Film Yap

Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I was chatting with someone who really liked “Digger” — I did not — and they asked why I didn’t appreciate the bombastic send-up of billionaires and dirty energy profiteers. Simple: because they were presented as ridiculous, cartoonish figures who acknowledge that they’re the bad guys and revel in that status.

Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. When I learned “California Schemin’” was about two Scottish wannabe rappers, I immediately wished the film would have subtitles as I have a very hard time deciphering that particular vernacular. Alas, it doesn’t.

Martin McDonagh returns to his “In Bruges” style in this sardonic piece starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA spooks playing out a deadly string on Easter Island. Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Tariq’s plunge into the fictitious underbelly of Houston’s religious outfits through the unpacking of faith, fatherhood, and self-forgiveness is among the best in film this year. Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Faith. This one word, arguably, is the most difficult to nail down what it all entails, yet the easiest to identify when in action.

1× 0:00 Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -4:23 -4:23 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Interview with “Clean Hands” stars Zach Braff and Esther McGregor Alec Toombs sits down for a quick chat with Zach Braff and Esther McGregor. “Clean Hands” will be available in select theaters and on VOD beginning Friday, Oct. 16.

Powerful, true-life story benefits those in need while shedding new light on a familiar face and spotlighting a fresh one. Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Addiction is a serious issue in this country and much like mental health struggles (sadly, the two often work hand-in-hand) we need to work to destigmatize it.

Haley Joel Osment and Beck Bennett anchor a debut full length feature that mixes BB gun standoffs, family wreckage, and some of the most unexpected empathy of the year Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. For Heartland Film Festival schedule and tickets, please click here. “Love - Love” follows two brothers in their late 30s.

A gritty drama about an Indianapolis drug kingpin trying to go straight has the look and the heart, but misplaces some fundamental storytelling discipline. Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. For Heartland Film Festival schedule and tickets, please click here. “Street Angel” has the look and the heart, but lacks some fundamental storytelling discipline.

15 years after first airing, the masterwork remains a grand and grim spectacle, the inheritor of “The Lord of the Rings” fantasy crown, though its true authorship will likely remain lost to time. Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. What to write about HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” 15 years after it first began airing?

A chilling, restrained look at the Heaven’s Gate cult, anchored by Tim Blake Nelson and Vera Farmiga. Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. For Heartland Film Festival schedule and tickets, please click here. “The Leader” tells the story of Heaven’s Gate, the UFO cult whose 39 members died in a mass suicide in 1997.