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It’s unclear who the audience is for director Kevin Willmott’s “The 24th,” a solemn look at a crucial and under-seen moment in Black history that mostly feels like homework. This portrait of an infantry of Black soldiers who, in 1917, stood up to horrifying police brutality has plenty going for it, including a few strong performances and an evocatively Southern-tinged mood. But it’s ultimately an agitprop package, and .

As a story of Black rebellion against corrupt and monstrous law enforcement, “The 24th” arrives at a critical moment as America stares down the maw of its inherently racist past and tries to figure out where to go from here. The largely forgotten episode in question is the Camp Logan mutiny that took place in Houston, where Black soldiers eager to serve their country stood up to a vile police force, and staged a coup that resulted in a staggering murder trial which,...

It’s almost impossible not to recognize the plot points and dramatic beats being depicted in Just Mercy. At the same time, it’s nearly as difficult to not be affected by them. Such is the case when a familiar tale is told exceedingly well and impeccably acted. Earnest, wearing its heart on its sleeve, and fully believing in the power of its story, this movie is more than just an eventual feel good tale. There’s a low key anger on display too, which is helpful. Though never quite able to break free into greatness, this is still a very good flick and well worth seeing when it opens this week. The film is a true life drama, based on the life of well known civil rights defense attorney Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), and in particular the case of Walter “Johnny D.” McMillian (Jamie Foxx). When we meet Brian,...

Brie Larson is undoubtedly one of the biggest actresses in the industry right now. Back at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017, she debuted her directorial debut in Unicorn Store, a quirky tale that mixed comedy and drama in equal measure. Since then, the movie has been in limbo, ultimately getting picked up by Netflix in a larger overall deal with Larson. Over the weekend, the flick hit the streaming service, offering the masses another opportunity to see Larson in new material, hot on the heels of the uber success of Captain Marvel. Though nothing to rave about, this debut is a confident and charming one, proving that there’s little Larson can’t do. The film is a dramedy about a potential influx of happiness into a woman’s life. Kit (Larson) has a strong artistic streak, but it’s not one easily understood. When art school doesn’t work out,...

Critics of “Life Itself” have panned the film so swiftly and with such finality that director Dan Fogelman has felt the need to fight back.

“A couple of the early reviews that have come out about this movie feel so out of left field to everybody who’s a part of this movie,” Fogelman told TooFab. “There’s a disconnect between something that is happening between our primarily white male critics who don’t like anything that has any emotion.”

Despite Fogelman’s defense, several of the negative reviews have come from women — including IndieWire’s Kate Erbland, who calls it “an unholy combination of ‘Rashomon’ and ‘Babel,’ [which] strings together seemingly disparate plotlines into one massive, messy tableau of life itself, a life that zings toward the warm embrace of death.”

The critiques are especially crushing considering that Fogelman’s hit ABC series “This is Us” garnered eight Emmy nominations this year.

At some point in the career of far too many a rising writer-director, it seems, especially those who lean into the “writer” portion of their portfolio, a demon alights on their shoulder and whispers, “You should really make a generations-spanning interlocking-stories narrative that says something deep and elusive about the human condition.” Pausing to see how the idea is going down, the imp may then add, “Just think of the cast you could get!”

“Life Itself” stars Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Laia Costa, Olivia Cooke, Mandy Patinkin, Jean Smart, and more, and is the brainchild of writer-director Dan Fogelman, his second directorial feature after “Danny Collins” and the first to come on the heels of his highly successful NBC series “This Is Us.” It is sentimental and sprawling, which are not necessarily bad things, but also manipulative and contrived, which very much are. And though the...

Destin Daniel Cretton’s 2013 breakout drama “Short Term 12” delivered a heartwarming story with bite. His portrait of a home for troubled teenagers owed much to Brie Larson, who played its passionate supervisor with a mixture of empathy and rage against the flaws of a system designed to improve young people’s lives. It delivered a sentimental message without trumping its characters’ palpable rage and cynicism, and established Cretton as a director capable of generating emotion without pandering.

Cretton still makes that effort with his long-awaited followup, “The Glass Castle,” but with less success. While he has a fascinating story and another stirring Larson performance, the results are minor and decidedly more middlebrow.

Adapted from Jeanette Walls’ memoir, Larson plays the author as she grows up in a wildly dysfunctional household headed by her alcoholic father Rex (Woody Harrelson), who forces the family to live a nomadic, hand-to-mouth existence in...

Here’s your daily dose of an indie film, web series, TV pilot, what-have-you in progress — at the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.

In the meantime: Is this a project you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.

Re/Collection

Logline: In the near future, where technology has made memory a commodity, a desperate husband seeks out a risky procedure to save the love of his life.

Elevator Pitch:

Memories shape our identities. We are what we remember.

But what happens when our experiences and our memories become our currency?

“Re/Collection” is a story that imagines a world where technology has turned human memory into a commodity.

It follows the fallout of this tech on one ordinary couple, and asks the question: What would you sacrifice to save the one you love?

* * *

The script was awarded the One...

From writer/director Max Joseph, here’s a first look at the trailer for We Are Your Friends starring Zac Efron, Emily Ratajkowski and Wes Bentley.

The film marks Max Joseph’s (MTV’s “Catfish: The TV Show”) feature film directorial debut.

We Are Your Friends is about what it takes to find your voice. Set in the world of electronic music and Hollywood nightlife, an aspiring 23-year-old DJ named Cole (Efron) spends his days scheming with his childhood friends and his nights working on the one track that will set the world on fire. All of this changes when he meets a charismatic but damaged older DJ named James (Bentley), who takes him under his wing. Things get complicated, however, when Cole starts falling for James’ much younger girlfriend, Sophie (Ratajkowski). With Cole’s forbidden relationship intensifying and his friendships unraveling, he must choose between love, loyalty, and the future he is destined for.

Hellion is the feature-film debut for writer and director Kat Candler. With this film, Candler certainly has my full attention and should have yours as well. Few filmmakers can make such a powerful and meaningful statement — and do so successfully — on their first outing, but the term “rookie” would be gravely misused in its traditional context on such a filmmaker.

Aaron Paul, most notably recognized as Jessie from the television series Breaking Bad, portrays Hollis Wilson, a hard working father struggling to raise his two sons on his own. After his wife and mother of his boys died, times got tough and Hollis slipped into an alcoholic state as a means to cope. Meanwhile, his 13-year old son Jacob, played by Josh Wiggins, heads down a dangerously deviant path. In his first feature film, Wiggins shines. Influenced by heavy metal music and a passion for motor cross, Wiggins gives the troubled Jacob a thoughtful,...

Writer/director Kat Candler’s Hellion paints the powerful portrait of a family on the brink of dissolution set against the haunting backdrop of the refineries of Southeast Texas.

Starring Aaron Paul, Josh Wiggins and Juliette Lewis, Sundance Selects will release Hellion in New York (and on VOD platforms) on June 13th and Los Angeles on June 20th.

Obsessed with heavy metal, dirt bike racing and partaking in the occasional act of vandalism with his band of delinquents, the behavior of 13-year-old Jacob Wilson (Josh Wiggins in his feature film debut) has begun to raise concerns around town, especially when it starts to involve his younger brother Wes (newcomer Deke Garner). While the boys’ father Hollis (two-time Emmy Award-winner Aaron Paul) loves his sons, he is still reeling from the loss of their mother, spending more time drowning his sorrows at the local bar and working on his damaged beach...

Despite having two household names attached to the production, the feature-length version of Hellion showcases two extremely talented young actors: Josh Wiggins (Jacob) and Deke Garner (Wes). Like the short film, Hellion relishes in the youthful ecstasy of absolute freedom and the inherent wildness of boys when left to their own devices as well as highlighting the irresponsible choices that they tend to make. Kat Candler (Cicadas, Jumping Off Bridges, Black Metal) has an undeniable talent for creating very specific atmospheres within her films. Shot in the hazy sunshine of the Gulf Coast, Hellion captures the difficulties of a single, working class parent, carefully examining the effects that local economics can have on families. The gritty, handheld cinematography (Brett Pawlak) hearkens back to the glory days of 1970s American independent cinema while also reflecting the working class livelihoods of this East Texas community. Here is the debut trailer for Hellion,...

By Terence Johnson

Managing Editor

Hellion, the new drama from Kat Candler, is one angry and emotional film. From the opening moments till the credits rolled, this movie channels adolescent rage, loss, and the struggles of life into one intense experience that will play with your emotions.

Hellion tells the story of the Wilson clan. Jacob (Josh Wiggins) is a 13 year old motocrossed-obsessed teenager with a wild streak that ends up with him on the path to juvie. He’s idolized by his younger brother Wes and struggles in his relationship with his father (Aaron Paul), who is still reeling from his wife’s death and hasn’t done the best at caring for the boys. One day, Child Protective Services arrives and removes Wes, taking her to live with Aunt Pam (Juliette Lewis), and both Jacob and his father try and deal with their issues in order to bring him back.

Cinematographer Brett Pawlak told us about filming Kat Candler's "Hellion," in U.S. Dramatic Competition at 2014 Sundance. "Hellion" is a Texas-set drama about a teenage troublemaker and his relationship with his father (played by Aaron Paul), who has been absent following the death of the kid's mother. Pawlak's previous shooting credits include "H+ Digital Series," "Short Term 12" and "I am not a Hipster."  What camera and lens did you use? We shot with the Arri Alexa, on Kowa Anamorphic lenses. What was the most difficult shot in your movie, and how did you pull it off? There was no one specific shot in "Hellion" that was difficult. The production as a whole was difficult, given the shorter amount of shooting time we got with mainly our young cast, which led to a breakneck schedule. The director, Kat Candler and I spent a lot of time discussing and designing...

It’s that time again. The biggest American film festival is upon us, and this year the Ioncinema crew will be descending on Park City with eight feet on the ground and eight eyes on Park City’s various and plentiful screens. Eric Lavallee, Nicholas Bell, Caitlin Coder and I will be covering just about every inch of this year’s festival here at Ioncinema.com, as well as on that ever increasingly vibrant instanews network – Twitter. Be sure to follow @ioncinema and, as stated above, my personal handle @Rectangular_Eye, as we’ll be tweeting throughout the festival with breaking news, reviews, and sightings, all the while trying to keep up with the massive amount of content sure to be coming from this year’s Sundance filmmakers themselves, most of which have their own Twitter accounts and are listed at length below (minus the world & short programs). Whether you...

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2013 discoveries”…

Kat Candler: The Texas Motocross Community. Pilou Asbæk (Actor from A Hijacking). Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt.

Lavallee: This is your third trip to Sundance in just as many years. At what point did you know that the short was indeed a basis for the feature, and what is it in the character set or the parental abandonment theme that lured you in for a second time?

Candler: I knew I wanted to make a feature immediately after wrapping our three-day shoot of the short. It was the summer of 2011 and I’d fallen head over heels in love with these characters and their world. I wanted to live with them longer and find out what happens next.

The feature narrative expanded from the mother’s absence, what led to this family’s downfall. The short made me reflect a...

The first in this year’s Guide to the Sundance Twitterverse series is the complete U.S. Dramatic Competition, which just at first glance has an immense amount of tweeting going on. Don’t miss the Hellion crew, headed by Writer/Director Kat Candler (@katcandler), nor the official Dear White People feed, (@DearWhitePeople). There’s more to come throughout the day.

U.S. Dramatic Competition

Camp X-Ray - @CampXRayMovie

Cold in July

Producer René Bastian - @renebastian

Dear White People - @DearWhitePeople

Writer/Director Justin Simien - @JSim07

Producer Lena Waith - @hillmangrad

Producer Julia Lebedev - @thisisresearch

Actor Tyler James Williams - @TylerJamesWill

Actress Teyonah Parris - @TeyonahParris

Fishing Without Nets - @fishing

Writer/Director Cutter Hodierne – @MyNameIsCUTTER

Writer/Producer John Hibey - @somaliproduced

Producer Raphael Swann - @raphaelswann

Producer Brian Glazen - @bglazen

Cinematographer Alex Disenhof – @adisenhof

God’s Pocket

Producer Sam Bisbee - @sambisbee

Composer Nathan Larson...

I don’t think Drake Doremus will be at Sundance this year. Here’s hoping that Kat Candler makes a “repeat” into a three-peat. Director of highly praised Sundance shorts Hellion (2012) (see pic above) and Black Metal (2013), Candler might belong to an exclusive club of folks. The same year that the short got invited to Park City, her producer Kelly Williams become an invited 2012 Sundance creative producing lab fellow with the feature length project of the same title (see trailer to get an idea of what it might turn out like). Flash forward to 2014, and Hellion might be that feature length Sundance preemed film that has roots as a Sundance accepted short film. In late August the trades spit out the news that Aaron Paul and Juliette Lewis climbed on board the drama – so it’ll be tight to get this before the deadline. Short Term 12 cinematographer Brett Pawlak shot the film.

A foster care facility filled with various at-risk teens may sound like an intimidating place, and it certainly can be, but the realistic and sensitive way director Destin Cretton approaches the material makes audiences want to go behind the walls of Short Term 12, and what they find there may be surprising. The innocence conveyed through composer Joel P. West’s simple guitar plucks suggest things are not as scary at Short Term 12 as it may first seem. Sure, some kids try to break free from the facility by running at breakneck speed towards the front gates, but there is a comfort and true sense of security perfectly reflected in West’s score that suggests a different reality. The key for music in a film like Short Term 12, which features many moving elements — stunning performances, beautiful cinematography from Brett Pawlak, strong writing — is to add to the narrative without overwhelming it. As...

Ioncinema.com’s Ioncinephile of the Month feature focuses on an emerging filmmaker from the world of cinema. This August, we get to once again profile an American Independent filmmaker who had the wind blowing in his sails moments before he launched his micro-budgeted I Am Not a Hipster at Sundance in 2012. Before unleashing his sophomore film, the character-rich, emotionally textured Short Term 12 in March, Destin Daniel Cretton had won over the Sundance jury with the short film going by the same name (2009 Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking). Winner of the 2013 SXSW Film Festival Grand Jury Award (worth mentioning, of which I was a proud member of) and an Audience Award at a handful of fests since SXSW, its the folks at Cinedigm who’ll be launching the film in select theaters on August 23rd. Here is our profile on Destin Daniel Cretton and we’re lucky enough that...

The winners in 19 Streamy Awards categories were announced in advance of Sunday's ceremony, with several top series taking home multiple awards. Top nominee Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn was one of the big early winners, with three awards. As expected, all of the Machinima Prime series' awards were in technical categories, with Brett Pawlak winning for Best Cinematography, Kasra Farahani winning for Best Production Design, and Michael Louis Hill taking home the Streamy for Best Editing. Series director Stewart Hendler also won a Streamy for Best Direction, though he won it for H+ rather than Forward Unto Dawn Epic Rap Battles of History, which will join Sunday's presentation as a performer, also snagged three trophies. NicePeter and EpicLLOYD won for Music Series and Original Song, while crew member Mary Doodles won for Best Use of Fashion and Design. Another top nominee, Lizzie Bennet Diaries, grabbed two awards, with Bernie Su...