have minded subtitles for song lyrics, but I suspect he left them off intentionally, since there's more focus on sounds than words. Beyond the drumming and chanting, other sounds include the ringing metal cones of the jingle dancers' outfits. 

Of Hopinka's short films, Powwow People most closely resembles 2017's Dislocation Blues and 2021's Kicking the Clouds, particularly when speakers share memories of their ancestors. The film, as a whole, serves as a form of collective memory by capturing ancestral traditions on film while simultaneously creating new ancestral memories for future generations.

Click here for more SIFF 2026 coverage, starting with Mārama.  

There are no more Seattle-area screenings scheduled for Powwow People, but I'll update this post when that changes, streaming opportunities included. Images from Museum of Modern Art, Me (Sky Hopinka), Seattle Met (Ruben Little Head), Michael Sicinski (Tiny Tot), and In Review Online.      

SIFF Dispatch #6: Post-Millennial Mockumentary Meets ‘70s Surrealism in Lady

LADY 

(Samuel Abrahams, UK, 2026, 87 minutes) 

There's nothing quite like the loneliness of the super-rich. 

Instead of opening themselves up to real, human connections, they believe that if they just keep throwing money at the problem--any problem--it will go away. 

That sort of thinking applies to Lady Isabella (Sian Clifford, Fleabag, The Ballad of Wallis Island), mistress of Ravenhyde Hall, who has fashioned herself as a philanthropist, patron of the arts, and friend to the ravens, especially her passerine pal, Ricky (the film was shot on location at Suffolk's Somerleyton Hall, one of The Crown's luxurious royal settings). 

Laurie Kynaston's Sam, a BAFTA-nominated director–much like Samuel Abrahams--meets up with Izzie for the purposes of a profile. She claims that Netflix initiated the project, but she's cagey about the details. She's cagey about a lot of things, and even her housekeeper, Becky (Juliet Cowan), the only other person in the 26-room mansion, seems skittish around her. 

Left: Sian Clifford with creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Fleabag

Granted, Sam isn't quite as stable as he appears, but Izzie isn't just a lonely narcissistic lush. There's something weird going on with her body, and she would prefer not to talk about it. At first, Netflix isn't interested when Sam reaches out, but the weirdness captures their attention, and the project becomes official. 

Sam dedicates himself to solving the mystery. It isn't just about Izzie's ego, but his own, since he believes the profile could put his name on the map--it's possible Abrahams felt the exact same way about his directorial debut.  

In the process, the quasi-fictional Sam gets more than he bargained for, since Izzie, whose husband has been working abroad, isn't just looking for someone to validate her existence, but an artistic collaborator--and possibly a lover, too. Loopy as she is, she's more forceful than the passive Sam, who proves powerless to resist her entreaties, professional ethics be damned. 

Abrahams made Lady in the style of The Office–both versions–in which characters speak to the camera, though we never see the crew, just Samuel, Izzie, and Becky. The director also appears to have taken cues from Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard and the Maysles Brothers' Grey Gardens, since Izzie has Little Edie-like delusions of grandeur yet there's real tragedy underpinning her eccentricities, though Sam has more in common with William Holden in the former than Big Edie in the latter.

For most of its running time, the plot mechanics feel scripted, while the dialogue feels improvised (Abrahams wrote the film with his partner, Miranda Campbell Bowling). Sian Clifford fully commits to the intentionally varied tones, and she's very good, though Lady never quite worked for me as a comedy. I found it best, or most interesting, when Abrahams leaned into surrealism. It's also quite beautifully shot by Korsshan Schlauer in the style of weirdo European manor films, like Louis Malle's 1975 Black Moon. 

Granted, Abrahams ultimately sympathizes--and wants you to sympathize, too--with the loneliness of this one particular super-rich person who isn't quite as shallow as she seems, though she isn't all that deep or talented either. In the hands--mild spoiler!--of a performer other than the go-for-broke Sian Clifford, it might not have worked, not least since Sam can grow tiresome, but it does. 

Clifford is the kind of supporting actress who has long deserved a starring role, which Samuel Abrahams has given her, and Lady's shift from familiar mockumentary beats to something darker and stranger elevates both character and film. I hope it leads to more starring roles in her future.

Click here for SIFF 2026 Dispatch #7: Music, Movement, and Community in Sky Hopinka's Powwow People.

 

Lady plays Sat, May 16, 3:30pm and Sun, May 17, 11:30am at the Uptown. Director Samuel Abrahams scheduled to attend the May 16 screening.  

 

Images from MetFilm Studio / Loud and Clear Reviews (Sian Clifford and Laurie Kynaston), BBC (Clifford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Fleabag), The Guardian (Clifford as seen by Samuel Abrahams), and screen shot from the film of one of the bizarre, unexplained interstitials between sequences. 

SIFF 2026 Dispatch #5: Times of Trouble (and Sparks of Joy) in Body Blow and Valentina

BODY BLOW 

(Dean Francis, Australia, 2025, 99 minutes) 

Aiden (Tim Pocock, who suggests an Aussie Dylan O'Brien) gets up in the morning, does his pushups, downs a raw egg Rocky-style, irons his clothes, listens to a YouTuber pontificate about the power of the penis, and leaves for his first day as a queer undercover cop in Sydney's inner east.

He prepares to do things by the book until pink-haired partner Steele (Sacha Horler), daughter of the former chief, pushes him to cut loose. He starts by cozying up to Cody (Tom Rodgers), a cute, drug-addicted sex worker, landing in a trap set by his drug lord drag queen "daddy" (Paul Capsis).

Aiden feels torn between cop, club, and loose-cannon hottie until one blood-spattered night forces his hand. Body Blow has the look and feel of an '80s, neon-lit, NC-17 erotic thriller. RIYL: Gun Crazy, Love Lies Bleeding, Pillion. 

Body Blow plays Thurs, May 14, 9:30pm at SIFF Downtown and Sun, May 17, 2:15pm at the Uptown. 

VALENTINA 

(Tattijani Ribeiro, 2025, USA, 84 minutes) 

Tatti Ribeiro's lively, funny tribute to community presents a day-in-the-life look at a twentysomething migrant worker. 

 

After crossing from Juarez to El Paso, Valentina (Abbott Elementary's Keyla Monterroso Mejia and her amazing laugh) starts out with $80.13–and three parking tickets. To earn her keep, she takes any under-the-table job she can find, but while engaging in a historical reenactment, her car gets towed, and she needs $280 to get it back. She sells plasma, pawns a family heirloom, and testifies against onerous traffic violation fees at a city council meeting. 

 

An on-screen counter tracks her financial gains and losses, while family members (Juan Carlos and Nathan Monterroso) and other migrants offer support. Ribeiro places the charismatic Mejia in real situations with real people, and inter-cuts newsreel footage about the migrant experience. Props to Jessica Alba for exec producing. Also: don't leave during the end credits! 

 

Click here for SIFF 2026 Dispatch #6: Post-Millennial Mockumentary Meets ‘70s Surrealism in Lady.

 

Valentina plays Thurs, May 14, 5:30pm at the Uptown and Fri, May 15, at SIFF Film Center. Co-writer/director Tatti Ribeiro scheduled to attend.

Images: Neon Splatter (main cast) and IMDb (Keyla Monterroso Mejia).

SIFF 2026 Dispatch #4: Music Heals in Radioheart: The Drive & Times of DJ Kevin Cole

RADIOHEART: THE DRIVE AND TIMES OF DJ KEVIN COLE
(Peter Hilgendorf and Andrew Franks, USA, 2026, 83 minutes) 

And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
--Tom Petty, "The Last DJ" (2002)

I've been listening to Kevin Cole on KEXP since he first hit the airwaves.  

Before that, I was involved with the station as a disc jockey, promotions director, music director, and host of the jazz show, Straight No Chaser--though not all at the same time. Our tenures did not overlap, though I've run into him a few times over the years. Radio people always find each other in the end, even if I've been out of the game for years, and he's still in it. 

As you can probably tell, the profile of a DJ and director of programming from a station I've been listening to since I moved to Seattle in 1988 is bound to hit home, particularly one with which I was once associated. 

Left: me in the KCMU offices with Rachel Crick from Sony, Mike D from the Beastie Boys, and other DJs

A decade later, after gigs at Cellophane Square and Microsoft, I got a job at Amazon, and who was in my orientation group--though we worked in different departments--but Kevin Cole. His reputation as a mover and shaker at Minneapolis's Rev 105 preceded him, and I knew exactly who he was. Consequently, I wasn't completely surprised when he segued to KEXP. 

Which brings me to RADIOHEART: The Drive and Times of DJ Kevin Cole, Pete Hilgendorf's first full-length foray into filmmaking alongside Andrew Franks, an experienced director, editor, and cinematographer (I've also met Pete, and even wrote about a few of the bands he signed in his label days). 

They begin at the beginning with a look at Kevin's life and career in Minneapolis, and they've lined up some heavy hitters: Bob Mould, Jimmy Jam, Kristin Hersh, Twin/Tone co-founder Peter Jesperson--you name it. 

Like many of us who moved into commercial radio, Kevin started out as a college radio DJ and record store worker, and when he got the chance to spin records at First Avenue in the fall of 1978, he took it, but it was trial by fire for a self-described rock guy hired to make people dance, so he started by playing disco before incorporating punk, post-punk, and other styles. 

His goal, then and now, was to play music by every kind of recording artist for the benefit of every kind of listener, which applied to the varied acts that played the downtown club, like homegrown superstar Prince who was so taken with his sets that he hired Kevin to work the decks at his private parties. 

Kevin has mentioned this often on KEXP, and why not. As DJ bragging rights go, it doesn't get much better. (For what it's worth, I sang backup in a one-shot band, put together by my dad's softball buddies, that opened for Prince at San Francisco's Castro Street Fair, circa 1981's Controversy.) 

In his more humble record store days, Kevin hit it off with music aficionado Shawn Stewart (below), who stuck by him even while he was overindulging in cocaine and amphetamines to keep up his breakneck pace, but he would get clean in 1988 and stay clean, and they've been together ever since.

In 1994, Kevin left First Ave to found Rev 105–short for Revolution Radio–and his career as a radio innovator was born. He hired Shawn, among other "relatable, accessible" talents (those of you in Seattle may also remember her from The Mountain and KIRO), but three years later, it was over. 

Long story short: radio is a tough business. Though I left of my own volition after working at five different stations in Alaska and Washington, I don't miss the behind-the-scenes machinations and corporate shenanigans, even if I miss the playing-music part. 

After Rev 105 came to an end, Kevin and Shawn relocated to Seattle where he helped to launch Amazon's music store. Though this might seem like a sellout move, and kind of was, it allowed him to make a new start. He was joined by other music veterans, like writer/publisher Mike McGonigal of Maggot Brain--surely the last person I would describe as a sellout--and both would go on to less mainstream ventures in the years to come. 

Most significantly, in Kevin's case: listener-powered KCMU 90.3 FM. I started volunteering a year after Tom Mara, who would become the station's executive director before retiring in 2022, but I left six years before Kevin came aboard. In 1988, DJs weren't paid. Nor were program, promotions, production, or music directors. That had changed by the time Kevin arrived.

He helped the station to become KEXP, a pioneer in the streaming space that now spans the globe (personally, I consult the real-time playlist often). He also contributed to the realization of remote broadcasts from far-flung locales, among other innovations. The high-tech Seattle Center broadcaster of today has little in common with the low-tech UW one of the past. 

Though RADIOHEART is a film about music, it's also a film about hair! After experimenting with a few different styles, Kevin settled on his current long-haired look, which is as much a part of his identity as his comforting voice. The only difference now is the gray, but it's fun to watch the evolution. 

And it seems likely that his t-shirt collection is nearly as robust as his record collection, which reminded me of Robert Christgau's music and book shelves in Matty Wishnow's documentary, The Last Critic (no Seattle dates yet, so I'm thankful I was able to catch a screening in Olympia). The two films would make for a good double bill, especially in Seattle and Minneapolis. 

Whether RADIOHEART will attract as much attention outside of these cities, I couldn't say, but there's appeal here for anyone interested in alternative music and radio, particularly in the transition from analog to digital. Just like record stores and music magazines, many community-oriented stations, like Rev 105, have fallen by the wayside over the years, but KEXP has kept plugging away through thick and thin--I left during an especially thin time. 

Fittingly, the film is overflowing with music from local acts, like KEXP faves Mudhoney and Deep Sea Diver, post-punk progenitors Television and Suicide, and even Prince himself, represented by "Irresistible Bitch," a 1982 dance floor-filler Kevin played in public before anyone else. Props to music supervisor Mike Turner who secured over two dozen songs, not counting Moby's instrumental tracks.  

A cynic might say that the film plays like an extended promo reel for the man and the station, and they wouldn't be wrong, but I'm not so sure that's a bad thing, not least when the central subject is anything but cynical.  

The Stranger's SIFF review also notes that there's no mention of streaming's less advantageous effects. Fair point. I believe that that's outside the scope of the profile, but it isn't a small thing--especially to your average musician. 

To his credit, Kevin appears to have had the best of intentions in focusing on access. I don't think he could have predicted the damage Spotify would inflict--not least its $700m investment in AI-powered drone weaponry. 

Right: Kevin with a record I added in 1991 (that's my writing in the upper right)

At heart--pun intended--the co-directors have made a film about someone with whom you'll enjoy spending time, especially if you share Kevin's interests. Beyond the candid interviews with their subject and those who know him best, they've assembled countless photographs, personal snapshots, posters, promo spots, television segments--some from my employer, KCTS 9/Cascade PBS--and even entries from Kevin's journals. 

My attraction to KCMU in the first place was rooted in the belief that every kind of music was valid, and not just the obvious alt-rock suspects (KCMU had already transitioned from college to public by the time I got there). 

Kevin has brought that belief with him everywhere he's gone--from Minneapolis to Seattle to Reykjavik--and that's absolutely worth celebrating, so thanks to Kevin Cole for keeping the faith for over 50 years, and to Pete Hilgendorf and Andrew Franks for honoring that passion with such care. 

Click here for SIFF Dispatch #5: Times of Trouble (and Sparks of Joy) in Body Blow and Valentina.

RADIOHEART: The Drive and Times of DJ Kevin Cole plays Tues, May 12, 6:30pm; Fri, May 15, 3:30pm; and Sun, May 17, 8pm at the Uptown. Pete Hilgendorf, Andrew Franks, Producer Rebecca Staffel, and Kevin Cole scheduled to attend. Images: KEXP (Kevin by Charina Pitzel and on RSD 2015), Radioheart stills and screen shots (Kevin in B&W, with Shawn, and with crazy hair), and Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire (Kevin in the racks).

SIFF 2026 Dispatch #3: Aberdeen-Born Actor/Director Mia Moore Puts a Lo-Fi, Queer Spin on Sci-Fi in Her Debut, Again Again

AGAIN AGAIN 

(Mia Moore and Heather Ballish, USA, 2026, 99 minutes) 

I've never seen myself truly represented on screen. I've never seen a trans woman who's allowed to go on a journey that's informed by her transness but not obsessed with her transness… The kind of film I needed when I was closeted and alone. The kind of film I needed when I didn't even know what I was.--Mia Moore in her Indiegogo pitch

Lilly Wachowski, most recently of 2021's The Matrix Resurrections, executive produced this crowd-funded sci-fi romantic drama about Agatha (co-director Mia Moore, who appeared in Vera Drew's The People's Joker), a punky, smalltown trans woman who was stuck in a time loop for 10 years. 

If Moore never pushes the central metaphor too hard, the time loop appears to represent time Agatha wasn't truly trans; time she wasn't fully herself.

When the loop comes to an end, however, she has no idea how to kickstart her life--or how to prevent something like it from happening again. She just knows she wants to spend it with petite Australian-born singer Tess (Aria Taylor), with whom she grew up in Moore's native Aberdeen, Washington–back when she knew she liked girls even if she hadn't transitioned yet. 

They love each other, but find it easier to be friends than lovers to the extent that Tess gets engaged to Jason (rising Seattle actor Jon Meggison), which pleases her judgmental mother (Nicole Spacek), who never liked Agatha. There also appears to be an unpoken class divide between the two. 

Granted, it's possible some of these things are in Agatha's head, since she's pretty confused, not so much about her trans identity, but about most everything else. A predilection for drinking whiskey and smoking pot isn't helping, though she doesn't have anyone or anything else to whom to turn, except for Tess. If the relationship between the women is well established, a few details about how they earn their keep would have been welcome.   

Moore and Taylor have plenty of chemistry, though Agatha's heart-to-heart with Naomi (British actress Abigail Thorn), a trans record store worker more settled in her life, provides the most affecting moment in the film. In the end, though, Again Again is no tragedy, and the ending suggests that Agatha may be ready to plunge full-bore into the future. 

After at least 12 years in Aberdeen, Mia Moore now calls Los Angeles home, but her first full-length feature is a local film through and through and will, ideally, encourage more trans stories rooted in the Pacific Northwest.

I'm not sure how Wachowski came aboard, but it may have something to do with a statement Moore made to Pink News in 2023: "I really respect queer indie cinema from the 1990s and 2000s, especially lesbian films, where it's like, they're lesbians but it's a heist movie." (Bound, anyone?) "Sometimes," she concludes, "we get to be goofy little critters stuck in a time loop."

Click here for SIFF 2026 Dispatch #4: Music Heals in RADIOHEART: The Drive & Times of DJ Kevin Cole

 

Again Again plays on Mon, May 11, at 6:30pm, Tues, May 12, at 3pm, and Fri, May 15, at 8pm. All at the Uptown. Mia Moore, Producer Cliff Noonan, and Exec Producer Ian Schrank scheduled to attend. Images from The Daily World (Mia Moore/Mia Moore Marchant) and SIFF (Moore and Aria Taylor).

SIFF 2026 Dispatch #2: Brief Words on Case 137, Drunken Noodles, and Franz (as in Kafka)

CASE 137 / Dossier 137
(Dominik Moll, France, 2025, 115 minutes) 

Case 137, French filmmaker Dominik Moll's second fact-based procedural in a row, represents the director--in collaboration with co-writer Gilles Marchand--at the top of his game. 

His César Award-winning docudrama The Night of the 12th was terrific, but this penetrating look at modern-day policing proves even more gripping, thanks in large part to César winner Léa Drucker's tough, yet tender performance as a single mother, daughter, and internal affairs investigator doing her best under unbelievably difficult circumstances (Drucker last appeared on Seattle screens in Catherine Breillat's Last Summer). 

Unexpected bonus: Case 137 is a first-rate cat film. Highly recommended. 

Case 137 plays Mon, May 11, 8:45pm at the Uptown. 

DRUNKEN NOODLES
(Lucio Castro, 2025, USA/Argentina, 81 minutes) 

Argentinian filmmaker Lucio Castro's character study centers on Adnan (Laith Khalifeh), a handsome grad student open to new sexual experiences. 

In the title chapter, he spends a summer internship at a Williamsburg art gallery. After dark, he frequents a cruising park until he clicks with Yariel (Joel Isaac), a delivery driver with limited English who proves poetic in Spanish. Connection established, things take an unexpected turn. 

In other chapters, he enjoys upstate New York adventures with septuagenarian artist Sal (Ezriel Kornel) who creates erotic gay tapestries, and sexually-challenged lover Iggie (Matthew Risch). In the final chapter, Adnan finds a different kind of release. Castro's droll, sexually frank approach recalls Misericordia's Alain Guiraudie with more wonder, less menace.

I found this interview with the filmmaker particularly illuminating.  

Drunken Noodles plays Sun, 5/10, 8:45pm at the Uptown.

FRANZ
(Agnieszka Holland, 2025, Czech Republic/Poland, 127 minutes) 

A conventional biopic wouldn't suit the unconventional Franz Kafka, so Agnieszka Holland (Green Border, SIFF 2024) entwines narrative with nonfiction in a film as much about a Jewish family as a writer's career. 

In the present, she explores the way Czechoslavakia has fetishized Kafka in contrast with his family's struggles, his complications with women, the illness that claimed him, and the persecution that devastated his survivors. 

It isn't a happy story by any means, but Holland's multi-faceted method in concert with Idan Weiss's full-bodied performance honors a bizarre and brilliant artist who peeled back the layers of polite society to reveal the venality underpinning humanity--though quite entertainingly so!

Franz plays Sun, May 10, 5pm at SIFF Cinema Downtown. 

Click here for SIFF 2026 Dispatch #3: Aberdeen-Born Director Mia Moore Puts a Lo-Fi, Queer Spin on Sci-Fi in Again Again

Dates and times subject to change. Please see the festival site for the most up-to-date information. Images from Rotten Tomatoes (Léa Drucker in Case 137) and the IMDb (Laith Khalifeh and Matthew Risch in Drunken Noodles).  

SIFF 2026 Dispatch #1: Gothic Horror, Māori-Style, in Taratoa Stappard's Assured Mārama

The 52nd edition of the Seattle International Film Festival begins on May 7 with writer/director Boots Riley's second feature, I Love Boosters, and ends with actor/director Olivia Wilde's third, The Invite, on May 17. My 2026 coverage begins with Mārama, one of the highlights of this year's lineup.  

MARAMA

(Taratoa Stappard, New Zealand/UK, 2026, 89 minutes) 

The lingering effects of colonialism take the form of terrifying visions in New Zealand filmmaker Taratoa Stappard's assured Gothic horror Mārama. 

Stappard, who lives and works in London, begins in 1859 as Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne, who is of Ngaāti Mutunga and Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi descent), a 24-year-old Māori woman raised by a white family, arrives in Whitby, North Yorkshire from Wellington, where a surly coachman drops her off miles from the home of Thomas Boyd, a mystery man who reached out to her, paid for her trip, and promised to tell her about her birth parents. 

The coachman warns that the path is steep, but doesn't offer to help her in any way, a sign that she isn't welcome as a woman, a non-white, and a foreigner. Mary is on her own with bulky luggage until Peggy (Jamaican-Scottish actress Umi Myers), a servant, arrives in a coach to bring her to Hawkser Manor, home of retired whaler Nathaniel Cole (an avuncular Toby Stephens), to rest for the night. They appear to have anticipated her visit. 

Mary plans to leave the next day until Nathaniel, a widower, informs her that Thomas has died, and offers her a job as governess for his bright, inquisitive nine-year-old granddaughter, Anne (Evelyn Towersey). 

The look on Mary's face suggests that she knows to question anything that comes out of a white man's mouth (Osborne says a lot without words). It's convenient that Thomas died during her 73-day trip, and that Nathaniel also grew up without parents. Plus, he's exceptionally eager to win her favor, claiming that he often hired Māori men to work on his ships and that he speaks the language. He even built a model Māori wharenui on his grounds. 

Mary has no other option, though she senses that something isn't quite right with this picture, which Stappard indicates through the way seemingly innocuous moments–glances in mirrors, the touch of hands, the very sight of the wharenui–send a chill down her spine for reasons she can't explain. 

The eerie sounds of tapping metal or rattling glass accompany these moments, leading to visions which grow more detailed each time they occur. In some, Māori women attempt to communicate with her. In others, her throat appears slashed as if a murdered woman's spirit has possessed her. 

As Mary gets to know Anne, she finds that the girl also speaks Māori and has a similar birthmark on her arm, hints that her mother may have been Māori or that they may be related. Anne is only a child, but she's the closest thing Mary has to a confidant. Peggy, who lacks her educational advantages, resents her privilege, and Nathaniel's friends and associates creep her out, especially when they join together in a grotesque pageant to celebrate the birthday of the great white hunter. 

Then, Nathaniel tells her about a woman from his past, and everything starts to make sense--and not in a good way--but Mary is resourceful and resolute, and she won't rest until she puts all of the pieces together.

In that sense, she recalls the Second Mrs. de Winter in Daphne Du Maurier's novel Rebecca--and Hitchcock's adaptation with Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier--who becomes a de facto detective in order to determine the truth about her secretive husband's late wife and his hostile housekeeper. 

Right: Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson in Hitchcock's 1940 Rebecca

Unlike Mrs. de Winter, though--who lacks a first name--Mary is no shrinking violet. As the amateur theatrical comes to an end, she lets Nathaniel's guests know exactly how she feels. In Māori, of course, which most of them don't speak, but it's the first sign that her employer may not hold as many cards as he thinks he does. 

For most of the film's run time, Mary keeps a tight lid on her emotions, but after her outburst, all bets are off. To Stephens' credit, he doesn't overplay his hand, possibly because Nathaniel doesn't see himself as a villain. He may value Māori culture, but he doesn't exactly value Māori people, other than as a means to an end. He can collect their art and speak their language, but they exist to serve his whims, and in the end: they're pretty expendable. 

Stappard's directorial debut, the first in a proposed trilogy of Gothic horror stories, also brings the Victorian-era novels of the Brontë sisters to mind--particularly Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights--through the isolated setting, the severe costumes, the foreboding atmosphere, and the sort of handsome, brooding man who has convinced himself he knows everything there is to know about women. At his peril.

It's no surprise then when Mary finds her inner strength, since she never comes across as a victim, and since Stappard indicates that a showdown looms on the horizon with each slippery word Nathaniel utters and each startling vision that rattles Mary's equilibrium, but it's still supremely satisfying when she takes control of an impossible situation, not least since Ariāna Osborne's fury could melt the icecaps (like her father, television presenter Glen Osborne, she's a former rugby player).

Even for those who don't normally gravitate toward Gothic horror, Mārama is absolutely worth it just to see one woman right several generations' worth of wrongs with the sheer force of her will. If only it worked that way in real life.

Click here for SIFF 2026 Dispatch #2: Brief Words on Case 137, 

Drunken Noodles, and Franz (as in Kafka).

5/18/26 update: Mārama opens May 21 at the Uptown and Tasveer.

Mārama plays SIFF Downtown on Fri, May 8, at 9:15pm and the Uptown on Sat, May 9, at 3:15pm. Click here for more information. Images from Kirsty Griffin / New Zealand Herald (Ariāna Osborne), New Zealand on Screen, and San Diego Asian Film Festival (Osborne and Evelyn Towersey), Dusted Off (Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson), and Posteritati (Mārama poster).

Looking Back at 1976 and 1986 Horror: From Alice, Sweet Alice to Zombie Nightmare

For Crypticon this year, I moderated the panels on 1976 horror and 1986 horror. Thanks to the panelists for their great contributions, in addition to anyone who attended or suggested titles. If you see any key films missing, please feel free to let me know. 

Due to the timing of the 1986 panel, I missed Tony Kay's interview with Adrienne Barbeau, an actress of whom I've been fond since her days on '70s sitcom Maude; our panel was fun, but that was still a bummer.

In alphabetical order, plus directors, notable cast, and a few notes. If I watched the film online, I've noted the streaming service in brackets.

THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF 1976 HORROR

Panelists: Daniel Gildark, Kennedy Rainer, and Becky Sayers 

A-B

Alice, Sweet Alice (Alfred Sole) [Tubi] 

Notable cast: Brooke Shields 

Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter) 

Baby Rosemary (John Hayes) 

Bestialità / Dog Lay Afternoon (Peter Skerl) 

Blood Sucking Freaks (Joel M. Reed) [Tubi] 

Burnt Offerings (Dan Curtis) [Tubi] 

Notable cast: Bette Davis, Oliver Reed, Karen Black 

C-G

Carrie (Brian De Palma) 

Notable cast: Sissy Spacek, William Katt 

Dogs (Burt Brinckerhoff) 

Eaten Alive (Tobe Hooper) 

Notable cast: Marilyn Burns

Falconhead (Michael Zen) 

The Food of the Gods (Burt I. Gordon) 

God Told Me To (Larry Cohen) 

Notable cast: Tony Lo Bianco, Silvia Sydney, Richard Lynch

The Grim Reaper (Ron Ormond) 

Grizzly (William Girdler) 

H-M

House of Mortal Sin (Pete Walker) 

The House with Laughing Windows / La Casa Dalle Finestre che Ridono 

 (Pupi Avati) [Internet Archive]

J.D.'s Revenge (Arthur Marks) 

Notable cast: Louis Gossett, Jr., Glynn Turman 

The Legend of the Wolf Woman / Werewolf Woman (Rino Di Silvestro) 

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (Nicolas Gessner) [Tubi] 

Notable cast: Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen 

Mako: The Jaws of Death (William Grefé) 

Massacre at Central High (Rene Dalder) [Tubi] 

Notable cast: Andrew Stephens, Robert Carradine 

O-S

The Omen (Richard Donner) 

Notable cast: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick 

Las Poquianchis (Felipe Cazals) 

Satan's Black Wedding (Nick Millard) 

Schizo (Pete Walker) 

Squirm (Jeff Leiberman) [Tubi]

T-W

The Tenant (Roman Polanski) 

Notable cast: Isabelle Adjani 

To the Devil a Daughter (Peter Sykes) [Peacock] 

Notable cast: Christopher Lee, Nastassja Kinski 

The Town that Dreaded Sundown (Charles B. Pierce) 

Who Can Kill a Child? / ¿Quién Puede Matar a un Niño? 

 (Chicho Ibáñez Serrador) [Prime] 

The Witch Who Came from the Sea (Matt Cimber) 

I didn't do any crowd-sourcing for the list above, but I did for the list below. I also found Kier-La Janisse's House of Psychotic Women helpful (I have the 2022 expanded edition). It's how I discovered the Polish film I Like Bats (Lubię Nietoperze), which I highly recommend to anyone looking for a funny, sexy, quasi-feminist take on the vampire myth. Janisse also included the film in her Severin boxed set House of Psychotic Women: Rarities Collection. 

I follow a number of film critics on Bluesky, and Odie Henderson and Norm Wilner were both so enthusiastic about Night of the Creeps, that when I put out a call for 1986 horror recommendations, they shared their excellent reviews. Click their names for more. Sadly, I also missed the interview with star Tom Atkins, who is perfection in the film, because I was on the Pets in Horror panel. Granted, that was a fun one, too, and you can't do it all.  

THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF 1986 HORROR

Panelists: Byron C. Miller, Sara Michelle Fetters, Kennedy Rainer, and Bri Cummings

A-B

Aliens (James Cameron)

Notable cast: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn

America 3000 (David Engelbach) 

April Fools Day (Fred Walton) [Pluto] 

Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter) 

Notable cast: Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, James Hong

Black Roses (John Fasano) 

Blue Velvet (David Lynch) 

Notable cast: Kyle MacLachlan, Laura Dern, Isabella Rossellini

C-D

Chopping Mall (Jim Wynorski) 

Notable cast: Barbara Crampton, Mary Woronov and Paul Bartel, Dick Miller 

The Clan of the Cave Bear (Michael Chapman) 

Class of Nuke 'Em High (Richard W. Haines, Lloyd Kaufman) 

Cobra (George P. Cosmatos) 

Notable cast: Sylvester Stallone 

Crawlspace (David Schmoeller) 

Notable cast: Klaus Kinski

Crimewave (Sam Raimi) 

Critters (Stephen Herek) [Tubi] 

Notable cast: Dee Wallace, Billy Green Bush, Scott Grimes

Dead End Drive-In (Brian Trenchard-Smith) 

Deadly Friend (Wes Craven) 

Deadtime Stories (Jeffrey Delman) 

Demons 2 (Lamberto Bava) 

Dolls (Stuart Gordon)

E-G

Escapes (David Steensland) 

Extremities (Robert M. Young) 

F/X (Robert Mandel) 

Fair Game (Mario Andreacchio) 

The Fly (David Cronenberg) 

Notable cast: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis

From Beyond (Stuart Gordon) 

Notable cast: Barbara Crampton, Jeffrey Combs

The Golden Child (Michael Ritchie) 

Gothic (Ken Russell) 

Notable cast: Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Natasha Richardson

H-I

Haunted Honeymoon (Gene Wilder) 

Notable cast: Gilda Radner, Dom DeLuise

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton) 

Notable cast: Michael Rooker

Highlander (Russell Mulcahy) 

The Hitcher (Robert Harmon) 

Notable cast: Rutger Hauer. C. Thomas Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh

House (Steve Miner) 

Howard the Duck (William Huyck) 

Notable cast: Lea Thompson (sorry, Lea!)

Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf (Philippe Mora) 

I Like Bats / Lubię Nietoperze (Grzegorz Warchoł, Poland) 

Invaders from Mars (Tobe Hooper) 

J-L

Jason Lives! Friday the 13th Part VI (Tom McLoughlin) 

A Judgement in Stone (David Herrington) 

Labyrinth (Jim Henson) 

Notable cast: Jennifer Connelly, David Bowie

The Ladies Club (Janet Greek) 

Notable cast: Diana Scarwid, Bruce Davison 

Land of Doom (Peter Maris) 

Link (Richard Franklin) 

Killer Party (William Fruet) 

King Kong Lives (John Guillermin) 

Little Shop of Horrors (Frank Oz) 

Notable cast: Steve Martin, Bill Murray

M-N

Maximum Overdrive (Stephen King) 

The Manhattan Project (Marshall Brickman) 

Manhunter (Michael Mann) 

Notable cast: William Peterson, Tom Noonan, Brian Cox

Monster Dog (Claudio Fragasso) 

Notable cast: Alice Cooper

Monster in the Closet (Bob Dahlin) 

Neon Maniacs (Joseph Mangine)

Never Too Young To Die (Gil Bettman) 

Night of the Creeps (Fred Dekker) [ok.ru] 

Notable cast: Tom Atkins, Dick Miller

Nightmare Weekend (Henri Sala) 

Nomads (John McTiernan) 

P-S

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (Brian Gibson) 

Psycho III (Anthony Perkins)  

Rawhead Rex (George Pavlou) 

Slaughter High (Caroline Munroe)

Sorority House Massacre (Carol Frank) 

Spookies (Various)

The Supernaturals (Armand Mastroianni) 

T-V

TerrorVision (Ted Nicolaou) [YouTube] 

Notable cast: Mary Woronov, Gerrit Graham, Jon Gries 

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (Tobe Hooper) 

Trick or Treat (Charles Martin Smith) 

Troll (John Carl Buechler) 

Truth or Dare? A Critical Madness (Tim Ritter) 

Vamp (Richard Wenk) 

Notable cast: Grace Jones

Vicious Lips (Albert Pyun) 

The Vindicator (Jean-Claude Lord) 

W-Z

The Wind (Nico Mastorakis) 

Witchboard (Kevin Tenney) 

The Wraith (Mike Marvin) 

Zombie Nightmare (Jack Bravman)

Notable cast: Adam West, Tia Carrere

Previous: Canadian, Spanish and French horror, the horror western, and pets in horror. Images from Allstar / United Artists / The Guardian (Sissy Spacek in Carrie), MoMA (Oliver Reed and Karen Black in Burnt Offerings), The Bloody Pit of Horror (Barbara Crampton in Chopping Mall), Cinema Cats (Scott Grimes with Chewy, the Bengal tabby, in Critters), and PosterSpy (Tom Noonan as featured in the poster for Manhunter).