CUFF 2021 Reviews: Coming Home in the Dark
From the moment I was introduced to it, James Ashcroft’s
Coming Home in the Dark was an enigma. The motivator to watch it had come from CUFF Lead Programmer, Cameron MacGowen, who held the film in high regard and fully expected a big name streaming service to acquire its streaming rights. The teaser and the film descriptions barely gave anything away. All I knew going into it was that Daniel Gillies yes, Elijah from the
Vampire Diaries, Daniel Gillies was to play a psychopathic villain by the name of Mandrake and that the film revolves around a teacher and his family who fall “into a nightmare when they find themselves captured,” by said psychopath. With all the information I was given, I knew to expect a thriller set in New Zealand, featuring an actor I hadn’t thought about since my awkward tween days and that it was all supposed to be incredibly chilling nothing beyond that.
CUFF Review: Summertime Offered a Unique but Unfocused Snapshot of L.A. Directed by Carlos López Estrada
Starring Tyris Winter, Marquesha Babers, Maia Mayor, Austin Antoine, Bryce Banks, Amaya Blankenship, Bene t Benton, Gordon Ip, Jason Alvarez
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Director Carlos López Estrada s first feature, 2018 s
Blindspotting, succeeded in showing a place both as it is and how it feels. His follow-up,
Summertime, doesn t manage this as well.
Blindspotting was rooted in the Bay Area, with Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal s characters feeling specific to that place. If either were plucked out and dropped anywhere else, it would be a story about their displacement.
CUFF Review: Ed Helms and Patti Harrison Defy Expectations in Together Together Directed by Nikole Beckwith
Published Apr 26, 2021
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Hollywood has trained audiences to expect a film s leads to end up together. That s part of what writer and director Nikole Beckwith has to handle in
Together Together: with Ed Helms and Patti Harrison as the stars in any kind of comedy, a hemisphere will light up in any brain attuned to rom-coms.
Among the many adept dramatic choices in this movie, Beckwith makes that tension come across in a natural, funny way. Helms and Harrison find a natural way into it at a critical point in the movie. Their characters stake positions and cover the issue enough that it s talked through and then moved on from.
A singer turned werewolf, and Alien on Stage. Two directors dig into their movie inspiration
The Homestretch s Doug Dirks spoke with two directors who have films showing in the festival this year.
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Posted: Apr 22, 2021 6:10 PM MT | Last Updated: April 23
A still from the horror film Bloodthirsty, left, and a backstage photo from the documentary Alien on Stage.(Photos submitted by CUFF)
When Calgary musician
Patrick Verdone found a strange instrument at an estate sale, he was intrigued and set off to find its rightful owner. That led him to
Dan Duguay, a musician and long-time busker known to Calgarians as “Dan The One Man Band.”
Dan and his lost instrument are the focus of
Another Man’s Treasure, a new short documentary film that premieres this weekend, as part of the Calgary Underground Film Festival’s
Shorts Package.
CKUA’s Lisa Wilton spoke with director
Colin Bradley about the film and started by asking him how he got involved with the story.