Month: June 2021

2021 Tribeca Film Festival: 10 Movies that We Will Stream

Jeff Mitchell

The Tribeca Film Festival has been a New York City staple since 2002, and the 2021 festival is – indeed – set in-person in The Big Apple, but online as well from June 9 – 20! The online program is called Tribeca at Home.  AHFW is not flying to NYC for the event, but we will enjoy the festival from home!  Tribeca at Home offers four ways to see their films (and note that streaming is NOT available outside the United States): Shorts Pass – $25 for access to the…

Movie of the Week: ‘Personal Best’

Jeff Mitchell

June is Pride Month, so our Movies of the Week will be LGBTQ-themed.  Let’s start the celebration with a look back at the 1980s, writer/director Robert Towne’s “Personal Best”! “Personal Best” (1982) – A few drops of water fall on the bone-dry earth, and once the camera pulls back, it reveals that a track athlete anxiously anticipates the starter’s gun to fire. With long blonde locks and dressed in tight-fitting polyester athletic wear, Chris Cahill (Mariel Hemingway) is about to race in the hurdles at Hayward Field in Eugene, OR…

‘Spirit Untamed’ is cute, but it’s also a paint-by-numbers ride

Jeff Mitchell

Lucky Prescott’s (Isabela Merced) name doesn’t suit her, at least for the first 10-plus years of her life.  Her mom – Milagro Navarro (Elza Gonzalez), a world-class horse rider – dies in a circus accident (within the opening few minutes of this movie).  To make matters worse, instead of her father, Jim Prescott (Jake Gyllenhaal), providing oceans of support, he unilaterally and inexplicably decides that his sister, Cora (Julianne Moore), will care for Lucky.  Cora says to Lucky, “Something broke in your father.” And how!  Jim later explains his actions. …