Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire's "Asphalt City" is a film that injects its nearly nonstop intensity into the the veins of the audience from the first shot. The director sees the darker side of the New York City night as a whacked-out boulevard of death awash in the pulsating red lights of the ambulances, cop cars, and fire engines that cut through the detritus of the city.

Tye Sheridan is Ollie Cross, a rookie paramedic in his first few weeks on the job. Working on his MCAT in the hope of being a doctor. Ollie rides in an ambulance all over the East New Yor

Alice Rohrwacher's latest film, "La Chimera," is an ambitious and self-aware rumination on life, death, and heartbreak. Through the imaginative style of its director, the film is playful and charming yet ultimately heartbreaking.

Using multiple film formats, Rohrwacher's visual choices (a mixture of 35 & 16mm along with Super 16) create an occasionally magical spell. While the story is rooted in reality, DP Hélène Louvart weaves in and out of reality and a kind of cinematic dream state, representing the mindset of the film's lead character.

Austin is a great city to explore and enjoy any time of the year, but when SXSW comes to town, it's a whole other level of stimulation: music, movies, cocktails, tech, mixers, parties, and celebrities. I was able to spend a few days in and around the capital city of Texas to take in the sights and sounds of this unique place. Regrettably, I couldn't get in as many films as I typically like at a film festival, but what I saw provided further proof of the talents out there. Celebrities were in evidence, including two former late-night hosts in town to provide thoughts on their next chapters

Hebrew scripture says, "he who saves one life saves the world entire." At the beginning of World War II, Nicholas Winton was instrumental in the complex relocation of 669 mostly Jewish children, moving them from Czechoslovakia to Britain, the operation known as kindertransport. The true story is fascinating. Director James Hawes's "One Life," the telling of Winton's story, is a somewhat staid but occasionally emotional film that should have nevertheless hit deeper.

Written and directed by its star, Julio Torres, the new semi-surrealistic comedy “Problemista” belongs in the category of the un-categorizable. While not as strong, Torres’ film could be mentioned in the same breath as Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You” and Miranda July’s “Me and You and Everyone We Know.” These films take a serious subject and color it with whimsy and artistic imagery, giving a sharper edge to their storytelling.

Over the past decade Appalachian-set thrillers have had a rough go of it. 2015’s “The World Made Straight,” “Them That Follow” (2019), they lacked substance. The Ron Howard-directed “Hillbilly Elegy” and “Devil’s Peak” by Ben Young were misguided efforts whose superior casts did not fulfill their promise. This year thankfully brings us Eshom and Ian Nelms’s “Red Right Hand”, a well-directed Kentucky-based crime film that