Screenwriter Lauren Pomerantz and co-directors Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne’s “Am I Okay?” is an honest and well-written work about two best friends in their thirties, both of whom are having life-changing moments. Lucy (Dakota Johnson) and Jane (Sonoya Mizuno) have been besties for years. They know one another inside and out and can predict the other’s every beat and emotion. The two keep no secrets, save for one. Lucy is indeed keeping something from her friend, hiding the fact that

Repeated rituals and traditions are one way that subcultures continue […]

Writer-director Shane Atkinson's "LaRoy, Texas" is a deliciously nasty film in the style of early-John Dahl (especially his "Red Rock West"), with the grim humor of the Coen Brothers thrown in. This is the kind of southern pulp noir that grabs its audience by the hair and forces them down in the muck.

John Magaro is Ray is the definition of a pushover and a classic noir schlub; his older brother, Junior (Matthew Del Negro), treats him like his inferior even though the two supposedly own equal shares in the hardware business they inherited from their parents. Ray also learns that his wife, Stacy-Lynn (Megan Stevenson), is having an affair.

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.

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.