There are a ton of low-budget, international and just plain off-the-radar films coming out over the next few weeks — most of which deserve at least a chance to find an audience. With advertising budgets that are unable to compete with what the larger studios are able to throw at their movies, I dove into a pile of this month’s smaller releases to make sure nothing truly exceptional falls through the cracks. The results definitely varied. Let’s take a look.
“Hell of a Summer”: I sure do love a good slasher movie, and under the right circumstances, I love a bad one even more. While the writing and directorial debut of Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk aren’t necessarily bad (or good), the film plays it too safe with the “serial killer at a summer camp” trope. When you’re fooling around in a subgenre that includes the insanely ridiculous “Friday the 13th” and “Sleepaway Camp” franchises, then there needs to either be some classic violence or memorable schlock, but “Hell of a Summer” doesn’t bring the atmospheric scares or gore to work as a horror movie, or solid enough jokes to work as a comedy either. The film is reverent to slashers while still wholly taking the piss out of them at the same time, but none of it lands well enough to be anything more than a mildly entertaining momentary diversion.
“Misericordia”: A slow-burn character piece about desperately lonely people not looking for anything or anyone in particular, just something to make the silence of their disappointing lives less deafening. A young man returns to a rural community for the funeral of his old boss, only to discover that he prefers it to what he left back in the city, so he clings to the boss’ widow in hopes of finally belonging somewhere. Deliberately paced with shades of “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” the very French “Misericordia” weaponizes its arthouse bonafides with long stretches of timorous pauses, heartbreaking character work and gorgeous shots of the countryside to create a quietly understated thriller that remains in the mind long after it ends.
“Eric LaRue”: The directorial debut of the certifiably brilliant actor Michael Shannon, “Eric LaRue” follows the mother of a school shooter as she struggles to figure out how to live the rest of her life while grappling with her loveless marriage, her fraying threads of religious belief, a community that despises her and a son she can’t bring herself to visit in prison. Based on the play by Brett Neveu, the film is more interested in dissecting the fermentable nature of community and organized religion than being a treatise on the horrifying epidemic of school shootings. There are no answers here, just massive questions all posed in the haunted eyes of a never-better Judy Greer. Following in the footsteps of the astonishing “We Need to Talk About Kevin” but without Lynne Ramsay’s poetry as a filmmaker, “Eric LaRue” still manages to be a powerful, if restrained, look at the ineffectuality of organized religion when put up against unthinkable tragedy.
“One to One: John & Yoko”: A wonderful documentary focused on the 18 months John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived in NYC’s Greenwich Village leading up to their “One to One” benefit concert for the children of the Willowbrook Institution in Staten Island. Structured like someone flipping through the channels of their TV, the documentary (co-directed by unsung master Kevin Macdonald) is packed with incredible footage of the counterculture of 1972 and how Lennon found himself as a reluctant revolutionary after the failure of Flower Power and the stillborn death of the peace movement. Finally, a documentary that gives Yoko Ono a voice and paints her in a sympathetic and powerful light, showing how she shaped Lennon into a feminist in his final years. I had never seen John or Yoko like this in any doc before, and the footage Macdonald managed to find is astonishing, giving context to history in genuinely surprising and stunning ways. Fans of Lennon and Ono will find gold here.
“Freaky Tales” passes the vibe check. A batshit crazy anthology of interconnected stories (set in 1987 Oakland!) following a goofily animated green lightning that shapes the fates of several disparate Californians. If you’re like me, then this movie has it all: punks versus Nazis, rap battles, narration by Too $hort, fake cigarette burns to give the film that old-school theatrical texture, a deep love of 1980s Oakland/Bay Area hip-hop culture, an obsession with genre movies, the Golden State Warriors, kung fu, cartoonish violence, Pedro Pascal, sword fights and so very much more. Filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck take all the tricks they’ve learned in 20 years as writer/directors (including their toe-dipping into studio blockbusters with 2019’s “Captain Marvel”) and made what feels like a deeply personal and goofball love letter to their youth and the things that make them happy. It’s not perfect, but what is? At the end of the closing credits, there’s a brief moment where the statement “This movie was made in its entirety by human beings” appears. Just a group of people making a movie about Oakland in the 1980s with sword fights and rap music — humanity at its best.
“Hell of a Summer”
Dir. Finn Wolfhard & Billy Bryk
Grade: C
Now playing at Regal Old Mill
“Misericordia”
Dir. Alain Guiraudie
Grade: B+
Coming soon
“Eric LaRue”
Dir. Michael Shannon
Grade: B
Coming soon
“One to One: John & Yoko”
Dir. Kevin Macdonald
Grade: A-
Coming soon to Tin Pan Theater
“Freaky Tales”
Dir. Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
Grade: B
Coming soon
This article appears in Source Weekly April 10, 2025.
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