Welcome to WeeklyWilson.com, where author/film critic Connie (Corcoran) Wilson avoids totally losing her marbles in semi-retirement by writing about film (see the Chicago Film Festival reviews and SXSW), politics and books----her own books and those of other people. You'll also find her diverging frequently to share humorous (or not-so-humorous) anecdotes and concerns. Try it! You'll like it!

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“Sorry, Baby” at Sundance 2025

"Sorry, Baby" at Sundance 2025

Eva Victor appears in Sorry, Baby by Eva Victor, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Mia Cioffi Henry.

One of the films that “sold” at Sundance 2025 (to A24) was the 103 minute comedy/drama feature “Sorry, Baby,” which went for $8 million. Shot in Massachusetts, it was also one of the films I had been looking forward to the most, because Lucas Hedges (Oscar-nominated for his role as Patrick Chandler in 2016’s “Manchester by the Sea” at 20 years of age) was cast as Gavin. The film was written, directed and starred  Eva Victor as Agnes.

THE BAD

Eva Victor wrote an extremely small part for Lucas Hedges and totally wasted his presence for 2/3 of the film, preferring, instead, to focus on herself as the lead actress. Yes, it was a film about Agnes’ sexual experience with a married professor and her extreme (and belated) bad reaction to same, but when the talented now 29-year-old Hedges was onscreen, his part consisted primarily of an bathtub scene where his lines included, “I’m embarrassed and I was hiding my dick.” In fact, when he first appeared onscreen as Gavin, he almost immediately disappeared and it was not clear if he was going to return at all!

Ms. Victor responds to the awkward nude bathtub badinage with, “It’s okay. I was covering my breasts. Oh, wait. Can I look at it? I have never seen one that soft. They’re better like this.”

Probably not a scripted exchange that is going to garner Lucas Hedges his second Oscar nomination.

The scene that featured Ms. Victor with a baby was also weird.

I’m guessing that Eva Victor has no children, but, whether she does or not, the conversation she wrote for herself to have with a friend’s infant she is babysitting was strange. She talks about how the infant can tell her anything and says, “I’m sorry that bad things are going to happen to you.  If I can ever stop bad things from happening, just let me know. I feel bad for you, in a way, but you’re alive and you don’t know that yet. But I can still listen and not be scared. So that’s good. Or that’s something at least.”

Again, probably not scripted dialogue that is  going to win Ms. Victor Oscar nods.

I have two kids. I guarantee that this is not “normal” banter with an infant. If it had been comedic (see “Nightbitch”) I might feel differently, but it just struck me as reaching and unlikely and not normal in the world I inhabit.

The film was punctuated with sub-titles.  “The Year with the Bad Thing” or “The Year with the Good Sandwich” onscreen as subtitled portions of the main story did not seem like a great idea. Some of the sub-titles were barely related to what we then saw onscreen.

The delayed PTSD concerning  Agnes’ (Ms. Victor’s) interaction with her college professor seemed over-wrought and not very true-to-life (besides barely being depicted, since we just see her rush from the house.)

As a young college student, Ms. Victor’s character went to her married male professor’s house to discuss a paper. He made sexual advances, which are not described as that  aggressive. In fact, the entire escapade was not very clearly depicted or described. Did Agnes actually feel she had been raped or…?  Had she simply been a very bad judge of character in agreeing to visit the married professor’s house while his wife and family were out of town? Did he truly force himself upon her? Could she have said “no” more forcefully? She is shown pursuing the issue somewhat at the college offices on campus, but learns that the misbehaving professor (previously her favorite) has apparently already resigned and left town. (Quick work there!)

You’ll have to see the film when A24 streams it to answer the  questions above for yourselves. Upsetting, yes.

To have a full-blown breakdown while behind the wheel of a car, years later? Seemed contrived. It did lead to a nice character turn from John Carroll Lynch as Pete, however,— (the genesis of “The Year of the Bad Sandwich” bad sub-title.) I thought back to Emerald Fennell’s master class in scripting the results of such an encounter in the 2020 film “Promising Young Woman” with Carrie Mulligan. A different premise, yes, and not meant to be humorous at any point, but at least what, exactly, had happened to that girl was clearly spelled out, rather than the muddied version here. At times, the episode seems to have severely and seriously impacted Agnes. At other times, she seems to have moved past the trauma fairly quickly—until a triggering incident while driving.

Just left me feeling that the behind-the-wheel PTSD scene was overblown and belonged in a different movie.

THE GOOD

Eva Victor, director of Sorry, Baby, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Lee Dubin.

There is a courtroom scene that was quite amusing. I hoped for more like that one—scenes that would seem natural and normal and life-like and realistic. It was well done.  There were good lines here and there, such as, “I did not think I would end up looking like a yam with a mouth on it.” And it was nice to see more female directors/writers coming up through the ranks,.

Director of Photography Mia Cioffi Henry acquitted herself nobly and the music by Lia Quyang Rusli was good.

Here’s what “Ioncinema” said about “Sorry, Baby:” “We imagine it’ll be extra champagne uncorking for some of the A24 folks who landed the film for a cool 8 million dollars – today’s IndieWire poll of the Best of Sundance (as voted on by 176 critics) further confirms that the breakout film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was Sorry, Baby – which placed highest not only in the Best Film category but also topped the Best Performance, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best First Film lists. Eva Victor‘s debut did not claim the Grand Jury Prize but did manage to win the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award and had several distributors on the chase to land the rights.”

That is heady praise and means I am out of step with the mainstream reaction.  I have a theory that the reason it was praised so highly is that almost ALL of the rest of the Sundance offerings were about death, dying, illness, or other such catastrophes. It was hard to find a comedy—although “Andre Is An Idiot” would qualify, except for the fact that it’s about a terminally ill man cataloguing his last months on the planet.

CONCLUSION

For me, there was promise in the courtroom scene for a Funny Film of the Future. Just looking at the credits, it seemed that the writer/director/star highlighted herself overmuch, which ended up hurting the film. Wasting Lucas Hedges in his role as Gavin was but one example.

It was not a “bad” film, but I’m still scratching my head over the over-emphasis on Agnes and the timing of Agnes’ trauma, etc.. For me, the emphasis on Agnes’ trauma was inconsistent with a “comedy” and her breakdown was overdone. And, then, too, there was the waste of  other  talented cast members, like Naomi Ackie as best friend Lydie and Kelly McCormack as Natasha.

(And don’t get me started on the complete waste of the uber talented Lucas Hedges.)

America, We Have A Problem. WAKE UP!

“Why Musk’s Nazi Salute Matters” –from  Zach Beauchamp of “Vox”

“Elon Musk doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt,” said Zack Beauchamp.  While speaking at President Trump’s inauguration, Musk twice  thrust his arm out in a Nazi salute—there’s “no other plausible interpretation of his gesture.”

Some tried to dismiss it as merely an awkward moment, but context matters, and Musk has an “extensive track record of extreme right policies, flirtations with antisemitism, and juvenile trolling.”

Elon Musk

Elon Musk

Musk responded to the uproar not with an apology, but by mocking critics with snide Nazi-themed puns, including “Bet you did nazi that coming.”  Not surprisingly, neo-Nazis were giddy about Musk’s salute; the fact that it occurred at a presidential inauguration signals “a deeper rot.”

The tech oligarch is promoting Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party, urging party members to move “past guilt” over Nazism’s horrors, and he personally restored neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes’ account on “X”.  It’s all part of “the Trump era ‘vile shift,” in which there’s no accountability for extremist rhetoric and performative cruelty.  As we descend this slippery slope, it’s vital that decent people “assert that there are real moral standards” and that Nazi play-acting violates them.  Those standards may be our only bulwarks against the return of “honest-to-goodness Nazism.”

“Omaha” Is A Film For Our Times from Debut Feature Film Director Cole Webley

 

Molly Belle Wright in "Omaha"

Molly Belle Wright appears in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

“Omaha” is the first feature film from  working cinematographer Cole Webley, who has numerous IMDB credits for shorts and commercial work.   He told Kate Erland of “IndieWire:” When you’re in this business, when a script comes along that everybody knows just needs to be made into a film, the writing’s on the wall.”

That script, written by Robert Machoian (2020’s “The Killing of Two Lovers”) is a parable for our time(s). It came to Webley’s attention as he was setting about directing his first feature film, which premiered at Sundance on Opening Night. It’s a touching film. If “Sorry, Baby” was bought for $8 million by A24, (only the third film so far to nail down a deal), this one is worth three times that. (Never waste an Oscar-nominated actor like Lucas Hedges in a tiny part!)

FILM OPENING

A father is shown waking his two children and loading them into the car for a cross-country road trip from Utah to Omaha, Nebraska.  (He tells the older child to take what she’d take if the house were on fire.) I had not read extensively about the film. The devastating plot is concealed so long that I had to talk my spouse into sticking with it. I pointed out the superior cinematography (Paul Meyers), where even a random shot on the highway was primo, and the acting, which is top-notch.

His response was, “Yeah, but what’s going on?” So, I found out, told him by revealing the key plot point early, and he got to see one of my two favorite Sundance 2025 feature films this year, The other was “Train Dreams,” which sold in the high teens to Netflix.

The key plot point is hidden from the audience’s view until you’ve devoted almost an hour to the 83-minute movie. In today’s period of short attention spans and ADD/ADHD, maybe the audience could have been let in on the sub-text a bit sooner? (I taught for MANY years, so bear with me on that slight criticism.)

HIDDEN PLOT POINT

(*Do not read this if you want to be “surprised” by the plot’s key  point.)

In July of 2008 Nebraska became one of several states that passed a Safe Haven law that allowed unharmed infants to be dropped off at a hospital without penalty where they would immediately become a ward of the state.  The Nebraska law  failed to specify an age for the children being abandoned. Before the Nebraska legislature fixed the loophole, thirty-five children had been abandoned—none of them infants and five of them from out-of-state.

Screenwriter Machoian heard about the last woman from Davis, California who managed to be the last parent to make the trip to Omaha out of desperation to  take advantage of the loophole. The law was clarified to mean infants younger than 30 days. Miachoian described the genesis of the script during the Q&A:  “For me, I had just finished grad school, we had 6 kids, and we were super poor. I was aware that if something happened to my wife (as it does to the wife in “Omaha”) I would be overwhelmed.”

Director Webley told Filmmaker magazine:  “The idea that you can just poo-pooh something because you’ve never been in that situation, or you can’t see or feel it, it really scares me as a society—that insular feeling that we don’t have to think about that because we’re not going through it.”

"Omaha" the movie

John Magaro, Molly Belle Wright, and Wyatt Solis appear in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Amplifying the timeliness of the film, Webley added:  “I would guarantee you that this guy probably didn’t vote blue.  He seems like a blue collar dude.  He probably was raised in a conservative environment. Who knows how he voted?  But I can tell you that, for me, as someone who definitely isn’t aligned with what’s happening in the country right now, I see this man as a human being who’s struggling and has trauma.  Compassion should rule the day, not punishment.”

Webley continued, “And if I wanted this movie to do anything without being didactic, it would be that it places humanity upon the people on the edges and the fringes of our society.  We’re so ready to forget them because we don’t know them or see them every day.  We’re so ready to judge them, ready to say, ‘deport them.’ But these are people who are trying.  And if they’re not trying, they probably need help and a system that is going to provide options rather than punishment.”

ACTING

John Magaro, Molly Belle Wright and Wyatt Solis

John Magaro, Molly Belle Wright, and Wyatt Solis appear in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

The lead (Dad), John Magaro does a great job of showing us a caring father pushed to the brink. But the accolades went to the two young actors playing Ella and Charlie, his 9 and 6-year-old children. Molly Belle Wright, in particular, who played Ella was a real find.  Wyatt Solis played the younger brother, Charlie. Said Director Webley, “Molly’s like a professional actress. She was 9 at the time and she’s incredible.  I can’t wait to see her blossom.  It was like working with two adults when she was in the room.”

During the Q&A, he expanded on working with such young actors: “But when we got into the car (all real, no green screen), it just became really clear that Wyatt (age 6) was not going to do the same thing twice.” Webley described Wyatt  as “the tip of the spear” and Magaro—who only met the kids three days before filming was to start—said during the Q&A, “Wyatt’s like Brando. He does what he wants.” (Laughter) Child labor laws dictated that Wyatt could only be filmed three hours a day and Molly for four. Only Rex, the golden retriever, had to be recast, but he is “alive and well in Utah,” where most of the film was shot, (with some footage in Wyoming and Nebraska.)

DIRECTOR

Director of "Omaha" Cole Webley

Cole Webley, director of Omaha, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Webley told Filmmaker magazine, “I see my job directing as mostly guide rails. I don’t like to talk a lot about back story.  I want my actors to take their role and their job is to go and find that person.  And John came prepared. And I was making sure I had given John every opportunity within the scene to nail who this man was.”

The children came off as totally natural. Their dancing and clowning around, which was captured over the 27-day shoot, was perfect for setting the tone of the film family. It was clear from talk about camera lenses and the beautifully framed shots (as they leave town and as they arrive in Omaha) that Webley is an accomplished cinematographer with a real eye for what he is shooting. He echoed another Director I spoke with in Nashville recently, Jason Reitman of “Saturday Night,” who said that 90% of a film’s success is in the casting of a (good) script.

MUSIC, EDITING

The Christopher Bear music was good. The scene in the car where the three rock out to “Mony Mony” by Tommy James and the Shondells was great. (Check out Wyatt in the back seat going ballistic!) Jai Shukla did a great job editing the beautifully-shot footage.

CONCLUSION

I watched A LOT of films over the course of Sundance 2025. At least 25% of them focused on death and dying. This one was about life and living. It was about  how hard it can be when society’s safety nets are removed and disinformation and lack of compassion rule the day. This is a gut-wrenching film; a “happy ending” is not in the cards. But it is well worth watching and trying to feel for the people involved on a human level.

As a former teacher from a long line of educators,  I felt for the children in this story. First, the kids lose their Mom. Then, they lose their home. Then they lose their dog. Ultimately, they lose their Dad? It is hard to get behind that decision, but the film helps to dramatize the plight of many struggling working class families. Those in power may put down anyone with compassion as a tree-hugging liberal, but the truth  is that humanity requires us to empathize with those going through rough times, not to penalize and ostracize them.

“Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” at Sundance 2025

 

Marlee Matlin

(Deaf actress Marlee Matlin appears at Sundance 2025. (Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute).

Deaf actress and activist Marlee Matlin was born 58 years ago in Morton Grove, Illinois. When asked to do a PBS Masters biography of her life, she requested a deaf director. Shoshanna Stern became the guiding force behind this autobiographical recounting of Matlin’s life and career.

She lost her hearing at 18 months of age for reasons never completely determined. As she shares, her parents never got over the guilt. She describes a childhood feeling of being cut off, dismissed and ignored, saying, “That’s just how it was as the deaf girl.”

Although she had always loved to perform, she was often not allowed to audition because of her handicap.

MARLEE & WILLIAM HURT

However, when the play “Children of a Lesser God” was being made into a movie, the search for a deaf actress to play the lead led to casting the then 19-year-old Matlin in the part, opposite William Hurt, who was then 35. Sparks flew. The two became a couple for a brief period, which led to charges of abuse on Matlin’s part and denials on Hurt’s. She has said, “Bill Hurt was threatened by my youth and the sudden change in my success from just one movie.” Her autobiographical recounting of their romance in “I’ll Scream Later,” written in 2009, also described sexual molestation at ages 11 and 15.

Matlin’s impassioned performance in “Children of a Lesser God” won her the Oscar as Best Actress of the Year in 1987, but also  contributed to the break-up of her romance with the much older Hurt.   One thing that Marlee has acknowledged that was a positive from her time with Hurt was that he convinced her to get clean from a dependence on drugs and alcohol and to go to rehab, as he had done. She checked into the Betty Ford Center.  She  remains married to her husband Kevin Grandalski after four children and 32 years, which may be as major an accomplishment as being the youngest woman (and only deaf actress) to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.

MARLEE & HENRY WINKLER

When Marlee was twelve years old, a chance meeting with Henry Winkler in Chicago—then riding high as the Fonz on “Happy Days”—led to a lifetime friendship with the actor and his wife. In fact, Marlee lived with the Winklers for two years and was married to her current husband, a Burbank police officer, in the Winklers’ back yard in 1993.

ACTIVISM

Marlee has leaned into activism on behalf of the deaf, although she claims, in the documentary, to have been uninformed about deaf issues when she achieved prominence for her Oscar win in 1987. As she said, “I was thrust into it, but nobody explained it to me.” One of her projects, (undertaken with the help of Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who had a deaf brother) was to make all television sets captioning capable, to aid with language deprivation that the deaf encounter.

Matlin’s involvement with the 2022 film “Coda” is included, which won three Oscars for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Troy Kotsure, who said, “What kept me inspired was Marlee Matlin.”

Matlin’s words at that time were “Let’s move forward. Let there be other firsts.”

Matlin is shown in her car with Billy Joel’s song “My Life” playing, mouthing the words, “I never said I was the victim of circumstances.”

CONCLUSION

The look at Matlin’s career was interesting. I know from my 20 years of teaching  next door to the hearing impaired room at the junior high school level (as well as from having deaf students in my classrooms) that a deaf student who is doing well in school is often a truly brilliant individual. The hurdles for deaf students who are often “left alone to solve it on their own” are huge.  She admits in the documentary that, “I have no idea how I survived.”

Matlin has a production company and has several projects in the works, including a desire to work again with Director Shoshanna Stern.

“Sally” & “Marlee Matlin” Screen at Sundance, 2025

Sally Ride, first American female astronaut in space

Sally Ride appears in SALLY by Cristina Costantini, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by NASA.

The first two Sundance 2025 offerings I watched turned out to have very similar themes, although focused on two very different people.

“Sally,” was a 103 minute documentary helmed by Cristina Costa, which screened at the Ray Theatre in Park City at Sundance 2025 on January 28th, 2025.

The second 97-minute documentary, directed by deaf director Shoshanna Stern, “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,” helped open the Sundance Festival and profiled Marlee Matlin,  the first deaf actress to win an Academy Award and the youngest at 21 to win in the Best Actress category. [My review of her story will follow “Sally.”]

While the films seemed, on the surface, as though they would have little in common, they both highlighted extremely dedicated individuals rising to the top of their respective fields despite the hurdles of culture, society and, in Matlin’s case, biology. Matlin’s two tattoos that read “Perseverance” and “Warrior” seemed relevant to each.

Both documentaries were helmed by talented female directors and each was at the height of their fame as U.S. cultural icons 35 years ago, in 1986-1987.

“SALLY”

Sally Ride, first American female astronaut in space

Sally Ride appears in SALLY by Cristina Costantini, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by NASA.

“Sally” is the story of a woman who spent 27 years hiding the fact that, although she was briefly married to fellow astronaut Steve Hawley and had  sexual relationships with other men, she spent 27 years of her life concealing her relationship with another woman. Her love for Tam O’Shaughnessy, a fellow tennis player she met at age 13 when Tam was 12, was something that Sally Ride didn’t come to accept about herself until later in her life.

MALE CHAUVINIST PIG

When women were first being allowed to become NASA astronauts, a fellow astronaut, Mike Mullane, a West Point graduate who served in Viet Nam, is heard articulating the same point-of-view of the newly-confirmed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Mullane says on camera that he was a product of his upbringing and the times and that when women were being introduced to the space program, he thought, “I just couldn’t see what they were going to be bringing to the table.” By the end of the documentary, the very same Mike Mullane writes the most heartfelt sympathy note to Sally’s life partner Tam, apologizing for his earlier views and extolling Sally’s expertise and excellence as a role model for his granddaughters.

Describing his earlier self as “a male sexist pig” Mike Mullane said he hoped that Sally’s life example would give his own granddaughters “a future in which women won’t be constrained from pursuing their own dreams.” “They can do the job as well as anyone else.” (One hopes that someone passes that message on to Pete Hegsoeth, who has articulated the exact opposite attitude towards women in the military.)

Billy Jean King, a gay icon who lost everything when her sexuality became public knowledge, was a good friend of Sally’s. She felt that what happened to her when she was “outed” served as an object lesson to Sally Ride. She lost everything and had to start over. As for Sally Ride’s competence in her job, Billy Jean says, on camera, “I think it’s time that women in this country realized that they can do any job that they want to do.. Sally proved it. Done.”

SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS in the 50a, 60s, 70s, 80s

As the documentary emphasizes through Tam’s words, “I just feel bad that someone the world respected and admired felt they had to hide themselves from the world.”

RIDE’S FAMILY OF ORIGIN

Sally Ride, first American female astronaut in space

Astronaut Sally Ride (Photo from Wikipedia.org).

When the documentary dives into early influences on Ride, some clues can be gleaned from the brief interview with Sally’s biological mother, a Norwegian woman who spent time as a volunteer prison counselor. She seemed very uncommunicative, very self-contained, very icy as a personality. My own mother was a first-generation Norwegian/Dutch child of immigrants. This stereotype is based on truth.  Tam says, “Sally couldn’t share with the people closest to her, even her sister Bear.  Sally never talked about it. I didn’t understand why Sally couldn’t or wouldn’t talk to her sister about being gay…“Sally was afraid about how her colleagues and friends felt about her, and how it would affect her work…The fear factor of being gay, of being who you are affected our work and our company.  The world is not always kind.”

TAM O’SHAUGHNESSY

Tam, said, “I wanted the relationship validated. It took more of a toll on me than it did on Sally. It just ate at me.” She was gratified to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor from President Obama on Sally’s behalf, posthumously after Sally died of pancreatic cancer in 2012 at the age of 61. The two had filed and became certified domestic partners shortly before Ride’s death in 2012.

Said O’Shaughnessy, “Sally just couldn’t or wouldn’t talk about emotions, even with her sister, Bear, who also left a traditional marital relationship to live with a woman. Bear and her female partner both lost their jobs as Presbyterian ministers when they came out… “I just realized that I loved Sally and we had to find a way to work this out.  We couldn’t change the way the world saw us, but we loved each other so much and we wanted to be together, come hell or high water.”

Following Sally’s death, Tam acknowledged their longstanding relationship in her obituary:  “I’m just sick of hiding, I’m an honest person and Sally was an honest person. If somebody doesn’t like it, tough.” After Sally’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, the two shared 17 months during which “Every week she’d lose something…the ability to go up and down the stairs…In one second our lives totally changed. We were like zombies. It was such a shock.” Sally got the diagnosis one day after delivering a speech at the National Science Teachers Association Conference on March 11, 2011.

THE CHALLENGER EXPLOSION & INVESTIGATION

One of the areas in the film that was somewhat glossed over was the key role that Sally Ride played in discovering what had caused the Challenger to explode on January 28, 1986.  Wikipedia has this explanation of the Rogers Commission findings:  “After her death in 2012, Major General Donald J. Kutyna revealed that she had discreetly provided him with key information about O-rings, namely that they become stiff at low temperatures. This led to discovery of the cause of the explosion. The temperature at the time of the launch was 36. O-Rings were not safe below 50. To protect her source, this information was fed to Richard Feynman.  Ride was even more disturbed by revelations of NASA dysfunctional management decision-making and risk-assessment processes.  According to Roger Boisjoly, who was one of the engineers that warned of the technical problems that led to the Challenger disaster, after the entire work force of Morton-Thiokol shunned him, Ride was the only public figure to show support for him when he went public with his pre-disaster warnings.  Ride hugged him publicly to show her support for his efforts.”

The Rogers Commission submitted the report on June 6, 1986. I remember how a good friend of ours who was roommates with “Smitty” (the Challenger commander, Michael Smith) at the United States Naval Academy, was shocked and saddened to learn of his good friend’s death, especially when it was preventable. I was then working for Performance Learning Systems, Inc. of Emerson, N.J., one of the nation’s largest teacher-training firms, and I had been assigned to interview Christa McAuliff, the teacher in space, upon her return. I had just spoken to her husband the night before the launch to confirm the various procedures I was to follow to send her the interview questions. I still remember coming out of the college class I was teaching at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, and turning on the radio to learn of the deaths of McAuliff and all seven of the crew members.

Sally Ride quit NASA in 1987, saying, “I am not ready to fly again now.  I think there are very few astronauts who are ready to fly again now.” She commented on how astronauts have to have a real trust in NASA.

CONCLUSION: SIMILARITIES

Interestingly enough,  Marlee Matlin (whose documentary I will review next) won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1987 for the 1986 film “Children of a Lesser God.” This is the same timeline, the same  backdrop of historical  events then affecting Sally Ride’s life, including her work with the Rogers Commission investigating the Challenger explosion. That investigation triggered Ride’s resignation from NASA and she spent the latter part of her life as a Professor of Physics at the University of California in San Diego, when Stanford snubbed her. (Sidney Drell, who had recruited her to come to Stanford, resigned from CISAC in protest when no department at Stanford was willing to offer Sally Ride a position.) Sally also remained a director of Cal Space until 1996, retiring as a Professor Emeritus from San Diego in 2007. Ride and O’Shaughnessy formed a company to encourage young girls to enter careers in math and science.

Another interesting 35-year-old fact is that the director of Marlee Matlin’s Oscar-winning performance in 1986-1987 was Rainda Haines. Haines was the first female director to have her film (“Children of a Lesser God”) nominated for Best Picture at the 1987 Oscars.

“Inkwo for When the Starving Return” at Sundance, 2025

"Inkwo for When the Starving Return"

“Inkwo for When the Starving Return” at Sundance (Photo courtesy of Sundance Film Festival).

“INKWO FOR WHEN THE STARVING RETURN” debuted January 24th at Sundance  in the Animated Shorts Film Program  with three additional in-person screenings to follow. The film will also screen online across North America January 29th, 7:00 AM  PST through February 3rd, 3:55 AM  PST. The series is in development. It is being coproduced by Spotted Fawn Productions (SFP) and by the National Film Board of Canada. Spotted Fawn Productions (SFP) is an Indigenous-led and community-oriented Vancouver-based studio founded in 2010, which focuses on visionary illustration, stop motion, 2D, 3D and virtual reality animations.

 

“Inkwo for When the Starving Returns” is a story set two lifetimes in the future (Denendeh), when the world hangs in the balance. Sadly, that seems very much like the world today. On tonight’s news they announced that the world clock predicting the end of the world has been reset  at 87 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been. (Hardly encouraging, but a good preface to this piece).

The animated story focuses on a young, enigmatic gender-shifting warrior named Dove. “Inkwo” means medicine; it is used to defend against an army of hungry, ferocious monsters that re-emerge to feed upon humans. The flesh-consuming creatures become stronger with each body and soul they devour.

Amanda Strong, Director of "Inkwo for When the Starving Return."

Amanda Strong, director of Inkwo for When the Starving Return, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

The animation, sound, and voice acting are top-notch. The creatures are appropriately horrific and threatening.  Amanda Strong, showrunner for the production, is a Sundance Native Lab Fellowship recipient (the first Canadian Indigenous Fellow), a Red River Métis artist, writer, producer, director, and mother. A Canadian Screen Award and Emmy-nominated director, Amanda is the owner, director and executive producer of Spotted Fawn Productions. Her collaborative creations amplify Indigenous storytelling.

The story is adapted from the collection of published and unpublished short stories and graphic novels “Wheetago War,” written by award-winning storyteller Richard Van Camp. It features voice talents Tantoo Cardinal (“Legend of the Fall,” “Killers of the Flower Moon”) and Paulina Alexis (“Reservation Dogs”) and Art Napoleon (“Moosemeat & Marmalade”).

 

"Inkwo for When the Starving Return" at Sundance.

“Inkwo for When the Starving Return” at Sundance. (Photo courtesy of Sundance Film Festival.)

The series articulates truths like this: “When people forgot their connection to the land, they lost themselves as well.” That sort of truth isn’t confined to just a futuristic animated series about monsters. The fading family farm, our pollution of the very food we consume, the escalating climate changes globally being largely ignored by U.S. leadership—all bear testimony to the truth of that observation.

 

Another scripted moment, between the frog that Dove saves (who promises strong medicine—-“Inkwo”) is a call to action to fight and protect against the forces of greed around us. There  seems to be a surplus of greed in the U.S. in 2025, so, hopefully the “inkwo” will help those who disagree with the way things seem to be going in the United States.  Another insightful line: “We are all born hunted.”

Certainly feels that way more and more, especially if you are an immigrant in the U.S.

I applaud the goal of the series, which is: “Taking a stand to defend the remaining humans and animals left on the Earth.”

In the United States in January, 2025, all of us need to take a stand to defend the remaining humans and animals left on Earth. Perhaps we could start by rejoining the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization and not re-creating the sort of camps  the United States government established in WWII.  As concerned citizens, we must urge elected representatives to do what they know is best for democracy in the United States. Endorsing and embracing a kakistocracy is counter-productive to safeguarding peace and prosperity.

 

 CREDITS

   DIRECTOR

  • Amanda Strong
  • Screenwriters

Bracken Hanuse Corlett

Richard Van Camp

Amanda Strong

  • Producers

Amanda Strong

Maral Mohammadian

Nina Werewka

  • Principal Cast

Paulina Alexis

Tantoo Cardinal

Art Napoleon

  • Year

2024

  • Category

Short

  • Country

Canada

  • Language

English, Dene

  • Run time

18 min

  • Website

https://www.nfb.ca/film/inkwo-for-when-the-starving-return/

  • Contact

[email protected]

 

Australian Short “Stranger, Brother” Screens at Sundance on September 25, 2025

Tiaki Teremoana in Stranger, Brother. (2025)

Tiaki Teremoana of “Stranger, Brother” (Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival).

The opening sequence at Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, January 25th, 2025, for “Stranger, Brother,” an Australian short directed by Tongan/Australian director Annelise Hickey, is a beautiful ocean scene, silhouetting charismatic lead Tiaki Teremoanna who plays Adam. The music (Will Morrissey composed) is good. The gorgeous horizon quickly morphs into a street scene, shot with  jerky hand-held strobe-like effects by Director of Photography Matthew Chuang Acs.

The camera work was very effective to illustrate Adam’s recent  dissolute lifestyle, including time spent distracting himself from his real life and his original family of origin.  Costa-Gavras used the jerky hand-held camera technique way back in 1969’s “Z” and critics internationally swooned. It has since become a cinema staple. It is used effectively in the scenes that depict Adam’s attempts to run away from his real life and  family  by living life in the fast lane in night-time Australia.

It is a surprise when—after a night spent partying—Adam’s half-brother Moses (called Moss) turns up unexpectedly  on Adam’s  doorstep. The younger boy (Moses) has a different mother than Adam. Their Aboriginal father has provided no advance warning about Moses’ arrival or why he might be visiting. Adam does ask (“So, are you gonna’ tell me why you’re really here?”) but the younger brother does not immediately answer.

The two make a trip to the grocery store and exchange normal conversational banter about the relative “hotness” of Laura (Charly Thorn), but it isn’t until they are together on the beach that there Is a real break-through in communicating, as Adam finally succeeds in contacting their mutual father by phone and learns that Moses’ mother, Mary, is dying in hospice. Moss is upset and tense and the brothers nearly come to blows on the beach. Adam seems to realize, in that moment, that he has an obligation as Moses’ older  half-brother, to provide some stability and a haven for a young boy in distress. It is fitting that the end of the short film takes place where it began, on the shore of the same beautiful beach where it began.

The film was shot on the unceded lands of the Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, which is sacred Aboriginal land.

The lead (Tiaki Teremoana) as Adam is particularly charismatic and the message about accepting and supporting one’s family, no matter how fractured that family may be, is clear. The sound, music, and cinematography help drive home that point.  Director Annelise Hickey, who earned an award as the emerging Australian filmmaker at the 2023 Melbourne Film Awards has supervised an interesting and meaningful 14’ 31” short film that premiered at the Egyptian Theater at Sundance on Saturday night, January 25, 2025.

The film’s short synopsis read:

“Two estranged half-brothers are thrust together when 10-year-old Mose unexpectedly appears on millennial Adam’s doorstep. Annoyed by the disruption to his care-free life, Adam struggles to contact their elusive father for answers but is met with silence. Tensions rise as Mose begins to suspect that Adam is ashamed of him, while Adam discovers the poignant truth: Mose’s mother is dying. The brothers clash in a heated confrontation that ultimately reveals their unspoken need for each other.

Meet the Artist

Panelist Name

Annelise Hickey is a narrative filmmaker from Naarm (Melbourne). Her debut short, Hafekasi (2023 Tribeca Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival), earned a Narrative Short Special Jury Mention. Hickey is the recipient of the 2023 Emerging Australian Filmmaker award at the Melbourne Film Festival. (Photo courtesy of the Sundance Film Festival).

Credits

  • Director(s)

    Annelise Hickey

  • Screenwriter

    Annelise Hickey

  • Producers

    Tessa Mansfield-Hung

    Josie Baynes

  • Director of Photography

    Matthew Chuang ACS

  • Production Designer

    Francesca Carey

  • Edited by

    Grace Eyre

  • Music Composer

    Will Morrissey

  • Sound Designer

    Sean Wilkinson

  • Colorist

    CJ Dobson CSI

  • Executive Producer

    Jarred Osborn

  • Principal Cast

    Tiaki Teremoana

    Samson Uili

    Charly Thorn

    Patrick Livesey

  • Year

    2024

  • Category

    Short

  • Country

    Australia

  • Language

    English

  • Run time

    15 min

  • Company

    Wildebeest Films

  • Contact

 

“Sister Wives” Is 2025 Oscar-Eligible Short

Sister Wives" 2025 Oscar Eligible short

“Sister Wives.”

“Sister Wives” – Director/Star Louisa Connolly-Burnham plays Kaidence, the wife of a polygamous husband (Mormon) who must welcome a new wife, 19-year-old Galilee, into her home. Galilee is played by Mia McKenna-Bruce. This is actually streaming on Channel 14, which, I assume, is British, as it has qualified for Best British film and Best Actress at the Iris Prize competition and was picked up for distribution. It is eligible for the Oscars and the BAFTA, which makes it the fifth of the five female-directed films I have most recently reviewed to qualify for the 2025 Academy Awards.

There is a plan to develop this story of love emerging between the two sister wives into a full length feature film in summer, 2025, with the Director/Star reprising her role.  Connolly-Burnham is known for the HollyShort film “How to Have Sex” and is currently working on the Netflix adaptation of an Agatha Christie work, “The 7 Dial Mystery” with Helena Bonham Carter and Martin Freeman.   The series was inspired by  Broadchurch Creator Chris Chibnall.

PLOT

We learn that Kaidence was married to their mutual husband Jeremiah (Michael Fox) at age 14. Galilee is only 19, but she has a more adventurous spirit and actually has a cell phone (verboten in the community). Jeremiah is called away to Nevada for four weeks because Brother Amos is sick. While he is away, the sister wives play. Kaidence goes skinny dipping and learns that there is a whole world outside of her marriage, waiting for her.

The film was dark, making some things difficult to precisely determine. Director of photography was Angela Zoe Nei and the film could have beneifted from more light in some of the scenes. We certainly can understand why the girls decide to bolt and strike out for freedom. Galilee, who had said, “I’ll be very happy here” instead makes both downtrodden women happy when she suggests escape. I did find it difficult to understand the ending scene with Galilee, Kaidence and a car. Whose car is it? How did they get it? Is someone assisting them in their desire to flee? Many questions.

Sister Wives short


“Sister Wives.”

CONCLUSION

I grew up in Amish country in Iowa. This one was not hard to believe or imagine.This was the fifth short directed by a woman. It didn’t involve filming entirely in a car, but there is a scene at the end where the two escaping wives take off in a vehicle. I wish them good fortune!

“Motherland” Is 2025 Oscar-Eligible Short from Jasmin Mozzafari

 

"Motherland," a 2025 Oscar-eligible short.

“Motherland,” an Oscar eligible short.

“Motherland” – This 24 minute 21 second short dealt with a couple–an Iranian man and a girl from Iowa— who are meeting the girl’s in-laws for the first time. The Jasmin Mozaffari film is set against the backdrop of the Iranian hostage crisis, which took place in 1979 and lasted for 444 days during the Carter administration. It was inspired by Jasmin’s father who married a woman from Alberta, Canada.

WRITER/DIRECTOR

“Motherland” was named as the Best Canadian Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival.  Mozzafari was named Best Director at the Aspen Shortsfest and her debut film “Firecracker” debuted in 2018 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her short YASAMIN, based on her mother’s story of immigration, was a Grand Jury Prize Nominee at the 2018 AFI Film Festival. In 2022, she associate produced the short documentary “Longline of Ladies” which world premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and won the grand jury prize at SXSW.

Jasmine’s father, in real life, married a woman from Alberta, Canada. The New York Times compared Mozaffari’s directing style to “a young Andrea Arnold.” For those not familiar with Andrea Arnold, she directed  “American Honey” in 2017, which won a BAFTA as Outstanding British Film of the Year. In 2022, Arnold was a nominee for the Best Documentary of the Year for “Cow,” a chilling look at the life (and death) of a cow on a dairy farm in England, with no dialogue and an absolutely chilling end for the cow of the title. Andrea Arnold was named  “Most Promising Newcomer” in 2007 for her film “Red Road” and shared a 2010 Bafta for “Fish Tank” for Best British Film. Arnold directed “American Honey” in 2017 with Shia LaBoeuf and Riley Keough. It was a big winner at Cannes and in London at BAFTA, but the film was overlong and meandered.

If Jasmine Mozaffari is being compared to Andrea Arnold, she is in very good company.

PLOT

Babak, an Iranian medical student in school in Iowa, portrayed by Behtash Fazlali, is in love with Katie and they are on their way (in a car, like  3 out of 5 of these shorts) to meet Katie’s parents for Thanksgiving, 1979. As the film opens Babak—who resembles Al Pacino in “Serpico” with the full beard as the film opens—is being harassed by the locals in a confrontation with Americans who are incensed at the invasion of the embassy in Tehran. One of the Americans holds a poster that says: “Nuke ‘em until they glow. It worked in Japan. It’ll work in Iran.”

The couple meets up with, initially, just Katie’s mother at a dance hall type building that would be more at home in Texas or Oklahoma than in Iowa. I grew up in Iowa. Neither the landscape around the dance hall nor the dance hall itself seemed authentically “Iowan.” The surrounding landscape looked much more like Texas, from where I am while writing this.

CAST

"Motherland" is a 2025 Oscar-eligible short from Jasmin Mozaffari.

“Motherland,” a short from Jasmin Mozaffari.

Katie’s mother, Ruth, played by Birgitte Solem, is polite but cool to the young man escorting her daughter. Katie’s (Oriana Leman)  father doesn’t show up at all, at first. Later, her father, Werner Summer—extremely well-played by John Ralston—makes it clear to Bobak that “My daughter will not be your effing green card.” Bobak—who has even begun calling himself “Bob”—has, by this point, shaved his beard and is trying very hard to make a good impression. However, much like immigrants from other countries who are demonized, tensions were running high and much of the animosity was not based on reality, but on hearsay or propaganda. Originally, the Iranian students protesting the Shah who took over the Embassy had no intention of occupying it for long periods of time. It is interesting that many of those in positions of power that day went on to become highly-placed governmental figures.

I don’t doubt that there was hostility towards Iranians in the United States during this tense time in history. I lived through it as a teacher; it probably happened more in the cities, whereas I was in a relatively rural area in Illinois. I was teaching 7th and 8th grade students and had known one of the Iranian hostages from Jesup, Iowa. My students and I were very aware of the crisis and very concerned for the safety of the  hostages.

CONCLUSION

Fourteen months later, on January 20, 1981, the Iranian hostages were released. This was announced by Reagan, although it was negotiated by Jimmy Carter. The protesters were angered that the United States allowed the Shah to enter the U.S. for medical treatment for cancer and that they would not return him for trial. $7.9billion in Iranian assets that had been seized was released to facilitate the release of the 52  hostages, not counting those who escaped posing as a film crew, as depicted in the film “Argo.” Nov. 4, 1979 was the beginning of the Iranian hostage situation; the end was January 20, 1981.

In “Motherland” I could not tell if the romance between Babak and Katie was going to go forward or if her parents’ hostility had killed it. They are (once again) in a car and the Thanksgiving, 1979 meeting with Katie’s parents did not go well. I can only assume that, since Jasmine’s father, IRL, did marry a Canadian woman, they work further on their relationship and rise above her parents’ opposition to it.

“His Mother” Is 2025 Oscar-eligible Short

Bethany Anne Lind in "His Mother"

Bethany Anne Lind in “His Mother.”

“His Mother,” a 13 minute and 39 second short film that is Oscar eligible, stars Jennifer Lawrence look-alike Bethany Anne Lind as the mother of a young man who is threatening violence at his college, Southern Tech. Young Harrison Miller, age 19, 5’ 10”, has left a variety of clues that he is about to explode, saying things like “The end has come” and “None of you ever gave me a chance.”

Maia Scalia wrote and directed this high tension race to save lives, She is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of Art and has worked on 2022’s “Call Jane” with Director Phyllis Nagy and star Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver in 2022, a film about the fight for abortion rights in pre-Roe days, which would be just as timely right about now.  Ms. Scalia’s choice of Bethany Anne Lind to play “His Mother” is fortunate, because she does a believable job as a half-hysterical mother on her way to try to save her son from committing murder

Bethany Anne Lind played Grace Young in “Ozark” and Sandra in “Stranger Things.” It is a tribute to Bethany Anne’s emoting while behind the wheel of her car and racing to the scene of the potential crime that this short works at all.  It was the third (of five) that had significant—or all, as in this case—portions shot inside a vehicle. Having written a few screenplays, I understand how tempting it is to use a car or a truck for the setting, as it certainly helps keep expenses down and frees up the set decorator and art decorator and lots of other sorts (not much need for unique costumes, either) and, consequently, helps keep the cost(s) of a production down.

We never actually see her son, Harrison, or his preoccupied father, Jason Miller, whom Bethany Anne talks to on the phone. The voice of father Jason is D.W. Moffett, a Chicago native who has played roles in “Traffic,” “Falling Down,” and “Friday Night  Lights.” The voice of Harrison, her son, is Ben Irving, who played Bobby Freeze in Ben Affleck’s 2020 film “The Way Back.” Officer Davis (Evan Hall of “Orange is the New Black”) and the emergency dispatcher (Aleah Guinones; Keisha in 2023’s “Shrinking”) are the only other voices in the piece, and we never see them.

'His Mother" short

“His Mother” Oscar eligible short.

Sound effects (bullets and sirens, for example) become important in this short piece. The music by Eli Keszler is crucial and the cinematography by Matt Clegg is mostly close-ups of Bethany Anne Lind’s face.  I found myself wondering how his mother telling the authorities to look for her son in a blue Accura was viewed by Ms. Miller when the authorities caught up to her son, who had posted videos that led to him being sought as an “active shooter at large.” Phrases like “This is his only choice” are countered by his frazzled mother’s plea “Please help me understand.”

This one was tense and dramatic and takes place completely inside a car. I saw five in one sitting; this was my favorite.

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