Jamie Grefe’s Bad Girl Sunday School is a surprisingly heartwarming and motivational drama that blends genuine emotional beats with a unique approach to personal transformation. Set in a private Los Angeles academy for wayward girls, the film explores themes of redemption, understanding, and the importance of never giving up on someone, no matter how lost they seem. Grefe, who also stars as John Mahler, delivers a performance that balances toughness with heartfelt guidance.
Read MoreFive Piece (2018)
Matthew Roth’s Five Piece plunges viewers into the high-voltage, chaotic world of underground rock, following a hard-driving metal band on the brink of their last big opportunity: a major Battle of the Bands contest with a recording contract at stake. The story is equal parts adrenaline-fueled music drama and intimate psychological study, offering an unflinching look at ambition, creativity, and personal struggle. At the center of this storm is drummer Brandon, whose incredible talent behind the kit is matched only by the complexity of his inner life.
Read MoreOf Starlight (2011)
Of Starlight is a moody, slow-burning noir that leans hard into atmosphere, inviting viewers into a neon-drenched world where memory, love, and reality bleed together. Michael DeMasi’s direction is confident and visually striking, crafting a city washed in artificial light that feels both dreamlike and suffocating — a perfect backdrop for Christopher Spare’s weary investigator as he chases a disappearance that keeps slipping just out of reach. The film’s strengths shine through its hypnotic visuals, thoughtful pacing, and a synth-driven score that recalls the cool melancholy of Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell.
Read MoreMy Movie Girl (2016)
My Movie Girl, directed by and starring Adam Bronstein, is a quirky and heartfelt romantic comedy that wears its cinematic influences proudly. Rooted in a love for classic Hollywood and the neurotic charm of filmmakers like Woody Allen and Noah Baumbach, the film explores the messy overlap between real relationships and the idealized ones we project onto the screen. The story follows a young filmmaker who’s determined to craft the perfect romance—only to learn that real emotions don’t hit their marks on cue.
Read MoreOff Season (2012)
Katie Carman-Lehach’s Off Season unfolds like a whispered confession—soft, unsettling, and carried along by the lonely rhythm of a deserted shoreline. After her husband’s financial crimes destroy their lives, Sylvie Stone escapes to a remote beach house hoping for silence. Instead, she finds a growing sense of dread, strange noises echoing through empty rooms, and a green glow outside her windows that makes it clear she’s not as alone as she hoped.
Read MoreI Swiped the Wrong One (2026)
Laura Irene Young’s I Swiped the Wrong One is a gentle, funny, and surprisingly heartfelt romantic comedy that explores the modern struggle of finding love in the age of apps, algorithms, and endless scrolling. Shot in the Pittsburgh area under a SAG-AFTRA micro-budget agreement, the film proves that honesty, humor, and good storytelling can go a long way, even without the gloss of a Hollywood production. The story follows four thirtysomething characters who are each dealing with loneliness, new beginnings, and the awkwardness of digital dating.
Read MoreJoe Finds Grace (2017)
Anthony Harrison’s Joe Finds Grace is the kind of indie oddity that feels like it washed ashore from a different decade and then stumbled into 2017 almost by accident. Shot primarily in black and white and punctuated with sudden bursts of color, TikTok-style needle drops, and occasional rotoscoped animation that recalls A Scanner Darkly, it is a micro-budget comic tragedy that does not follow rules so much as wander around them. That is both the film’s charm and sometimes its limitation.
Read MoreDevil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy (2025)
From 1972 to 1978, John Wayne Gacy murdered at least 33 young men in the suburbs of Chicago, a horror buried beneath a veneer of respectability. He was the friendly neighbor, the contractor, the volunteer clown who entertained children. Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, the new eight-part limited series from showrunner Patrick Macmanus, revisits this nightmarish story through a lens that is more empathetic, more introspective, and far less exploitative than most true crime dramatizations.
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