A Seattle moviegoing lifestyle magazine
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.
In actor/cinematographer/film critic Carson Lund’s directorial debut, it’s Sunday October 16 in mid-1990s1 suburban Massachusetts. It’s a sunny day, but the hint of a chill in the air already has residents minds turning to the long dark winter ahead. Between radio reports — voiced by master documentarian Frederick Wiseman — of a coyote terrorizing the area and the “New Hampshire Justice” that awaits the poor creature, we hear that a beloved park will soon be the site of a new elementary school.
Thunderbolts* opens with a shot of Florence Pugh on the ledge of the 2,227-foot-tall Merdeka Tower in Kuala Lumpur. From this harrowing start to the film’s last scene, the expression on her face perfectly tracks the feeling of watching a Marvel Cinematic Universe film in the year 2025. As the film opens, it’s one of absolute dejection and dutiful dread. Her character Yelena Belova has yet another job to do, but the thrill is long gone, and she’s questioning whether it’s still worth the paycheck.
The Legend of Ochi (2025 | USA | 96 minutes | Isaiah Saxon) The Legend of Ochi feels completely at home among Scandinavian …
I suppose it’s kinda cool that the Hollywood’s hottest young stars now establish their acting cred by the rite of passage of playing gay on the big screen. At least Jacob Elordi and Daisy Edgar Jones avoid tragic weepy stereotypes in Daniel Minahan’s handsome literary take (an adaptation Shannon Pufahl’s 2019 novel) on queer identities in the 1950s American West.
Superboys of Malegaon is a Hindi-language coming-of-age film that tells the true story of Nasir Shaikh, an amateur filmmaker from Malegaon, India. In the 90s, Nasir (Adarsh Gourav), the son of a movie parlor owner, grows tired of the Bollywood films he feels obliged to showcase at the theater and craves something new.
