-
Oct 31, 2024 | 
michigandaily.com | Maya Ruder
“Death, Jay learns, will creep inexorably toward her as either a friend or a stranger.” David Robert Mitchell’s 2014 “It Follows” opens on a quiet suburban scene. The street view shot is composed symmetrically, shedding trees and a line of houses on either side. The road leads to a vanishing point in the distance, drawing the eye toward something just out of sight.
-
Jul 29, 2024 | 
michigandaily.com | Maya Ruder
You thought Sundance 2024 was over? Nothing is over until we decide it is! So, once more until next year: Sundance 2024 — the gift that keeps on giving. History unfolded on the stage of the Chicago Cultural Center on June 28, 2024, as Mayor Brandon Johnson and Clinée Hedspeth, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events commissioner, welcomed the Sundance Institute to the city of Chicago.
-
Jan 31, 2024 | 
michigandaily.com | Maya Ruder
Ryan Fleck (“Captain Marvel”) and Anna Boden (“Captain Marvel”) introduced their film “Freaky Tales” at the 40th Sundance Film Festival as a tribute to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980s. Fleck, an Oakland, Calif. native, thinks of “Freaky Tales” as his ode to growing up in the Bay and the glories that come with it, like being a die-hard fan of the Golden State Warriors. But this film is no ordinary nostalgia film.
-
Jan 31, 2024 | 
michigandaily.com | Maya Ruder
Megan Park (“The Secret Life of an American Teenager”) made her directing debut in the 2021 film “The Fallout,” which chronicles the life of a teenage girl in the aftermath of a school shooting. Park earned acclaim for her sharp articulation of the experience of Gen Z — a generation that was raised on the ever-present threat of gun violence and is often misrepresented in media.
-
Jan 28, 2024 | 
michigandaily.com | Maya Ruder
“Bloody grateful and lucky” is how author Amy Liptrot feels about her life at the moment. “The Outrun,” a film adaptation of Liptrot’s biographical novel by the same name, premiered this weekend at the 40th Sundance International Film Festival. Liptrot, director Nora Fingscheidt (“The Unforgivable”) and leading lady Saoirse Ronan (“Foe”) sat down on Friday morning at the Chase Sapphire Lounge at the festival to discuss their highly personal film that tackles alcoholism, recovery and homecoming.
-
Nov 28, 2023 | 
michigandaily.com | Zach Loveall |Maya Ruder
Sometimes a film defies the ability of just a single person to adequately cover; it demands multiple perspectives to capture its entire impact on the audience. The Michigan Daily Film Beat presents our Two Views series of reviews, where two writers sit down to discuss, argue about and review a film we just cannot stop talking about. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Maya Ruder, Daily Arts Writer: All is fair in love and war … or not.
-
Nov 6, 2023 | 
michigandaily.com | Maya Ruder
Alice Rohrwacher’s (“Happy as Lazzaro”) “La Chimera,” the 2023 Silver Hugo for Best Cinematography and Best Ensemble Performances, screened at the 59th Chicago International Film Festival. This film, Italian-made on Italian soil, stars Josh O’Connor (“Mothering Sunday”) as the scruffy Englishman Arthur, a temperamental and forlorn tomb raider with a mysterious ability to intuit grave sites. What originally appears as a heist plot is, in fact, a love story — a ghost story, rather.
-
Nov 1, 2023 | 
michigandaily.com | Maya Ruder
“Evil Does Not Exist” tells the familiar story of man versus nature through the unconventional narrative style that Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi first earned recognition for with “Drive My Car,” crowned Best International Feature at the 2022 Academy Awards. Hamaguchi’s filmmaking remains unhurried and contemplative, always servicing the story and its characters, rather than appeasing the audience with stimuli unprovoked by the narrative.
-
Nov 1, 2023 | 
michigandaily.com | Maya Ruder
Colin and Cameron Cairnes (“100 Bloody Acres”) have delivered their third joint horror installment “Late Night with the Devil” to the After Dark Archives of the 59th Chicago International Film Festival. The brothers, a directing duo with a growing cult horror following, came just in time for Halloween season in Chicago — gracing the historic Music Box Theatre with retro and indulgent horror that doesn’t take itself too seriously without becoming excessively satirical.
-
Oct 25, 2023 | 
michigandaily.com | Maya Ruder
Lucy Kerr’s (“Crashing Waves”) “Family Portrait” is an entry in the New Directors Competition of the 59th Chicago International Film Festival. Kerr has already received the Best Director Award from the 2023 Locarno Film Festival and Black Canvas Contemporary Film Festival for “Family Portrait.” Her film examines the relationships within a family through the eyes of one of the family’s four daughters, Katy (Deragh Campbell, “Possessor”).
