"BRING ON THE DANCING HORSES" // SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2022

BY MATEO MORENO

The modern day Western series BRING ON THE DANCING HORSES makes a strong splash at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Kate Bosworth leads the series as a woman with no name, arriving at locations telling marked people that she's "Here to help with your transition." And that transition is from life to death. Bosworth is a killer, wearing a ten gallon hat and a deep, unaffected monotone. She has a list to complete and she's going at them one by one. We don't yet get much information about the assassin (only one episode is being screened at Sundance, though nine more are filmed and ready to go) but there are slivers of information here and there. It seems personal and she is more than capable of handling anyone coming her way.

The pilot, written and directed by the show creator Michael Polish, pulls the audience into its intriguing story right away, and sets up the series with a great start. Bosworth is a stellar lead, intriguing and dangerous. She holds a mystery about her and pulls off the mysterious and badass qualities equally and easily. Lance Henriksen shows up in the pilot as one of her marks and their scenes in particular are sharp and have a fascinating pulse to them. Near the end of the episode there's what seems like a bit of a time jump and it's the only part of the episode that seems to not land great. However, once the rest of the series is in place, my opinion of that could completely change. Overall, BRING ON THE DANCING HORSES is a sure fire treat and I'm fully on board to see where the story goes from here.

GRADE: A-

CREATED, WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Michael Polish STARRING Kate Bosworth, Jasper Polish, Lance Henriksen, Happy Anderson, DJ Qualls, Thomas Francis Murphy. FEATURED AS PART OF THE 2022 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. FOR MORE INFO: BRING ON THE DANCING HORSES

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2017 // A REVIEW OF "BUSTER'S MAL HEART"

BY DANIELLE BECKMANN

There’s nothing like a jarring shootout in the woods to perk an audience right up. Sarah Adina Smith’s second feature, BUSTER'S MAL HEART instantaneously grabs us and sets the tone of mystery, danger, and uncertainty—the tone that the film struggles to sustain throughout. We learn that Buster the Mountain Man (Rami Malek) is out roaming the rural hillside again as chaos and crisis abound. Buster breaks into holiday homes in the mountains for shelter, food, and warmth. He then leaves them spotless, save for his signature: a pile of his own feces in a cooking pot on the counter.

Cut to Jonah (also Rami Malek), the cleaned up version of Buster, working painstaking overnight shifts at the local lodge to earn a living wage to support his beautiful daughter and picture-perfect wife. Through this storyline, we see Jonah receive multiple midnight visits from a man with no name (an eerie portrayal by the gangly DJ Qualls) that we eventually learn is a figment of his imagination, leading to Jonah’s ultimate demise.

While working overnights, Jonah becomes obsessed with a conspiracy theory of an alternate reality. As he succumbs to this lifestyle and madness, egged on by the man with no name, we cannot decipher reality from Jonah’s mind. The film leans toward the tone of a psychological thriller where it is revealed that Buster/Jonah is capable of anything, even murder. However, had the film asked me to suspend my disbelief more (by the time we see that Jonah is in fact one man in two bodies) I would have taken the bait. Instead, the film proved to be problematic with its avalanche of information at the climax where all rules went out the window, and we were left to regard a cinematic device that left me confused and disappointed. I was left desiring more.

All in all, the glue of the film is actor Rami Malek. His chilling portrayal of a normal blue-collar family man, and his transition into an unpredictably wild mountain man, is a performance I will not forget.

DANIELLE'S VERDICT: IF YOU HAVE TIME

Written and Directed by Sarah Adina Smith Starring Rami Malek, DJ Qualls, Kate Lyn Sheil, Sukha Belle Potter, Lin Shaye Country: USA

The Tribeca Film Festival, running April 19-30th in New York City, offers an assortment of riches when it comes to films. Documentaries, Feature Films, International Films, TV, VR technology, and more. As stated on their website, "Founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff in 2001, following the attacks on the World Trade Center, Tribeca has evolved from an annual event to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan to a gathering place for filmmakers, artists, innovators, and the global creative community." The ArtsWire Weekly has been covering the festival since 2013 and this year, Mateo Moreno and Danielle Beckmann will be our voices on from the fest.