Fresh off the enormous success of Past Lives, Celine Song returns to the world of divided affections in Manhattan. Her first semi-autobiographical film concerned yearning across decades and missed connections across continents. It was among my favorite movies of 2023 , an Oscar nominee, and Seattle Film Critics Society’s Best Picture of the Year. Materialists, which finds her returning as both writer and director, is also loosely inspired by her own past life, bringing a more cynical eye to the complexity of beautiful people seeking soulmates from the comfortable side of the precipitous economic divide.
Wes Anderson spins a timely yarn with The Phoenician Scheme
Wes Anderson movies are a genre unto themselves, often misunderstood as shallow, whimsical dioramas. That some fail to see the immense emotion beneath the ornately hand-crafted surfaces and trademark camera positioning and movement remains a matter of great mystery to those of us who eagerly watch and rewatch each film and revisit the old ones to find new depths. His latest, The Phoenician Scheme, is unlikely to change that perception, but to me it’s another unqualified success.
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life riffs on the classics.
Jane Austen has dominated the cinematic sphere for decades, inspiring everything from faithful period adaptations to quirky modern retellings—and even films that make Austen herself the object of obsession. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is the latest installment in the seemingly endless Austen Boom, loosely riffing on Pride & Prejudice while fostering an easy kinship with its Austen-devoted protagonist.
SIFF 2025: SunBreak Index
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 2025 Notebook: Meeting With Pol Pot and The New Year That Never Came spotlight the history of Communism
This year at SIFF I was struck by two films seemingly about the same thing (dictatorships disguised as Communism), but from completely different perspectives (and in different countries). While the story, the people and the outcomes varied, the toll on the peoples of both countries were felt just as palpably. I didn’t expect to be so intrigued and taken in by these stories but here we are. Below I give you the low down on each and why I think, if you can manage it, you should seek them out at a SIFF venue if they run them again outside of the festival.
SIFF 2025 Notebook: Color Book, New Jack Fury, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers
One SIFFter’s coverage of most of his SIFF 2025 views.
SIFF 2025 Roundtable: Festival Exit Survey, Golden SunBreak Awards
The in-person portion of SIFF’s 51st Seattle International Film Festival ended on Sunday with the Golden Space Needle Awards and a full day of theatrical screenings. Never fear, this year’s “Escape to the Reel World” continues through June 1st online with a substantial portion of the program available for streaming (included for most pass types, or $20 individual films).
SIFF 2025 Notebook: Boy Troubles (Rebuilding, The Things You Kill, Good Boy)
My closing weekend at SIFF inadvertently turned into a trio of films loosely themed about men figuring their stuff out, often alone, in desolate spaces.
SIFF 2025 Notebook: The Glass Web
This rainy city has always felt like a perfect Ground Zero for film noir, and Seattle’s been packing Noir Czar Eddie Muller’s touring Noir City film festival for years.
So it’s no surprise a noir did surface during the Festival. Kudos to SIFF, however, for getting their mitts on a genuine film noir curiosity (in 3D, no less) that also happens to kinda rule.
SIFF 2025 Notebook: Documentary Competition, part 1
SIFF is wrapping up this weekend and there are only a few more days before it’s all done. Eight films are in the Documentary Competition and I’ve seen them all.