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Limbo' writer-director Ben Sharrock on using humor to share the story of the refugee experience

April 28, 2021

Standing alone in a telephone booth on a remote Scottish island, Omar (Amir El-Masry) calls his parents to share the progress of his asylum request. He looks down at the plaster cast on his arm as his father badgers him over his inability to play his...

Growing Up Milwaukee' seeks to go beyond statistics

April 27, 2021

Statistics out of Milwaukee are shocking and depressing for Black kids in the city. In a report that came out in August 2020, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Center for Economic Development stated that "Black Milwaukee is generally worse off toda...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: ‘Thunder Force’ offers female superhero movie in the form of farce

April 26, 2021

Thunder Force has Chicago facing a lot of bad guys, aka Miscreants, in the wake of a radioactive blast that gave ordinary humans extraordinary powers — or simply the arms of a crustacean, like Jason Bateman’s wayward crab-armed love interest "The Cra...

Natasha Henstridge attempts to survive one wild night in ‘Night of the Sicario’

April 23, 2021

Night of the Sicario follows a group at a retirement home just trying to ride out a hurricane. Things go sideways when members of a cartel show up because the determined Taylor Ward (Natasha Henstridge) has agreed to shelter two witnesses in a drug t...

My True Fairytale' embraces grief through a mystical story inspired by real life

April 22, 2021

My True Fairytale rides the balance between horrific and hopeful, mythical and magical, and learning how to save yourself when it matters most. The film could be described as a suspenseful thriller as much as a drama with a lesson.

Moment of Truth' Filmmaker Matthew Perniciaro On Structuring the Story Of a Real-Life Crime

April 21, 2021

The father of renowned NBA player Michael Jordan went missing for several weeks in the summer of 1993. On Aug. 3, 1993, James Jordan’s dead body was recovered from a swamp in McColl, South Carolina, with a bullet wound in his chest.

With ‘Vanquish’, George Gallo finds a unique take in the action genre

April 21, 2021

When a retired police officer kidnaps the daughter of his caretaker, who used to be a drug courier, he forces her to spend one long night taking out a series of gangsters and collecting cash.

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: 'Genera+ion' Gives Fun Spin To Teen Angst

April 19, 2021

Genera+ion has an inherent unique angle on teen angst in that it’s written by an actual teen: Zelda Barnz, along with her father Daniel Barnes (Cake). The show has a frenetic social media-fueled intensity to it, following a group of teens with mainly...

History of TV: A Dialogue on ‘Gilmore Girls’

April 15, 2021

The family-friendly WB comedy/drama first aired back in 2000 as a lead-in for that other female-focused family drama, the fantasy Charmed. But Gilmore Girls stood apart from all of its melodramatic, family-centric cohorts for its cozy tone, fast-talk...