Mainstream Chick’s 2019 Middleburg Film Festival Recap
There’s something addictive about the Middleburg Film Festival. It’s not like I rank among press that is comped for transportation, put up in the festival’s home base – the swanky…
Review: For Sama
For Sama is a thoroughly engrossing and heart-wrenching documentary made by the mother of a baby born in Aleppo, Syria during the rebel uprising and daily bombings. Sama's mother Waad…
Adaptation
Award Winning
Cinema Clash podcast
Crime
Drama
Foreign
German
Indie
Mainstream Chick
Scandinavian
Quick Takes: Never Look Away; Transit; Woman at War
With Arty Chick off to parts unknown to direct a documentary, it’s possible her reviews will be fewer and farther between for a while. So I will try and highlight…
Quickie Review: Minding the Gap
I'm not a big fan of the skateboarding scene and when I heard this documentary was one of the five Oscar nominees, I knew I had to watch, but I…
Review: I Am Not a Witch
In this odd little satirical film from Zambian-born director Rungano Nyoni, 8-year-old Shula (Maggie Mulubwa) is branded a witch and sent away to the camp where all the other witches…
Review: Oscar Nominated Short Films 2019
I always look forward to watching the shorts. (Short being 40 minutes or less, so some of them aren't all that short.) This year's crop had clear winners and losers…
Review: Cold War
In this passionate love story set in Soviet-era Poland, Zula, a young singer with a past, enters a state-run performing academy where she meets the love of her life, Wictor,…
Review: Capernaum (Capharnaüm)
"Capernaum in French is used usually in French literature to signify chaos, to signify hell, disorder," according to Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki, director of this emotionally wrenching film. At the center…
Review: Roma
Director Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Gravity) recreated the Mexico City neighborhood of his childhood to tell the story of Cleo, an indigenous woman who worked for his family and…
Review: First Reformed
It's that time of year again. The run-up to awards season, when I catch up on all the films I missed for one reason or another. And since First Reformed…
Review: The Favourite
The Favourite was another of my top picks at The Middleburg Film Festival. England's Queen Anne was such a sad queen. But this period dramedy of the fight to be…
Review: Shoplifters
This film from Japanese director Hiorkazu Kore-eda (Nobody Knows) is a beautiful drama about what family means. I saw it at Middleburg, and it's stayed with me. The story is…
Review: Green Book
Who'd have thought that the director of Dumb and Dumber would bring us the best movie of 2018? With two great performances from Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises, Captain Fantastic) and…
Review: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
This anthology film from the Coen Brothers will only be in a few big city theaters for a week before it begins streaming on Netflix. It's made up of six…
Arty Chick
Award Winning
Eastern European
Foreign
German
Italian
Japanese
Spanish language
Special Feature
Arty Chick’s Middleburg Film Festival Download 2018
Another year at a fabulous festival! I wonder how long this little Virginia horse country festival can keep it up. It's sure to burst its seams soon. This year's slate…