Author: Josh

Reviews

Like its hero, Tuner has perfect pitch

by Josh

Amid festivals clogged with so many films with “prestige” ambitions, it’s a thrillingly welcome jolt when a really fun movie executes on a clever concept and is impeccably entertaining from top to bottom. And that was exactly the case when the good word of Tuner started rippling through queues at Telluride before putting on the full charm offensive in Toronto a week later. Making the transition from pulse-pounding documentary filmmaking to small-stakes crime romance, Daniel Roher does exactly that with a film that just moves from the jump and never lets up until the closing credits.

Reviews

The Mandalorian and Grogu, or “This Is not The Way”.

by Josh

A long time ago, on a streaming service too not far away from your couch, Disney+ brought live-action episodic Star Wars content onto your television. The Mandalorian was initially a simple Space Western about a bounty hunter named Din Djarin roaming the galaxy taking prisoners for cash in the topsy-turvy aftermath of reconstruction that occurred after the Rebels blew up the Death Star (the second one), killed the Evil Emperor (the first time), and everyone waking up with a Yub Nub dance hangover to piece together a New Republic. Now, after several seasons of increasingly complicated lore involving cults, factions, conspiracies, and space swords, the pair have made the leap from streaming to the big screen, but unfortunately it’s hard to call the result a movie.

Festivals Reviews SIFF

SIFF 2026 Northwest Connections Notebook: Assets & Liabilities

by Josh

I guess this is growing up? Set in Tacoma, Zach Weintraub’s tightly scripted feature finds his fictional counterpart “Zach” settling into the realities of adulthood: making uncomfortable calls to his property management company to weasel his way into having his starter house sold out from under his renters, spending days jockeying his tech job from home, taking care of his young daughter, noticing gray hairs and fine lines around his eyes. It happens to the best of us, gradually and then all at once.