Liz Whittemore

Darien

Writer at Alliance of Women Film Journalists

Managing editor @ReelNewsDaily, writer @awfj, Mom, actor, singer, dancer, podcast host, 6th-grade hula hoop champion, Yale SOM wife, all around awesome. she/her

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Articles

The Ruse 2025 is a cleverly twisted bait and switch.

1 day ago | reelnewsdaily.com | Liz Whittemore

THE RUSE Filmmaker Stefan Mena brings audiences THE RUSE. The film follows an in-home nurse, Dale, and her newly assigned dementia patient. Upon arrival in a remote seaside town, Dale discovers she is replacing the last nurse who mysteriously went missing. Consumed by her patient’s ever-changing lucidity and he-said, she-said of the neighbors, Dale becomes entangled in a chilling whodunit. As Tom, Michael Steger walks a razor-thin line between a good guy and a total creep. Steger is formidable.
The New York African Film Festival

3 days ago | reelnewsdaily.com | Liz Whittemore

(NYAFF 2025) The New York African Film Festival The New York African Film Festival (NYAFF), now underway at Film at Lincoln Center, lands in Harlem on Thursday with a focus on documentaries. The Opening Night film at Maysles Documentary Center at 5:30 p.m. is the North America premiere of a film called The Man Who Plants Baobabs.
FANTASIA UNVEILS VIVID FIRST WAVE OF TITLES FOR ITS 29th EDITION

1 week ago | reelnewsdaily.com | Liz Whittemore

FANTASIA UNVEILS VIVID FIRST WAVE OF TITLES FOR ITS 29th EDITION Steve Pink’s TERRESTRIAL, Kenichi Ugana’s I FELL IN LOVE WITH A Z-GRADE DIRECTOR IN BROOKLYN, Julie Pacino’s I LIVE HERE NOW, Hwang Wook’s THE WOMAN, Hubert Davis’ THE WELL, Yasuhiro Aoki’s CHAO, Kurtis David Harder’s INFLUENCERS, The Adams Family’s MOTHER OF FLIES, Alex Philips’ ANYTHING THAT MOVES, Shuhei Shibue’s YA BOY KONGMIN! THE MOVIE, Brock Bodell’s HELLCAT, and Yeum Moon-kyoung and Lee Jong-min’s LAST WOMAN ON EARTH are...
Rosario 2025 A mix of horror, culture, sacrifice, and grief

1 week ago | reelnewsdaily.com | Liz Whittemore

ROSARIO Director Felipe Vargas tells the story of a successful investor and titular character, ROSARIO. When her estranged grandmother dies, Rosario returns to the apartment to discover a hidden chamber and deadly family secrets. She must confront the past to survive the night. Carlos Osorio‘s production design brims with sumptuous, decaying jewel tones. The practical FX are fantastic. Carmen Cabana‘s cinematography is mesmerizing.
'THE MOOGAI' (2025) A trauma and cultured-filled feature.

1 week ago | reelnewsdaily.com | Liz Whittemore

THE MOOGAI Filmmaker Jon Bell delivers a horrific manifestation of unresolved cultural trauma in THE MOOGAI. The film opens in 1970. Aboriginal children have been forcibly removed from their families and adopted into white families for decades. Present day, Sarah Bishop eschews her cultural roots. Once a stolen child, a fact she vehemently denies, the difficult birth of her second child comes with collective wounds and folklore she cannot outrun.
PÁRVULOS CHILDREN OF THE APOCALYPSE 2025 VOD!

2 weeks ago | reelnewsdaily.com | Liz Whittemore

PÁRVULOS: CHILDREN OF THE APOCALYPSEPÁRVULOS: CHILDREN OF THE APOCALYPSE- One of the coolest films from last year’s festival circuit is coming in June. Synopsis: In a dystopian future ravaged by a viral apocalypse, three young brothers—Salvador, Oliver, and Benjamin—find themselves isolated in a remote cabin deep within the woods. As they navigate this desolate world, they harbor a dark and disturbing secret in their basement, a presence they must feed to ensure their own survival.
Egghead & Twinkie (2025) Gen-z rom-com gold coming soon!!

2 weeks ago | reelnewsdaily.com | Liz Whittemore

EGGHEAD & TWINKIE is an instant classic. After coming out to her parents, two best friends go on an impromptu road trip to meet a crush. This genre-bending film is one of the most fun selections at Outfest: LA. (Here is our original review from the fest)Jill Cefalo-Sanders provides quirky animation, giving us adorable hand-drawn anime-inspired visuals for emotions, sounds, and transitions. It’s very Lizzie McGuire, and that’s an absolute compliment. It’s almost its own character in the film.
THE HAUNTING OF HOLLYWOOD - Review by Liz Whittemore

3 weeks ago | awfj.org | Liz Whittemore

0 Flares 0 Flares × In Lilia Doytchinova’s feature debut, The Haunting of Hollywood, the filmmaker wears all the hats. The story finds an aspiring young filmmaker moving to L.A. with his girlfriend. Plagued by the death of his actress mother years before, James finds himself pulled in by her unrequited dreams as he unpacks his traumatic childhood. Doytchinova uses well-known industry lore from 1934 as inspiration. A woman named Peg Entwistle jumped to her death off the Hollywood sign.
Unbroken 2025 Astounding doc sees its timely Netflix debut

3 weeks ago | reelnewsdaily.com | Liz Whittemore

UnBroken Beth Lane’s captivating documentary, UnBroken, tells the story of seven siblings who survived Nazi Germany. Following the arrest of their hero mother and previously imprisoned Catholic father, marked for a concentration camp, Lane’s mother and siblings were smuggled to safety in the back of a truck in the dead of night by their farmer neighbor. A journey of unbelievable resiliency, Lane retraces their steps from Berlin to America and into the pages of history.
FRÉWAKA 2025 Irish folk horror at its finest

3 weeks ago | reelnewsdaily.com | Liz Whittemore

FRÉWAKA Filmmaker Aislinn Clarke brings Shudder audiences a dark and tense story of a primary caregiver and the odd elderly ward she finds herself assigned. Following the death of her estranged mother, Shoo travels to a small town riddled with foul energy for the woman she must look after. Peig is a household name, and not in a good way. Surrounded by Peig’s superstitious rituals, Shoo’s growing isolation and underlying anguish trigger a long-dormant demand.