Review by Paris Jade

Marvelous and the Black Hole tells the story of a young girl trying to navigate her way through life after the loss of her mother. She finds an outlet through magic. This is the type of film that immediately introduces the protagonist as this whiny teen who never wants to listen to anybody because she has it worse than everyone else when, in reality, she doesn’t. Of course, like every coming-of-age film, the lesson of the story is someone has it worse than you, and it gets better. The problem with this film is that you just don’t empathize with the main character. Yes, she lost her mother, and that is very sad. Her family is trying to move on, but this girl constantly acts like it’s the end of the world. However, Sammy is a 13-year-old girl, and they all seem to act this way. 
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Other than the main character, almost every other character is unlikeable as well. Sammy’s sister Patricia (Miya Cech) can also be a bit annoying at times. Throughout the entire movie, all she ever cares about is playing a game and telling on her sister. Then we have Margot (Rhea Perlman), a complete stranger who takes Sammy under her wing and shows her how to do magic and how it can make you feel. Here is the thing — Margot is an older woman who meets Sammy in her school’s women’s restroom. She then takes her to one of her gigs for a classroom of little children. Just from that description, this movie could take a sharp turn from coming-of-age to kidnapping thriller. Not only is our main character a brat, but now she is also an idiot for following a total stranger around and will forever believe that all strangers who know magic must be nice and will have no other intentions. However, Rhea Perlman does a great job of being the guardian and mentor you never knew you needed. ​

This film is nothing but frustrating when it comes to the actions of Sammy. Throughout the entire film, mistake after mistake, Sammy is still a moody teenager thinking the universe is out to get her. Her sister makes it worse by going against her instead of trying to have an actual conversation. Her father can’t have a conversation with her because he honestly doesn’t know how to and won’t admit it. You are frustrated until the very end, and you don’t even feel for this girl. 

The writing may not have been great, but the best thing about this film was the soundtrack and score. It had great music that moved along well with the movie, and it’s the only reason you’ll ever feel something during this movie. Composer Tim Kiefer did a fantastic job of storytelling through music and deserves every bit of recognition. Along with Kiefer, the cinematographer Nanu Segal made every shot seamless and at least made the film something pretty to look at. 
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If you love a movie with a constantly complaining teenager, this is the film for you. Otherwise, you should skip it.

Watch Marvelous and Black Hole in theaters and on VOD on April 22. 

Rating: 2/5

Review by Dan Skip Allen

​Although a lot of road trip movies take place in the United States, it's a genre that has roots all over the world. The Trip series takes place in Europe and is a very successful franchise, but most international road movies are quaint. Panah Panahi's Hit the Road takes place in Iran and offers a unique version of the genre.

When the film picks up, a family of four and their dog are on a road trip across the Iranian countryside to deliver one of its company to a place unknown when. As the film progresses, we find out that one of them is leaving for good. Using this method of telling the story is very effective for the viewer to learn about these people, their motivations and relationships, and so forth.

The four main characters are a rambunctious little boy who continuously talks and asks questions (like children tend to do), a father who has a broken leg, a mother just trying to make the most of the situation she's in, and a second son wishing he were anywhere else besides this car.

Review by Tatiana Miranda

​​Starring Keira Knightley as the titular character, Charlotte follows the true story of German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon. This animated film captures her life and artwork with the backdrop of Nazi-occupied Germany, envisioning Salomon’s loves and losses through a 2D animated format reminiscent of her self-portraits. While the stylistic choices of Charlotte are simpler, utilizing a more traditional style of animation in 2D, it is the best choice creatively to showcase Salomon’s works within the film, which are more expressionist. Still, Salomon’s paintings of herself and other individuals are simple, with mere lines to distinguish a mouth from a nose. This style is similar to how Charlotte presents its subjects, a clever way to honor Salomon’s artwork without turning the movie into another version of Loving Vincent.

Based on her posthumously published autobiographical book of paintings, Life? or Theatre?, Charlotte focuses on the development of the book instead of being an animated version of the book’s contents. From the beginning of the movie, it’s clear that this isn’t an animated movie made for children but an art-driven historical film about a doomed artist and her greatest artistic achievement. Charlotte is a movie about the violence she faced while in Germany as a Jew and a depiction of the explicit love she shared with both Alfred Wolfsohn and Alexander Nagler. Co-director of Charlotte, Tahir Rana, states how he believes that “…more and more filmmakers are embracing animation to tell more and more of these adult stories” and that it’s a prime version of storytelling for stories with emotional journeys.

Review by Camden Ferrell

Stanleyville is the feature directorial debut of actor Maxwell McCabe-Lokos. Written by McCabe-Lokos and Rob Benvie, this quirky film had its premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in 2021. This black comedy starts out with a really interesting and eccentric concept but unfortunately suffers at the hands of an inferior second half of the film.
 
Maria is a woman who is burdened in life with a meaningless job, an incompetent husband, and an insufferable daughter. One day, she decides to walk away from her life. Shortly after, she’s invited to compete in an odd and bizarre contest with other people to win an orange SUV. This contest of increasingly strange and somewhat dangerous tasks isn’t an entirely new concept in media, but it is one that has some inherent intrigue.
 
The writers do a great job with setting up this premise in an efficient manner. The beginning is paced very well, and it gets us to the crux of the plot sooner rather than later which works well for the overall movie. The dialogue is interesting between the contestants, but somewhere around the middle of the movie, it fails to maintain its established momentum. In the last half as tensions continue to rise, it’s hard to maintain the same level of interest due to the novelty wearing off somewhat. 

The acting is above average throughout. The movie is led by Susanne Wuest who is decent as she gives a subdued and subtle performance as Maria. Other actors like Christian Serritiello and Cara Ricketts are what give the movie a lot of its drive and contribute to the exaggerated quirkiness of the other elements in the movie. Overall, the cast is above average on their own, but they sometimes lack the necessary chemistry for a single location movie like this one.
 
The movie is well shot by cinematographer Cabot McNenly. Despite what flaws are present with the narrative direction of the film, you can always rely on it to be composed well to give the film a polished feel on the surface. This along with the production design contribute to the film’s oddball and quirky tone and aesthetic.
 
The biggest problem with this movie is how it sets up the premise very well, but it delivers a rather unsatisfying payoff in its last half. The execution in the latter half of the film doesn’t feel nearly as inspired as what came before. There was a lot of intrigue and whimsy involved in the premise that doesn’t feel properly explored or executed. There are some narrative directions that don’t work too well and ultimately bog this film down more than it should have.
 
Stanleyville is a quirky film with quirky characters and a quirky premise. Some might revel in its eccentricities, but I find the film to end poorly despite having a strong foundation. Despite everything, it shows significant promise for its director as he is able to create a convincingly bizarre atmosphere for a first-time feature film director.
 
Stanleyville is in theaters April 22.
 
Rating: 3/5

Review by Adam Donato