Neely Swanson

The prolific Danish writer/director Anders Thomas Jensen has directed six films and all six have starred Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas. Their latest collaboration, “The Last Viking,” is certainly one of their best.  Anker, a career criminal, has just hidden the loot from his latest heist in a locker. Knowing the police are on […]

Arriving on the scene unannounced in 1942, Albert Camus’ first novel, “L’etranger” (“The Stranger”) was the embodiment of existentialism, a philosophy first expressed by Kierkegaard then Nietzsche and fully embraced by French philosophers Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus. For most people, life has a preordained purpose, a thought process that is […]

“Fantasy Life,” written, directed and starring Matthew Shear, has moments where it shines. Shear’s own personal story, mirrored in the character of Sam, is muddled in the telling but helped by a very gifted cast.  “Fantasy Life” originally centers on the early life crisis of Sam, a lost soul who dropped out of law school […]

“For Worse” is the utterly charming and very real story that Amy Landeker wrote and directed for herself to star in, and she’s given us a lusty meal to bite into and savor.  Lauren (Landeker) and her soon to be ex, Chase, sit and face their unctuous divorce mediator (played by a pathetically funny Simon […]

“ A Poet,” the subversively funny, sad and poignant film written and directed by Simón Mesa Soto, will gradually enmesh you until you feel a kinship with sad, lonely loser Oscar, a failed poet. Oscar gave up everything for his art—his job, his dignity and his daughter. It’s not so much that he gave anything […]

Already showered with awards, “The Secret Agent,” written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, is Brazil’s submission for the upcoming Academy Awards in the category of International Feature. Those will not be its only nominations. Like so many movies this year, “The Secret Agent” has multiple parts, some meshing easily, others not so much. But […]

“Blue Eyed Girl” is a story that’s been told before but tell it well and it’s worthwhile to revisit. “Blue Eyed Girl” is told very well with a winning cast of characters, the very definition of an independent film.   Jane Messina is called home because her father, once again, has tried to take his life. […]

“Rebuilding” is a simmer of a movie on a low, steady fire. There’s no action, no noise, no explosive reveals; just a slow melding of sights and sounds and smells yielding a fragrance of human emotions.  Dusty is a kind, considerate, introverted man who has a hard time communicating with those around him. It’s probably […]

Peter Hujar, an important photographer in the avant garde 70s of Greenwich Village, is no longer on the tip of anyone’s tongue. Linda Rosenkrantz, a writer with a penchant for recording her friends, had a novel idea for her new book. She would ask them to write down everything they did on one particular day […]

“Die My Love” is a picture of a slow slide to madness. Grace, a writer, has agreed to pack up her life in New York and move to a very small town in Montana with her partner Jackson. He has inherited his uncle’s house and he’s anxious to get back to his roots. He has […]

“Eleanor the Great” is that surprising rare bird that marks the successful features debut of a director, Scarlett Johansson, and writer, Tory Kamen. This charming film, with unexpected depth and humor, tells a story that, in lesser hands, would teeter on the edge of poor taste and mawkish sentimentality, but instead boldly exploits a sensitive […]

“Code 3” tells the story of what will be the very last 24 hour shift of Randy, a burned out paramedic who’s seen too much, is paid too little and can’t envision another moment on this incredibly stressful job. Based on the experiences of Patrick Pianezza, a co-writer with the director, Christopher Leone, the story […]