New Jersey Film Festival Fall 2024 Video Overview

by Vic Fern - published 2024-09-01
The New Jersey Film Festival returns to Rutgers University September 6th - October 18th for the Fall 2024 season! Al Nigrin, Executive Director and Curator of the Festival, provides a video overview of the films being showcased via EBTV.

Informative feature documentary A.P. Giannini screens at the Fall 2024 New Jersey Film Festival on Sunday, September 8!

by Al Nigrin - published 2024-08-31
A.P. Giannini is an insightful documentary that tells the incredible true story of Amadeo Peter Giannini, the son of Italian immigrants in San Francisco, the man who revolutionized the world of finance by lending money to low-income workers and migrants during the worst economic crises of all times. He embraced the idea of ethical finance, fighting against usury and speculation. Here is my interview with A.P. Giannini Co-Directors Valentina Signorelli and Cecilia Zoppelletto:

New Release Review - "Blink Twice"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-08-30
Ever since Get Out we've received a slew of movies in which a protagonist who is neither wealthy, white nor male finds themselves surrounded by people who are either wealthy, white, male or some combination thereof. Zoë Kravitz' directorial debut Blink Twice is so indebted to this formula that it could have been titled Don't Worry about The Menu at Saltburn Darling. It takes a protagonist who is neither wealthy, white nor male and surrounds them with characters who are very much a combination of all three. Much of its drama has been done to death in the post-MeToo era but there are some cleverly subversive touches that struggle to escape what ultimately becomes a rather formulaic thriller.

CUT International Film Festival at the Levoy

by Chris Lillja, JerseyArts.com - published 2024-08-29
"Short films for quick minds." Short films appeal to quick minds because they offer a concentrated burst of creativity, storytelling, and emotion within a limited timeframe. For those who think and process information rapidly, short films provide an immediate and satisfying experience, delivering a complete narrative or concept without an extended commitment. The brevity of short films often leads to innovative storytelling techniques, with filmmakers distilling complex ideas and themes into concise, impactful moments. This efficiency aligns well with quick thinkers who appreciate content that gets to the point without unnecessary elaboration.

New Release Review - "Strange Darling"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-08-28
I always find it odd how Hollywood continually imports acting talent from the rest of the English speaking world when there are so many accomplished American actors with movie star attributes working in TV. Big time movie stars like Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman can now drop down to TV, but a stigma persists regarding promoting TV stars to movie roles. Willa Fitzgerald should have gotten attention from Hollywood following her lead role in the Scream TV series, but a minor role in 2019's The Goldfinch is as close as she's gotten to mainstream cinema. Any doubts over whether Fitzgerald has what it takes to be a big screen lead are dispelled within minutes of director JT Mollner's Strange Darling. Fitzgerald grabs our attention from the off and holds us in a vice-like grip as she delivers one of the most electric performances of recent indie cinema.

Touching documentary A Girl Can Touch the Sky screens at the Fall 2024 New Jersey Film Festival on September 7!

by Catalina Chapman - published 2024-08-28
A Girl Can Touch the Sky, by Ravinol Chambers, is an immersive documentary that takes the audience deep into the culture and sometimes obtrusive gender roles across India. Chambers who was once a monk in the city of Vrindavan, India helps to shine a lot on the situations that are most pressing to many girls in the villages of India. As he and a crew travel down the west coast of India, they hope to raise awareness about the difficulties girls in the area have in accessing education. The documentary provides a manifold of interviews that discuss the education topic for girls from different points of view. Chambers shows a plethora of conflicting opinions that help the viewer become entrenched in the complex culture of India. We see disappointed fathers, hopeful girls, and educators speak on the matter at hand.

Romantic Comedy Ben and Suzanne, A Reunion in 4 Parts opens the Fall 2024 New Jersey Film Festival!

by Al Nigrin - published 2024-08-27
In Shaun Seneviratne’s Ben and Suzanne, A Reunion in 4 Parts, Ben Santhanaraj journeys to Sri Lanka to rekindle his relationship with Suzanne Hopper, an American NGO worker, after a long separation. But when Suzanne's boss demands she work during their vacation, their love is tested by a dilemma: desire versus duty. As Suzanne struggles with the responsibilities of her job, Ben tries everything to revive their intimacy, leading to candid conversations and chaotic twists as New Year’s Eve - and Ben’s departure - looms ahead.

First Look Review - "Skincare"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-08-22
The rapid rise of AI has focused much attention on the practice of creating "deepfake" nudes by digitally adding someone's (predominantly a woman's) face to the body of a porn star or nude model. One of the first cases to bring the threat of deepfakes to light came in 2014 when celebrity skincare specialist Dawn DaLuise was accused of plotting to kill professional rival Gabriel Suarez, who had opened a skincare clinic in the same commercial block as her own. DaLuise claimed that Suarez had attempted to destroy her life and business by flooding the internet with fake images of her face grafted onto pornographic pictures. DaLuise asked a former NFL player to murder Suarez, but was acquitted after spending 10 months in jail when no evidence was uncovered of anyone actually putting her plot in motion.

New Release Review - "Alien: Romulus"

by Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com - published 2024-08-19
Has any mainstream franchise been so heavily manipulated by individual directors as the Alien series? Each new director has taken the series in their own direction, for better or worse, but usually worse. Ridley Scott's 1979 original had a very simple premise, essentially a 1950s b-movie with post-Star Wars FX and '70s gore. With Aliens, James Cameron delivered a war movie, replacing Scott's slow burn horror with balls to the wall action. David Fincher gave us a prison movie with Alien 3, while dealing with much studio interference. Alien: Resurrection saw Jean-Pierre Jeunet give us...well, whatever that was (all I remember is Sigourney Weaver's basketball skills, or am I thinking of Kurt Russell in Escape from LA?). Scott made a surprise return to the series and bored the pants off us with the Chariots of the Gods-influenced Prometheus and Covenant, though they did feature the memorable sights of Michael Fassbender snogging himself and Noomi Rapace performing a self-abortion.