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Bloody Valentines: This Year, LOVE HURTS and HEART EYES Offer Violent Romances
While Valentine’s Day is typically the domain of romantic movies, this year’s unusual offerings include some more subversive takes on the holiday – both Love Hurts (action/crime) and Heart Eyes (horror/slasher) are violent and often mean-spirited Valentines films. And yet, both also anchored by a unique and earnest (and interracial) love story that emerges amid the carnage.
It’s an interesting pairing to be taken separately or together as a weirdly fitting double feature. Both films are now playing in theaters.
Love Hurts – dir. Jonathan Eusebio
Headlining his first film following the smashing success of Everything Everywhere All at Once which announced his comeback and won him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, Ke Huy Quan takes the lead – for the first time ever – in the genre-hopping Love Hurts.
Successful realtor Marvin Gable’s life is turned around when his criminal past suddenly catches up with him. The one-time criminal enforcer is suddenly targeted by his former gang boss, who also happens to be his brother (Hong Kong star Daniel Wu), threatening his hard-won second chance at a happy and murder-free life. Marvin is suddenly besieged by ruthless hitmen (Mustafa Shakir, Marshawn Lynch, Cam Gigandet); and at the same time his old flame Rose (Ariana DeBose) also resurfaces, reminding him of a love lost.
Packed with Hong Kong-style action (both martial arts and shoot-outs), a rekindled romance, and light comedy, Love Hurts is trying to do a lot – it’s pretty shaggy but also a blast. Ke is definitely playing both with and directly against type, on one side as a sweetheart realtor who bakes adorable cookies, picks up stray litter, and helps clients find their forever-homes. But he’s also a man running from a sordid and violent past full of murder and mayhem. He’s a one-time killing machine, and capable of devastating martial arts – even if he’s a little out of practice.
Tonally, Love Hurts is a bit like the hyperactive, violence-filled, comedic action style of Birds of Prey, Violent Night, or Deadpool 2 – which makes total sense because it’s the directorial debut of Jonathan Eusebio, who acted as the stunt coodinator or second unit director on all of those films. (Though an even more apt comparison than any of those would be the hitmen-filled, Asian-styled action of Bullet Train, which Eusebio did not work on).
It’s a little shaggy overall, and I’m unconvinced with romantic chemistry between Quan and Bose which feels a little stiff, but you can at least see why they would be attracted to each other. A secondary unlikely romance develops between Gable’s office assistant (Lio Tipton) and one of the hitmen chasing him (Shakir), and I found this one even more weird and endearing, adding some flavor to the overall conflict. And for the Goonies fans, there’s even a touching mini-reunion with Sean Astin as Marvin’s best pal.
I like watching Ke do his thing, I love his comeback, and found this to be a decent if not great little diversion.
Heart Eyes – dir. Josh Ruben
I wouldn’t have expected it but Heart Eyes is my preferred film in this pairing, and the one that actually has a character say the phrase “Love hurts”.
A Valentine’s Day serial killer, dubbed “Heart Eyes” by the media for the characteristic appearance of his grim mask, is entering the third year in a reign of terror. Each year Heart Eyes goes on a Valentine’s Day killing spree in a different city, ruthlessly targeting and murdering couples – and with the movie’s gruesome opening slasher sequence, the hip burg of Seattle suddenly learns it’s their turn.
Heart Eyes’ activities spell a PR disaster for Ally (Olivia Holt), whose marketing campaign depicting tragically doomed loves like Titanic and Romeo and Juliet has wildly backfired for her employer in the wake of the slasher’s couple-killing streak. (Here cued, some criticism of internet cancel culture, which is present but not overstated).
In a rom-com trope, her company brings in Jay (Mason Gooding), a handsome marketing specialist, to help right the ship – setting of the fireworks of both conflict and attraction.
Heart Eyes plays right into those tropes of romantic comedies in a way that feels deliberate and fun, but also earnest. Ally and Jay have a meet-cute and seem like a good match for each other, but not only do they have to overcome a professional obstacle, this script adds another wrinkle: Jay seems like a prime suspect to be the Heart Eyes killer, or perhaps an accomplice.
This is a super-fun movie that actually works on both levels – slasher and rom-com – and feels like an actual fresh approach to these familiar spaces. It does seems like the sort of movie that would be lining up a villain-centered slasher franchise (eg Friday the 13th, or Halloween), even if it has a definitive ending that would seem to prevent that. The kills are frequently gory, and the characters are enjoyably relatable. It’s even occasionally raunchy, but in a way that’s kind of sweet and approachable (the movie’s most hilarious gag involves a vibrator), especially when considered against stereotypical horny teenager tropes.
I think we’re witnessing the introduction of a new classic.
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SUNDANCE 2025: PREDATORS is a Masterful look at the Rise, Fall and Rebirth of To Catch a Predator
Predators was possibly the biggest surprise for me at Sundance this year. David Osit’s doc of course chronicles the Dateline series rise, fall and rebirth in excruciating detail, but it does so while not shying away from the hard questions and implications that those who partake in these forms of entertainment, myself included, would rather ignore. It’s a hard watch that is as confrontational in its subject matter, as it is its approach – and that is what got me is how Osit is able to pose some of these questions in the manner he does.
Predators’ three acts essentially covers three very different pieces of this story. In the first act we cover as expected, the trajectory of Dateline: To Catch a Predator. Its origins as Hansen’s one off investigation on child prostitution in Cambodia, to it becoming the pop cultural juggernaut that it became in its initial run from 2004-2007. The film tells this portion of the story with not only interviews with law enforcement officers, but the decoys and staff who facilitated these city to city, traveling carnival-like sting operations. The stage is carefully then set as we see lost moments of Hansen’s trademark confrontations, where we hear the ensnared child predators ask if along with going to jail, if there’s a possibility of obtaining mental help as well.
This portion concludes with the incident that ended the show’s primetime run, played out simultaneously in real time via live raw feeds from the multiple cameramen on site. After their initial sting operation in Murphy, Texas, it was discovered one of the men who spoke with a child decoy on the phone but didn’t show up to the house, was in fact assistant district attorney Bill Conradt. Hansen and company then decided to bring the show, AND the police to their high ranking target’s residence. When Conradt realized what was happening, he shot himself in the head in front of the police. Because the cameras don’t stop rolling, we see some very chilling reactions to the events as they unfolded for Hansen and company as we the audience begin to wonder if Hansen had gone too far for views.
In the next act, we dig into the countless online predator catcher copycats that have popped up online, since, given it’s cheap and salacious content, that could be masked as well meaning and get clicks. After we are shown some of the more controversial hunters, who make it a point to not only out and apprehend their targets in public, but sometimes rough them up a bit as well, we embed with Chris Hansen wannabe – Skeet Hansen. Here we are forced to witness a sting at a hotel that goes horribly wrong. Where after the initial confrontation, the team discovers it could be over an hour till law enforcement shows up to pick up their predator. This has the hunters now stuck with a now suicidal man, who is very aware his life is now over and asking if there’s a chance to get help now that his life is essentially over.
While there is simply no excuse for this behavior and these people should definitely go to jail for a VERY long time, they do need help. It’s here Osit begins to place the mirror in front of his audience and ask is the entertainment aspect of this worth the lives it costs? Is everyone that falls into this trap completely without redemption? Because once you’re in a video online like this, your life is essentially over. Once that video is uploaded and decimated to the world, you’re then judged by the harshest of courts, the internet. It’s a hard question that I personally still don’t have a good answer for. Do they simply hold the footage until trial, or offer some kind of help and counseling as a way to postpone the release of the footage if they abide by their rehabilitation? These questions all fall into place in our final act.
In our third and final act we now see Hansen in present day, looking to help launch an online network, TruBlu that will of course carry an updated take on Predator – Takedown. It’s here Osit places Hansen in front of the camera, as he looks back on his career and what drives these hunts; and if he’s ever gotten an answer to why they do it. It’s during his new show he catches an 18 year old, who was looking to meet a 15 year old. We see a meeting with Hansen and the owner of the network, where the owner sheds some doubt on airing such a catch given the age, legality in some states and what this could do to the young man’s life. Hansen decides to upload it and we see the fallout via interviews with the young man’s mother, played against Osit’s interview with Hansen.
This is where he isn’t afraid to ask the questions we as an audience are now asking, that even Osit begins to ask of himself for making this film in the first place.
Did I expect this doc to hit that hard? No, not really. I expected more of a salacious behind the scenes piece, filled with some backstage antidotes about what it was like traveling from town to town catching these monsters. Instead we are posed with a real moral dilemma. Osit is very clear – these people are terrible, but especially in the age of the internet, where this is a death sentence. Is this kind of public humiliation justifiable and warranted to simply entertain us for a few minutes until the next video shows up in our feed? Should these people have the ability to get help? Osit is just masterful in how the breadcrumbs of these questions throughout the film, that it’s hard even for someone, even like myself who was a fan of Hansen coming into this, to not begin to ask these bigger questions as well.
It’s definitely affected my opinion of not just Hansen, but this subgenre as a whole after watching this masterfully crafted, thought provoking investigation of this sordid back alley of reality television.
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SUNDANCE 2025: ZODIAC KILLER PROJECT – The WALK HARD of True Crime Docs
A still from Zodiac Killer Project by Charlie Shackleton, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. Filmmakers can sometimes spend years of their lives researching and doing pre-production on a project — only for it never to see the light of day. Take for instance, Tim Burton’s Superman Lives or Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon, these are both films that due to creative differences or just time never saw the light of day. But when negotiating the rights and doing pre-production for his latest film, documentarian Charlie Shackleton didn’t let losing those rights to the book he planned to base his documentary on stop him. Instead he soldiered on crafting a film that is equal parts documentary and visual essay, eviscerating the true crime sub-genre through a 90 meditation filled with rabbit holes, into not only one of its most popular subjects, but it the cinematic language it uses.
Zodiac Killer Project begins with Shackleton simply recounting how he was looking to adapt Lyndon E Lafferty’s take on the killer, The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: The Silenced Badge – and how negotiations mysteriously broke down. This was after, doing the bulk of the pre-production on the project that was based on the tome written by Lyndon – a police officer, who after a chance rest stop encounter, believed he knew who the infamous serial killer was. Lyndon documented not only his attempt to arrest his suspect, but a possible law enforcement cover up enacted, once he revealed his suspect to his higher ups. While not the most popular theory out there on the Zodiac, it’s entertaining at the sheer lengths Lyndon went after his official investigation was shut down to prove his theory.
The film is as much a reconstruction of what the director envisioned for his film to be, as it is a deconstruction of the true crime sub-genre. Shackleton gives us the play by play of what his film would have been about narrated by himself in a casual conversation, in what feels almost like a director’s commentary about a film he never made. He does so while tiptoeing around information that would be exclusive to the book as opposed to fair use, it’s something he discusses in of the film’s many legal segways, where he delves into the lengths he’s gone to be able to tell his story. Shot in 35mm to borrow its visual palette from the time period, Shackleton shows how his film would have employed and used the well worn tropes and visuals from True Crime to tell his story.
When Shackleton isn’t discussing his project, the film sometimes forays into a visual essay mode as he uses his re-enactments, voiceovers and choice of evocative b-roll to comment on the tricks of the trade, when it comes to these films and their impact on viewers. My favorite being the market for “backtors”, or the actors that you only see from behind in these re-enactments. He also explores a few of the tropes through comparisons showing for example: how most of these films choose to employ a similar opening credit style, or a shockingly similar voice over, pulling from some of the biggest on Netflix to illustrate his point. It’s these moments that really show that not only that Shackleton had done his homework, but exhibits a complete understanding of the sub-genre as a whole.
Zodiac Killer Project is essentially the Walk Hard of true crime docs, in that once you’ve seen it you won’t be able to view this sub-genre and its tricks in the same light. While the premise may be a hard sell to some, since it’s not THE doc, but a doc – about the doc he didn’t make. I think Shackleton is charismatic enough to hold the audience’s attention and Lafferty’s story is pretty damn funny as well to give true crime fans another reason to stick around. Zodiac Killer Project demonstrates a punk rock resourcefulness that could have possibly saved some of the films above, thanks to this thoroughly intriguing and entertaining approach, that by doing so unexpectedly offers up a new Zodiac take, that through its round about way has something new to say about the extremely well documented case.
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Two Cents: The Odd But Familiar World of ERASERHEAD
We begin our month-long tribute to the work of David Lynch with his unsettling debut film.
Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to [email protected].
The Pick: Eraserhead
After his recent passing, we knew we had to do something to celebrate the dreamlike, captivating work of David Lynch. And what better place to start than his debut feature film, 1977’s Eraserhead. Made as his thesis with the American Film Institute, Eraserhead took nearly six years to complete, and became an immediate midnight movie sensation. Telling the surreal story of Henry Spencer, a common man who finds himself carrying for an infant that barely resembles a human being, it’s reputation for both its technical craft and unique vision led to Lynch being tapped immediately to make more mainstream work (including eventually the first film adaptation of Dune.) But it was the personal, experimental art films like Eraserhead that would become Lynch’s legacy. But what do we think about it?
Featured Guest
Matt Jeanes
Have you listened to Eraserhead lately? For as singularly fantastic as the movie looks, it’s the sound that really sinks its teeth into me. Distant winds, low mechanical hums, vaguely threatening electrical drones, buzzers, and mechanical factory noises provide much of the film’s atmosphere, and it’s nearly impossible to tell where the film’s sound design ends and its score begins.In fact, most of the film’s commercially-released soundtrack album is a work of atonal menace. Just as the movie would eventually inspire a generation of visual artists and filmmakers, the score anticipates much of what the ambient drone community would commit to tape for decades after its release. The sound envelops the listener unlike almost any other soundtrack album, and it can be overwhelming. I’ve listened to the album many times and there’s almost always a moment when I don’t know which of the hums and rumbles are coming from the record and which are just a part of the soundscape of the real world.
The soundtrack works on its own, even divorced from the film’s stark black and white imagery. I can put the movie on in the background, not even look at the screen, and still be completely transported into Henry’s dark world of anxiety and confusion. With so few spoken words in the film, the sound has a lot of work to do, and it’s always up to the task.
Every organ drone, telephone ring, or fan blowing through a tube helps to keep us in Henry’s world. We may not know exactly what he’s thinking, but we can surely hear what he’s hearing and it’s never comfortable. From the baby’s shrieks to the factory’s sparks, there’s no rest. Even the beautiful song from the lady in the radiator is ominous and otherworldly. She sings “In Heaven, everything is fine” but if this is as fine as things get, we can begin to understand some of Henry’s distress, and we have David Lynch and Alan R. Splet to thank for that.
Our Team
This week’s selection gave me two opportunities I was more than happy to take advantage of…
First, I was able to introduce my wife – who previously refused to watch this one – to this wildly weird and mind warping film. She’s a fan of Lynch, notably a huge fan of all things Twin Peaks. However, the visuals she’s seen from Eraserhead always kept her disinterested in watching this film. But a recent rewatch of the Eli Roth’s History of Horror that hits on Eraserhead and a good excuse to watch it helped push her to agree. That and the fact she was nice and high at the time.
That leads to my second opportunity – watching this one while utilizing my medical marijuana prescription, something I’d yet to attempt. And boy, was that a choice. After pleasant recent experiences watching Chompy and the Girls and Freaked while on edibles, I felt like I was ready for this. I was… but I also wasn’t. Same goes for the missus, whose misophonia was on full tilt with all of the gross sounds coming out of the “baby”.
In some senses, this film is nothing more than a weirdo student film that you’d see from a pretentious film school nerd. Yet, it’s so much more. One thing that really stood out on this rewatch was just how comfortable Lynch was with discomfort. Long pauses so pregnant they are overdue, coupled with awkward dialog and/or extremely uncomfortable imagery really work to create an almost unbearable sense of both dread and awe. This film is all in the tone and that tone is one of beautiful and painful discomfort.
Needless to say, this was well worth a rewatch and a great way to kickoff a month of celebrating one of the best filmmakers in American history.
Lynch on the set of Eraserhead. So like Justin, I got to watch Eraserhead this time in a unique state. But unlike him, I wasn’t on any heightening medication; I just had what I am suspecting was a low-grade norovirus. So for the squishier aspects of the film…let’s just say my stomach appreciated that it was in black and white.
That said, I hadn’t seen the film in forever, and certainly not since I had children, which does solidify a lot of the films themes and perspective for me. The dehumanizing industrial landscape, the odd human behavior, the blending and bleeding of dreams into reality: these are all the cornerstones of Lynch’s concerns. But at its core this film is about how unbelievably weird and hard it is to take care of a child (an infant in particular) and how it can feel like it robs you large parts of your humanity. The psycho-sexual tension of Jack Nance’s portrayal of Henry dives into how he has found himself thrust into a whole new set of responsibilities he neither asked for or especially wants when all he wants is to get along with his life and get laid.
This will likely come up throughout our Lynch series for me, but I think one of the more underrated aspects of Eraserhead is the way it shifts in moments into pitch-black comedy and then back again so effortlessly. Lynch clearly had a wicked sense of humor that shows up throughout his work, as well a devilish playfulness. Allen Joseph’s bizarre behavior as Mr. X is equal parts unsettling and hilarious, and the titular dream sequence where Henry’s head is literally used to make pencil eraser is so absurdist that it defies real description.
But as with much of Lynch’s work, that is the joy of it all. His knack for creating images and scenarios that felt singular but also universal would quickly become his calling card. He is the most exciting kind of artist, who felt like he had to get the visions that crowded his brain out for the world to also witness.Join us for the rest of our Lynch celebration for the rest of the month:
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SUNDANCE 2025: DEAF PRESIDENT NOW! is a Courageous and Compelling Civil Rights Chronicle
Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim shine a deserved light on a major yet little-known turning point in Civil Rights history
Photo courtesy of Apple. I’ve reviewed hundreds of films for Cinapse, and I’ve been honored to champion and critique films focused on the Deaf experience through my perspective as a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults). However, Deaf President Now! offered me a uniquely surreal experience. It’s not just that this is the first major documentary about a significantly overlooked moment in Civil Rights history, or that Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim’s film is another dramatic milestone in Deaf cinematic representation.
While the film primarily focuses on the incredible work of the “Gallaudet 4,” Deaf President Now! was the first time I finally saw my parents’ stories come to life.
My parents–at the time, Paul Singleton and Patti Moore–were Graduate and PhD students at Gallaudet University during the landmark Deaf President Now protests in March 1988, alongside present and future friends and family. Like many others on campus, they played a vital and active role in the student demonstrations–Dad as a member of the Gallaudet “Ducks” and drafter of the students’ demands, and Mom as a sorority sister of Phi Kappa Zeta and the coordinator for the College for Adult and Continuing Education in the room during student/admin negotiations. Mere months before they got married, they stood in solidarity with their student body by remaining on campus as organizers barred the public and law enforcement from entering until the University Board of Trustees met their demands: the removal of the hearing, non-ASL-speaking president, Elizabeth Zinser, appointed over two qualified Deaf candidates; the resignation of Gallaudet’s hearing board chair; a 51% Deaf majority on the Board; no reprisals against students for the protests; and, most importantly, the appointment of Gallaudet’s first Deaf president in its 124-year history.
Photo by Yoon Lee, courtesy of Gallaudet University and @SharingDeafHistory
My childhood was filled with stories from family and friends of the DPN protests not just because of their personal significance–the seismic events of that week are venerated for generations of Deaf Americans.
It was a communal strike against centuries of paternal, patronizing “guardianship” by Hearing governments and communities. It was an opening salvo in the turning tide of Disability rights that culminated in the ADA of 1990. Over time, this momentous week has largely gone forgotten in Civil Rights history at large–its own cultural injustice that co-directors Nyle DiMarco and Davis Guggenheim attempt to rectify in this documentary with thrilling immediacy and emotional power. Hot off the heels of multiple Academy Award-winner CODA, Apple returns to Sundance with a film that immerses Deaf and Hearing audiences alike in an exciting and entertaining story that captures the Deaf experience like never before.
Focusing on the “Gallaudet 4”–Jerry Covell, Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, Tim Rarus, and Greg Hlibok—Deaf President Now! combines a wealth of student-captured footage and news media archives to create a tapestry of vibrant student activism and justified anger against institutional injustice from various perspectives. Beginning on the eve of the appointment of yet another Hearing President, the directors immediately drop audiences in protest footage. Even without extensive cultural context, the students’ fury effectively underscores the film’s central dichotomy: a living, independent Deaf community who, centuries after the Lincoln-sanctioned founding of their University and the widespread adoption of once-suppressed Sign Language, are still under the boot of a Hearing community that refuses to acknowledge their abilities outside of a belittling comparison to their own. Even for those unfamiliar with the protests, it’s easy to invest in the students’ collective outrage against a governing body that believes fluency in their language is unnecessary for effective leadership. As the film goes on, this archival doesn’t just capture the immediate experience of the Deaf students, but the Hearing world at large. As the fight for Deaf independence reaches national attention, a pre-captioning Hearing media reckons with exactly how to translate this crucial civil rights fight to hearing audiences, including a climactic CNN debate between Hlibok and Zinser moderated by Ted Koppel, who must explain the implementation of closed-captioning to a live Hearing audience. The historical reach of the doc is also impressive–establishing the circumstances that led to this civil powder keg, reaching as far back as the history of telephone inventor and CODA Alexander Graham Bell and his attempts to “fix” his Deaf family, to participant Bridgetta’s admittedly complicated place as a literal “poster child” for teaching Deaf children speech while suppressing ASL development.
It’s this trove of archival that also made watching Deaf President Now! such a surreal experience. I’ve never watched a film that turned appearances of my own family–Mom, Dad, Step-Parents, Uncles, and more–into Gene Parmesan-esque jump scares. Much like any new audience coming to this doc, I had no idea that this footage, let alone this quality of footage, even existed–as much as I’d grown up listening to these stories relayed first-hand, it’s another matter entirely to see the people you love shape history from such an omniscient, objective viewpoint. Possibly to Deaf President Now!’s detriment, the revelatory amount of available footage reveals the many possible story threads that could’ve resulted in an equally informative and well-paced multi-episode docuseries. However, DiMarco and Guggenheim’s laser focus on the experience of the Gallaudet 4 and editor Michael Harte’s judicious, rapid-fire presentation make the tightly-paced 100-minute feature a relentlessly engaging watch.
As DiMarco and Guggenheim’s documentary unfolds, one of Deaf President Now!’s greatest strengths is its ability to use the extensive archive to challenge the notion of a monolithic Deaf experience. Jerry, Bridgetta, Tim, and Greg’s silent home movies and photographs effectively illustrate their families’ diverse approaches to confronting or adapting to the pervasive nature of audism as Deaf individuals living in a predominantly hearing world. At the same time, this seamless transition between past and present perspectives grounds viewers in the personal evolution of the Gallaudet 4 during a week that subjected each of them to immense societal scrutiny. Under just as much pressure is the film’s fifth participant, I. King Jordan, then-Dean of Gallaudet’s College of Arts and Sciences, and one of the two Deaf candidates for President passed over in favor of Zinser. Caught between his professional relationship with the Hearing Board of Trustees and a cultural one with the Deaf community, King Jordan’s journey across the doc is a fascinating one as the film’s “adult” attempting to navigate the same tenuous peace between the Hearing and Deaf world that his students are motivated to destroy and rebuild in a better, progressive image.
Guggenheim, DiMarco, and Deaf Lens producer Wayne Betts Jr. handle the dramatization of this evolution with visual and sonic aplomb via stylized recreations that uniquely emphasize the Deaf Point of View in what they term “visual noise.” The flashing light mass communication system in dorms and campus buildings becomes an effective visual shorthand for immediate student assembly and activism; the barricading of campus gates with school buses takes on the air of a Soderbergh heist film; cascading waves of dust echo the rage of students pounding on doors and car hoods; and the now-archaic TTY phone system takes on a Watergate-like air as crucial messages encouraging or condemning planned protest actions tick across the screen like secretive encoded messages. Woven seamlessly with the mass of archival at their disposal, DiMarco, Guggenheim, and Betts infuse an already-riveting civil rights documentary with enough drama and flair to make any future Oscar-season biopic seem unnecessary and redundant.
Much like the care taken with Paula Huidobro’s cinematography on CODA, Deaf President Now!’s creative team takes equal pains to capture the natural expressiveness of ASL with commanding and intimate detail. Not only do DiMarco and Guggenheim anticipate the breadth of their subjects’ signing range, but they play the differences and tics in their signing methods against each other to hilarious and heartfelt dramatic effect. Some, like Greg and Tim, were instructed to adapt to Hearing norms by constraining their signing to a small, limited personal bubble; others, like Jerry, reject such ideas entirely–turning any space around them into a reclaimed canvas to paint their words and experience upon. They extend the same insight to the film’s sound design–which works hand in hand with Betts and cinematographer Jonathan Furmanski’s visual style to create an immersive cinematic world that attempts to bridge the Hearing and Deaf experience. The result is a soaringly crowd-pleasing series of montages as our students claw back much-anticipated wins against the Gallaudet administration, with one climactic grin-inducing sequence set to the joyous, earth-shaking beats of ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky.”
The central interviews–gathering the Gallaudet 4 decades after the protests–are consistently engaging for both Deaf and Hearing audiences, with accessible cinematography enhanced by compelling vocal performances from actors like Leland Orser and Tim Blake Nelson. These performances complement Jerry, Bridgetta, Tim, and Greg’s natural charisma and camaraderie without completely overshadowing them. DiMarco and Guggenheim also highlight key moments where their ASL offers a compelling emotional nuance that voice actors cannot fully translate—illustrating powerfully where this language, distinctly different from English, speaks louder than words. They also capture how the four’s diverging individual experiences with Deafness continue into the present, as participants offer conflicting memories and still-persistent arguments over the efficacy of their methods. It also, in a way, illustrates how the fight to “wake up” the Hearing world to the strength and resilience of the Deaf community is a battle for progress still making progress today.
I would always be an easy mark for a documentary like Deaf President Now!, but I’m genuinely floored by the amount of craft and care displayed in DiMarco’s directorial debut. DiMarco and Guggenheim, along with their Hearing and Deaf cast and crew, create a documentary that functions as a vital document of radical civil rights action as much as it’s a damn good time at the movies. Deaf President Now!’s actions and emotions are louder than life–recognizing how organized collective fury and joy work hand in hand as the best weapons against societies clouded by ignorance and indifference.
Deaf President Now! premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Apple later this year.
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FLIGHT RISK: Where The Mile High Club Meets The Sex Offender Registry
Flight Risk! The film we knew as Mel Gibson’s newest and “the one where Mark Wahlberg is in a bald cap, for some reason” has finally arrived. Has it lived up to the specific Gibson hype (aka being absolutely fucking insane)? Kinda!
If you are like me, a reluctant, and probably disturbed, fan of Gibson’s directorial outings, there are certain things you come to expect with his films; namely, that they would be completely unhinged and shockingly violent. Hacksaw Ridge was hokey and ultra violent, like if the entirety of Forrest Gump was just blood soaked Vietnam battles; Apocalypto is a 2 hour long chase film where we watch the Aztec people sacrifice prisoners in a city that looks like it was built by the TCM Sawyer family; and Passion Of The Christ is like if the Cenobites were tasked with making a pornography.
To that, Flight Risk is actually pretty tame. No human sacrificing, no extended battle gore, and no flaying whips. Instead, what we get is a pretty boilerplate one location thriller; U.S. Marshall Madolyn (Michelle Dockery) is tasked with transporting a former mob accountant (Topher Grace) from Alaska back to New York to take the witness stand against his former employers. After takeoff, Madolyn quickly realizes that their pilot (Mark Wahlberg) isn’t who he seems. Things quickly spiral up in the air, and Madolyn finds herself flying a plane she doesn’t know how to fly, with a madman tied up in the back, and no idea who she can trust, especially her boss and best friend, Van Sant (Leah Remini, if you can believe it).
It’s pretty basic DTV thriller stuff, admittedly. But, where the true insanity lies, where the cobwebs and broken glass that make up Gibson’s mind come out, is in Mark Wahlberg’s character. Beyond the ludicrous wig and bald cap, which, to be honest, never stops being distracting, Wahlberg plays hitman Daryl as a psychopath of the…problematic sort. See, Daryl isn’t here to threaten his captors with death, or really even bloody torture. Nope, Daryl is here to threaten one thing and one thing only; rape. Every threat that comes out of his mouth is of the sexually violent variety, and boy does he have a fixation of Topher Grace, who is the focus of most of his sleazy taunts.
Now, basic plotline, ugly cinematography and sexually violent antagonist. This should be a total strike out, right? Well…It still kinda works. Admittedly, it’s the worst of Gibson’s films, and is genuinely ugly as hell (there is some CGI in the first 10 minutes that is car-crash-in-Along-Came-A-Spider bad), but it still works as a contained, super mean-spirited little thriller. The stakes are continuously risen, the antagonist is genuinely frightening, we are consistently introduced to twists that keep the story moving at a clip, and, with its tight run time, you never really start to tire of the one location. On a structural and thematic level, it works.
Now, the elephant in the room; the politics. Gibson is known to be, both in his films and in his personal life, kind of a “spirited type” (read; foaming at the mouth dickhead). But, those politics don’t really come into play here. The world of Flight Risk is pretty black and white; Madolyn is a strong, principled character who is adamant about keeping the people in her care alive, while Daryl is a total and complete menace that you are genuinely afraid of escaping. The lines between good and evil are very specific, and not at all controversial. The closest argument I can see is that you could consider Wahlberg as an “evil gay” stereotype, but even then he’s an equal opportunity rapist. (All this being said; I would not be surprised to find out Gibson based Wahlberg’s insane hairstyle on some total random political figure to make a statement, like the head of the EPA or something).
As a quick aside, I’m kinda shocked that Wahlberg agreed to this role. The last half decade or so he’s been heavily focused on what appears to be an image rehab, focusing on prioritizing his faith in the roles he takes, and transforming his public persona into something more family friendly. Taking an absolutely wild role like this, that essentially asks him to be as lewd and violent as humanly possible, is not at all what I was expecting, but, also might be a really interesting bellwether to where his career is going next? Wahlberg is an actor who, with the right director and role, can be an amazing actor, and seeing him take a turn down lunacy street is both strange but kind of exciting.
One of the classic lines you hear nowadays about these types of mid-budget affairs is “we used to get a dozen of these a year at the multiplex”. That’s not Flight Risk. That is very much Den of Thieves 2 or The Beekeeper or The Equalizer films. Flight Risk is something far less reputable. It is something you’d find at the video store, that you never heard of, but you thought looked pretty interesting because it had a cool looking stunt on the cover (that probably wasn’t actually in the movie). You’d end up walking away entertained enough, if not a bit skeeved out, and it would forever live in your memory as “you guys ever see that movie where that A lister slummed it in a very lewd but interesting way?”
Also, might be an early contender for 4k release of the year, cause, holy shit, look at that slip cover.
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SUNDANCE 2025: SERIOUS PEOPLE – Drake Can’t Catch a Break, Even at Sundance
Serious People is a bit of an interesting project, the film is co-directed/written/stars Pasqual Gutierrez, one half of the very real LA based music video directing duo Clique, who are responsible for a plethora of music videos by not only Bad Bunny, but The Weekend. In an art imitates life script, the film which just screened at Sundance, stars Pasqual and his real life Clique partner as fictionalized versions of themselves – who are charged with directing a music video for a satirized version of the real Canadian rapper Drake (NOT played by Drake). The only problem is that the shoot date happens to coincide with Pasqual’s partner’s pregnancy due date. So he comes up with the ingenious idea of hiring a doppelganger – Miguel, to play him for the duration of the shoot.
For Serious People Pasqual Gutierrez shared directing duties with Ben Mullinkosson while crafting this hilarious look at gig life, directing music videos, growing up and attempting to maintain a work life balance in a field where saying no could cost you your next job. It’s a no frills production that manages to be charming as hell thanks to its rogues gallery cast of characters, who are essentially playing heightened versions of themselves. It’s when Pasqual discovers the benefits of having another version of himself, as Miguel quickly becomes acutely drunk with power – that the drama begins to present itself to those around them.
Miguel Huerta appears in Serious People by Pasqual Gutierrez and Ben Mullinkosson, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Pasqual Gutierrez and Ben Mullinkosson As someone who spent the summer completely full entrenched in the Drake Vs, Kendrick Lamar Beef, I first thought this basic premise simply didn’t age well, given the current United States vs. Drake world we live in today. But given the Weekend’s well known issues with Drake and his relationship with our writer/star/co-director, it’s easy to see as the film plays out who’s team the film is on. This becomes more and more apparent throughout the film, as our fictional directors contend with a satirical version of OVO and a lookalike version of the rapper who wants it known he really likes strippers and his nails and wants them to be focuses in said video.
So while the film definitely is this entertaining and somewhat wholesome story of a father willing to go to some truly insane lengths to be there for the birth of his child – it also might be the first diss film on record. Considering LA is a character and it doesn’t take too kindly to Drake, his fate in the film – given recent events it would be hard to look past our co-directors filmography and his allegiances in its portrayal. Serious People is seriously funny and well worth checking out even without that subtext, which will no doubt fuel more than a few think pieces and op/eds from the rap community once the film get a release date locked in.
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SUNDANCE 2025: East of Wall: A Stirring Glimpse of the American Spirit
Tabatha Zimiga in Kate Beecroft’s ‘East of Wall’ COURTESY OF STETSON’S KINGDOM LLC No doubt inspired by Chloé Zhao, Kate Beecroft’s directorial debut dubbed a work of “Docufiction”, just premiered at Sundance and it’s a fresh and powerful look at a vanishing slice of Americana, horse ranching, but from a female perspective. While traveling the US looking for a subject for her first feature, Kate happened upon Tabatha Zimiga’s South Dakota ranch, where on 3,000 acres she takes in delinquent and wayward teens and teaches them how to break and train horses, which the ranch then sells to sustain itself. Kate spent three years, not only learning how to cowboy, but began teaching the children and Tabatha how to act, for her script she planned to write, inspired by her time with them. It’s a heartfelt story of struggle and how one woman attempts to break the cycles of abuse and poverty in her rural community.
East of Wall stars the very real cowgirl Tabatha, a tattooed powerhouse of a woman, along with her real children, real ranch folk and supplemented by a few actors who are charged with bringing this story of the New West to life. The film has Tabatha still struggling with the aftermath, a few years after the suicide of her husband, she’s taken a step back from training and riding horses and because of that the ranch is beginning to run out of cash. Well known for turning out some of the best trained horses in the US, in comes comes wealthy Texan Roy Waters (Scoot McNairy), who makes an offer to buy her ranch and bankroll her operation, but at a cost of her independence and losing her husband’s final gift to her and her non-verbal son.
It’s a conundrum that allows Kate to highlight and explore not only Tabitha’s unique and selfless way of life, but her ranch’s mission and commitment of allowing these troubled teens, who are mostly girls, to find a way out and a positive outlet in their impoverished community. Their possible fates are something that’s hinted at, until Tabatha and the other women from the community at her Mother’s birthday party share their experiences of existing in the hyper masculine and world of ranch life. It’s these kinds of more melodramatic moments that are weaved seamlessly in with the slice of life, day to day montages of the kids riding, playing and training with the horses, that I found gave the film a sincerity and authenticity you don’t see often.
What Kate has managed to do here with this film is capture and present Tabitha’s selfless spirit and way of life for all to see, without having to soften or dull her edges one bit. It’s a story that’s uncompromising and courageous, just like the film’s subject – that from the post-film Q & A we discovered is not far from the truth. East of Wall is a commanding and assured debut that shows a deft hand not only behind the camera with both non-actors, but with seasoned professionals who turn in some truly intimate and engaging performances. Like Nomadland, East of Wall is a stirring glimpse of the American spirit and its relentless perseverance in troubled times.
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SUNDANCE 2025: THE DATING GAME Poses a Charming and Unexpectedly Hilarious Warning
A still from The Dating Game by Violet Du Feng, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Wei Gao Remember in high school when you learned about China’s one child policy (1979-2015), which was meant to hopefully control the country’s skyrocketing population growth, by limiting each couple to a single offspring? Along with that we would also usually hear the shocking lengths some parents would go to secure a male child, which society deemed more valuable. Female babies were often abandoned or sent abroad for adoption, leaving the country with a stark shortage of girls. Now here we are 9 years post policy and we’re witnessing the after effects this gender disparity has created, which could best be described as a gender chasm, flipping the country’s power dynamic into the complete opposite direction. Violet Du Feng’s followup to Hidden Letters, the charming and unexpectedly hilarious The Dating Game, documents a country now in the “find out” stage of this edict’s after effects.
While we know dating in our current chronically online world is bad enough for those subjected to it, try that in a country where men now outnumber women by about 30 million. Women now hold the power to continue this society, but are faced with men – who thanks to the lack of female friends growing up and mothers who left them to work in urban factories, lack the soft skills needed to create meaningful connections with the opposite gender. That is where our subjects come in – in the technological metropolis of Chongqing, one of the biggest Chinese cities you’ve probably never heard of, with a population of 36 million. The film follows Li – 24, Wu – 27 and Zhou – 36, three hapless kind hearted rural men, who have paid handsomely to come to the big city for a 7 day intensive dating bootcamp to hopefully find wives.
A still from The Dating Game by Violet Du Feng, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Wei Gao This boot camp has the pompous Hao (think Mystery from The Pickup Artist) struggling to impart his shallow pickup techniques on his awkward, yet well meaning pupils, as they all struggle with their manipulative nature. After all, it’s made very clear these guys are all looking for actual wives, not simply hook-ups. The big twist here however is the slick dating coach, who claims to have about 3,000 clients – his wife Wen, is also a dating coach and not afraid to speak her mind. These glimpses of Hao’s homelife where his no-nonsense wife lets him know just how out of touch his ideology is, play out in stark contrast to him forcing his students to bombard random women who are way out of league with the scammy pick up lines like: “You look like a classy lady. Can I add you on WeChat?”
The film is as much about the effects of the Policy and the hapless men forced to deal with its fallout as it is about the gender gap and about the ideologies and beliefs fueling it, which is not just a Chinese problem. Korea, Japan and even America are seeing a real divide amongst the genders, because of these outdated ideas of traditional gender roles and the women who are simply fine with sitting it out. This move has triggered declining birth rates in Japan and Korea and has governments on high alert. While we do have Hao, who is sort of attempting to maintain these gender norms and in the process of losing his own marriage, it’s his students who are tasked with executing these techniques who are actually realizing that maybe this isn’t the way we should do things going forward – so there might be hope after all.
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DOG MAN – Basically a Perfect Kids’ Movie
Hitting theaters this weekend, Dog Man is a wacky and entertaining – and surprisingly sweet – animated adventure.
After a freak accident leaves imbecilic cop Officer Knight (Peter Hastings) and his intelligent dog/best friend Greg the Dog both injured beyond saving, their nurses devise a novel solution: Greg’s head is sewn to Knight’s body to form a new super cop: Dog Man.
Dog Man doggedly pursues and repeatedly catches his criminal nemesis, Petey (Pete Davidson), the world’s evilest cat, but the wily feline felon always manages to break out of prison and wreak more havoc. Petey clones himself in order to double his efficiency, but accidentally ends up with a sweet kitten instead – essentially a younger version of himself – in a wrinkle that will set all three characters on an new uncharted course.
Dog Man is the creation of author-cartoonist Dav Pilkey, also known for kid-lit works like Captain Underpants, which has also had an animated film adaptation (and from which Dog Man is spun off). Like Captain Underpants, the Dog Man character comes from a series of popular books of disputable educational value – the in-story creations of fourth graders George Beard and Harold Hutchins, who create goofy comic books about these characters, full of spelling and grammar mistakes befitting their age level.
Unlike the Captain Underpants movie, the new adaptation of Dog Man omits the layer of boy creators from its narrative, and just does a straightforward adaptation of their creation. The movie is a blast, and stands on its own, but I feel it loses a bit of context with the excision of the wraparound. Perhaps this decision was an effort to not tie the film to Captain Underpants and present it as a new property, or to manage its length, but the books are so intrinsically tied together that the movie feels just a little bit off.
Despite that, the film does work as a standalone and is a ton of fun with plenty of humor. It can also be surprisingly poignant in its approach to emotional beats. Officer Knight’s girlfriend abandons him after his accident, leaving him in a despondent state – as Dog Man, it’s the double loss of a girlfriend and master, from a happy trio to going solo.
Another surprisingly mature concept is that Petey is reunited with his deadbeat dad, whose neglect informs the villain’s origin story. Most versions of this story would shoehorn in a reconciliation, but Dog Man takes a more honest view: his dad (Stephen Root) is still the same old scumbag, and uninterested in mending their relationship. Some people don’t change.
Since Dog Man can’t speak, it’s his cast of supporting characters whose dialogue carries the exposition. The movie features a fun lineup including Dog Man’s police chief (Lil Rel Howery), spunky reporter Sarah Hatoff (Isla Fisher) and her thickly accented cameraman Seamus (Billy Boyd), evil mastermind Flippy the Fish (Ricky Gervais), and – in a small role likely to expand in sequels – the hulking Big Jim (Brian Hopkins).
I have no real complaints with Dog Man, which is pretty much a perfect movie for kids and families. It’s both better and deeper than anyone would guess from the ludicrous title or concept, and I was genuinely surprised at how much I was moved by its unexpected well of empathy. A hilarious and silly adventure that also treasures compassion and stresses forgiveness.
For what it’s worth, my son was already a big fan of the Dog Man books and very much looking forward to the movie, and gives it his enthusiastic 5 stars.
A/V Out
