When I first covered the Renegade Film Festival in 2020, I did not anticipate it being my last communal experience theatrically until six months later, during our brief reopening at Regal during the pandemic. I also did not anticipate it being a film festival I would find myself looking to return to over the years. But the high of Renegade is not just in its programming; it’s in the community […]
When I first covered the Women in Horror Film Festival back in 2020, before it became the Renegade Film Festival, I did not expect the community I’d find, and the sense of the unexpected, and belonging that the festival provided. By the time I finished covering it in 2022 and 2023, I knew for sure this would be a festival I’d go to for as long as I can. After […]
For this year’s wrap-up episode of my coverage of the 2025 Renegade Film Festival, I’m taking a slightly different approach. You can read my thoughts at Sonic Cinema and In Their Own League about what I took away from the festival this year. both in terms of perspective of the time it took place, and the films I loved from it; this episode is about giving the filmmakers their voice […]
It’s that time again. Amanda Spears returns to discuss the Oscars and help predict the winners. I also share my 10 Best list for 2024. I hope you enjoy! Episode 163 – Oscar Thoughts with Amanda Spears & Brian’s Top 10 of 2024 Read Brian’s Retrospective on 2024 here. Read Brian’s Thoughts of the 2024 Atlanta Film Critics Circle Winners here. Read Brian’s Thoughts of the 2024 Georgia Film Critics […]
If you love film, you likely have been to a repertory screening at some point in your life. The chance to watch an older movie, on the big screen, with a crowd as in love with the opportunity to watch a movie in theatres, maybe for the first time, or maybe to recapture that sense of wonder of when you first saw it. The idea of repertory showings of movies […]
I need to get this series back on track. When I changed up this series in 2020, I was not anticipating the pandemic, and not working for most of the year. Now that I have changed jobs, I’m finding maintaining two movies a month to be a tricky business. Part of that is because of how varied my work schedule can be, but it’s also because I find myself working […]
One of my favorite things in movies is when they show why a piece of music matters to a character. While a great soundtrack can help us figure out who a character is, when we see characters actively engage with music onscreen, that is a special thing for me. There are plenty of great examples of this- Max Cherry discovering The Delfonics in “Jackie Brown”; “As Time Goes By” being […]
**Author’s Note: The following essay includes scenes from “Touch of Evil” to illustrate my words. These scenes not only include spoilers to the film, but one involves implied sexual assault. Orson Welles never stopped pushing cinema form forward after “Citizen Kane”– the problem was his resources got more and more scant, and his freedom more and more bowled over by studio interference as he went along. But watch films like […]
Sonic Cinema Quick Thoughts
