A Seattle moviegoing lifestyle magazine
I grouped these three films together as they have one key factor in common, incredibly strong female characters. While each lead is completely different from the other two, they all have a power that captivates you on screen and keeps you invested in the story from beginning to end. I recommend seeking out all three as you make your way through SIFF.
Boong (Gugun Kipgen) is a precocious kid that lives for getting into playful trouble, more annoying than harmful, with his best friend Raju (Angom Sanamatum). He’s too smart for his own good sometimes, but he knows what’s important.
Some movies have trigger warnings. I’d propose a content test before seeing Friendship, the new Tim Robinson comedy. Have you seen at least one episode of I Think You Should Leave on Netflix? Were you able to make it through the twenty minutes of sketch comedy show without nearly (or actually) choking to death with laughter? If you survived by turning it off immediately in cringing discomfort and cancelling your subscription, Friendship is certainly Not For You.
Although “International” is right there in SIFF’s name, each festival also showcases a series of films made or set closer to home. This year’s Northwest Connections program includes five films. Here, we review of the two documentary features that’ll play throughout the festival: Suburban Fury and Wolf Land.
An ongoing annotated list of all of the SunBreak’s coverage of the 51th Seattle International Film Festival, which runs from May 15-25 in person and May 26-June 1 online.
SIFF prides itself on its selection of offbeat films and for that, I am thankful. Man cannot subsist on documentaries about indigenous water rights and unfairness in the Mexican penal system alone. I don’t know if these are going to be the weirdest movies at SIFF (Fucktoys and Spermageddon issue some promises in their respective titles I expect them to deliver on), these are some of the notable, uhh, unique offerings so far.
No one would likely accuse the Final Destination horror franchise of being high art, but all five previous entries in the series deliver their respective thrills consistently.
Although “International” is right there in SIFF’s name, each festival also showcases a series of films made or set closer to home. This year’s Northwest Connections program includes five films. Here, we review of the two narrative features that’ll play throughout the festival: Evergreens and Monarch City.
The 51st Seattle International Film Festival kicks off tomorrow! Running in person from May 15–25, the festival features 245 films playing in-person across the city — including daily programming at the recently-reopened Cinerama — with many getting online encore screenings the following week. Sorting through the whole program and/or film finder can help you to dial into your exact needs for a cinematic holiday (per SIFF’s vacation-themed, “Trip to the Reel World”), but we’re also here to help.
Last week, we gave you some quick picks in the wake of the press launch. Now, with some more time with the program and some screeners, we have a few more suggestions for how to spend the opening days of the festival.
David Mamet’s new film, Henry Johnson, is based on his play of the same name, which was first presented onstage in 2023 at the Electric Lodge in Venice, CA, and directed by Marja-Lewis Ryan. The stage version of Henry Johnson featured the same cast as the film, and reportedly, the cast proposed creating the feature film as a record of their experience and as something that could endure as part of Mamet’s filmography.
