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Smile Again, Jenny Lee (Straight Shooter Review)

Posted by on Aug 19, 2016 in Feature Length, Featured, Narrative, Reviews, Straight Shooter Reviews, Straight Shooter Reviews (Feature Narrative) | 0 comments

In 2013, Carlo Caldana released an independent novel called, Smile Again, Jenny Lee, about a world renowned tennis player with a personality like Tonya Harding, who got her leg messed up like Nancy Kerrigan. (Only in this tale, she actually was knocked out of her sport for good.)

Two years later, in a feat of moxy that’s truly impressive, Carlo Caldana translated his novel into a script, directed the film, and cast himself as the colead alongside Monique Hafen who played the titular Jenny Lee.

The tale of the film revolves around Jenny’s attempt to find her place in the world after losing her spot in tennis. Low on funds and about to be cut off by her wealthy mother (Linda DeMetrick), she agrees to help a lawyer named Charles Landale (Carlo Caldana) track down her absentee father, hoping that he will float her some cash. However, when the mystery of her father’s disappearance grows more ominous, she and Landale will have to keep their wits about them to unravel the mystery.

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Rigoberta Menchu: Daughter of the Maya (Straight Shooter Review)

Posted by on Jul 22, 2016 in Documentary, Feature Length, Featured, Reviews, Straight Shooter Reviews, Straight Shooter Reviews (Feature Documentary) | 0 comments

I grew up believing the Mayan Indians were a long lost civilization, like the lost tribe of the Maori. I knew about their amazing science and their calendar, but, at some time in my childhood, had come to believe that they’d been slaughtered by the Aztecs and no longer existed.

As often happens with Dawn Engle’s films through PeaceJam, I learned a lot about both people groups and people that changed my perception through this film—not the least of which being that the Mayan Indians still exist as the indigenous people of Guatemala (as well as a number of other Latin American countries), despite genocidal attempts of a 36 year civil war.

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Traceroute (Straight Shooter Film Review)

Posted by on Apr 15, 2016 in Documentary, Feature Length, Featured, Straight Shooter Reviews, Straight Shooter Reviews (Feature Documentary) | 0 comments

Austrian filmmaker Johannes Grenzfurthner is on a mission to find all the nerdiest spots and people in America—at least, all the spots associated with the nerdy people he connected with online ahead of time. With a roadmap that takes him 7,000 miles (from California to New York) and an agenda of communist apologetics to share, he sets out to explore everything from creature effects companies to sex-geeks to massive caves to cyberpunks to alien researchers—all from an outsider’s perspective.

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5M: A Silent Film That Screams (Straight Shooter Film Review)

Posted by on Mar 11, 2016 in Featured, Narrative, Reviews, Short Length, Straight Shooter Reviews, Straight Shooter Reviews (Short Narrative) | 3 comments

When he’s in danger of losing his business in the recession, Dave (Deepak Ravella) comes up with a dangerous criminal scheme with his partner Sonny (Sonny Chatrath) and his wife Amy (Ami Sheth) to gain $5 million through cheating the insurance company. But when things go off the rails, they plunge toward the depths of murder and betrayal.

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Big Gold Dream (Straight Shooter Film Review)

Posted by on Mar 4, 2016 in Documentary, Feature Length, Featured, Reviews, Straight Shooter Reviews, Straight Shooter Reviews (Feature Documentary) | 0 comments

In 1970s Scotland, a musical wave swelled with energy. The genre of punk music attracted a tenacious following, thriving on the raw energy of its performers and fan base. So fast-moving that it almost instantly transitioned into post-punk, this movement suddenly gave many young people a voice- and a tenacious audience for their music.

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5M – A Silent Film That Screams (Short Critique)

Posted by on Feb 26, 2016 in Critiques, Critiques (Short Narrative), Featured, Narrative, Short Length | 0 comments

Dave Shaw (Deepak Ravella) and his wife, Amy (Ami Sheth), live the high life, despite Dave’s addiction to gambling and narcotics. Dave is recovering from a drunken gambling spree the night before when his business partner Sonny (Sonny Chatrath) comes to their house. He explains to Amy that the business is going under and that their building is being foreclosed on.

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