October brings the Twin Cities Film Festival and a host of new movies to watch once again. I’m delighted to share how much more I covered this year, spending time on over 40 movies presented at this year’s celebration. Of course, some bigger festival films will expand later this year, including major awards contenders like Wild Horse Nine, Elsinore, and I Play Rocky. I’ll get around to those reviews later, but I thought I’d dig into the more independent features that graced the big screen.

A Month in Minnesota

Easily one of the most important local documentaries focusing on the gruesome time earlier this year when ICE disrupted and murdered in the Twin Cities. It’s a tough but important watch that highlights how we endured one of the most hideous acts by this disgusting administration under Trump’s rule. Although locals like myself recall this nightmare in vivid detail, preserving those feelings matters in a world where news media often downplays or ignores the damage. I hope this documentary is seen beyond the Twin Cities.

Never Get Busted

A brief documentary on a cop who went from being a buster of drugs to fighting for drugs, going so far as to make a distributed video on the best way to hide your weed from the police. A fun, intriguing film with fascinating interviews and nice animations that capture the high of embracing getting high and fighting back against the war on drugs.

The Art of Sustaining: Prison

Simple, yet thoughtful dual interview on the topic of long-term imprisonment and coming to terms with men’s relationships at their worst times, while highlighting the art that can be made from such an experience.

Demons and Depictions

A documentary on an aged found-item artist in Minneapolis, throwing away his old art, dealing with depression, and suicidal thoughts. A heartfelt film about someone finding reasons to keep living, showing the struggle that remains hidden beneath the surface or buried in the past. A heartwarming moment comes when he sees his work grace Art-a-Whirl, reminding him of art’s power.

You Belong Here

A documentary about a Kentucky chef’s restaurant shows how it connects people and includes the LGBTQ community. A light yet inspiring doc about improving the community and making a difference through food and togetherness. Should’ve been longer and explored more of the impact and struggles.

Harvest

A hunting documentary that focuses on diverse first-timers in the Minnesota wilderness, tackling stereotypes of the sport and lifestyle. A warm experience of getting together in nature, learning about forming bonds and new skills. Beautiful cinematography and thoughtfully informative about hunting birds.

The Immigrant Rapid Response

A short documentary on Rapid Response and how they pulled together with the fund to defend immigrants in Minneapolis and raised $15 million. Informative about local business support and a strong call to action.

Memorializing The Movement

Documentary on Lessa Kelly’s collective and preserving art regarding George Floyd’s murder. Step-by-step process of transporting murals to storage. Highlights the importance of art to represent a movement. Features an emotional meeting with George Flyod’s family.

Faces of Hope

Documentary on Anoka County on dealing with the fentanyl epidemic. The personal stories of those who fall to drugs are tragically compelling. It highlights management issues and failures in the healthcare industry. The film covers how to find help and real results for recovery, as well as for the black community, which is more likely to be a victim of drugs.

Poetic Justice

Documentary on incarcerated women in Oklahoma’s Eddie Warriors Correctional Facility and its creative arts program. It progresses through sessions while explaining the program’s purpose. The film expresses feelings beautifully through poetry, listening to the prisoners rather than telling them exactly what to write, but it lacks full context about these women’s backgrounds.

Final Press

Documentary on Star Tribune’s final day printing the newspaper in Minnesota at the Heritage Center. Personal, quiet stories of the final day, briefly highlighting how the paper was delayed on its first printing when printed from Iowa. It’s pretty good for its intimate focus on the end of an era, but I would’ve liked to hang around a little longer before the lights went down for the newspaper’s final print run.

Plant Life

Documentary on Dr. Joanne Chory in California developing plants that can save the world from climate change, including a plant that can grow in the dark. A solid biography of Joanne’s history and her important work. Devoted and inspiring. Intriguing for how it uses CRISPR to improve plants and find new genes.

Making Music From Monsters

Documentary on being inspired by horror movies to make art and music in the form of the project called Vampire Hustlers. Short but sweet and inspiring documentary on wanting to create art that inspires others, but it could’ve gone into more depth beyond its charming editing.

Water Cooler

Documentary on ICE targeting migrants at an immigration HQ in New York, following casual conversations with ICE. An unforgettable documentary short that preserves an important moment. As our country faced a hideous erosion of our rights and shoved people off to be deported or went missing with zero accountability, those serving this grotesque regime that destroyed communities and human lives were talking about brunch and the weather on their breaks. They showed no care for human life, hiding behind masks. Just vile. History won’t look kindly on these folks. Why should it, when ICE didn’t bother to see anything wrong with what they were doing?

Me and Millie and Sundown Towns

Documentary on sundown towns and racism’s lingering presence in the Midwest through a Chinese woman, experiencing racism in plays as recently as 2008. This film needs to explore more, as it is far too short to highlight how racism lingers.

Living with a Visionary

Animated short about an aged couple dealing with changing perceptions of the world and the wife’s Parkinson’s disease. Gutwrenchingly beautiful animation about a couple struggling to survive with declining mental health amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s sweet at times, with charming animation, but also tearfully tragic as the couple grapples with Parkinson’s and isolation. With James Cromwell’s flawless narration, I was astonished by how engrossing this short became, with a relatable story that still manages to strum a mesmerizing melody on the heartstrings.

Wheel Dog

Documentary on dog sledding for those in wheelchairs. Very technical and fascinating, exploring how dog sledding is expanding to include a new group in Ely, Minnesota. The film reflects on veterans finding ways to survive and on their understanding and trust with the dogs.

Acting Like Women

An inspiring and personal documentary about the necessity of performance art amid the fight for women’s rights. It features compelling pieces, deeply meaningful motivations, and engrossing interviews, including with Lily Tomlin. 90 minutes is too short for such a rousing subject, and it misses opportunities to address more intersectionality, since the film mostly stays locked in the 20th century with only a handful of nods to the present movement. But for the ground it does cover, it’s a historically engaging picture, with enough archival footage of performances and disruption to inspire almost anyone.

All Too Clear: Beneath the face of the Great Lakes

Documentaries on the underwater world of the Great Lakes. A nature documentary that is earnest about the research and the decline of whitefish due to mussels reducing algae and UV radiation. It has some good info on how reduced pollution has led to fewer fish and more mussels, and that clear waters don’t mean a healthy fish ecosystem. It’s edited and assembled more like a standard nature show on television, but it serves its purpose well enough.

An Invitation to Wonder

A documentary on Wisconsin’s Waubesa Wetlands, focusing on wetland science and spending time in the harsh wetlands. I enjoyed this picture because it lets the beauty of nature sink in and shows the personal journey of learning to appreciate the ecosystem.

Another Place

Documentary on migration and seeking asylum from various countries with conflict. Earnest concerns over missing family and struggling to integrate on a language and psychological level. Some interviews are more compelling than others.

Beyond the Eagle Obsession

Documentary on fans of Space: 1999, but mostly on the Eagle starship, acting as a companion piece to The Eagle Obsession from last year. Aspirational for the old designs of a TV show, but this film is mostly gushing about Space: 1999 ships. Some interesting interviews feature engineers applying the show to real spaceship designs.

Comedy Through The Chaos

Documentary with Miss Shannan Paul centering on comedians using laughter to heal with honesty about real struggles.Two thoughtful episodes on comedians and reviewing how their jokes help them cope with the problems they’ve endured. It explores comedy through honest stories and characters, as well as deeply emotional moments, including an interview with Todd Jay before his death.

Catching Pinecones

Documentary on Herb and Jan Conn, an older couple who climb rocks and mountains and explore caves. Jan and Herb Conn left one of the coolest legacies, simply doing what they loved, regardless of being considered outsiders. This documentary perfectly captures the couple’s natural charm and their wondrous desire to explore every inch of our world while being true to themselves.

Come Talk To Me

Documentary on Jackie’s struggle with Parkinson’s disease over 23 years and speaking about the environment that spreads the disease. Speaking through a voice bank. Nice animations, and it’s honest about living with Parkinson’s, with input from others affected by it as well. It addresses aspects like masking and freezing well.

Fork in the Road

Documentary on American farms, featuring Nick Offerman. A compelling crash course in the problems of sustainable food and the crucial steps being taken to improve our environment, featuring some important interviews from those doing the hard work of agricultural development and a handful of passionate passages by Nick Offerman. It’s good stuff, but it feels like a buffet of issues, darting from underwater kelp production to the microorganisms essential for livestock. It’s a lot to take in, and this material deserves a miniseries more than a single movie.

Kids Like Me

Documentary on a 12-year-old with a genetic condition making a murder-mystery movie, with a guest appearance by Tony Shalub. A charming but honest film that reveals as much of the frustrations of this family life as the joys of Oliver’s murder mystery obsession.

Captive

Horror set in 1995 with an alien egg in a lab maintained by a scientist couple. Decent direction for a trapped-in-a-lab monster movie, but the characters are not as compelling.

Kings of Venice

Documentary on Paddle Ball and its most extreme players. The battle of Paddle Ball vs. Pickle Ball was more eccentric and intense than I thought. What a weirdly compelling sports documentary with fascinating people.

Jersey Boy

Coming-of-age drama of KD, a boy/man struggling to live in post/911 New Jersey after the hate-crime murder of his father. Strong performances and a meaningful tale about prejudice and family drama that never simplifies or melodramatizes. The coming-of-age story, told over two decades in a post-9/11 world, has room to explore powerful emotions beyond revenge, leaving the family nest, or coming to terms with identity. Together, these elements create powerful scenes where characters feel more real than vessels of the Sikh experience, making the film all the more genuine and heartfelt.

Love Reflected

A low-fantasy romantic drama about a husband and wife struggling to deal with the death of their partner, reconnecting through a mirror that acts as a window between timelines. Too slow and meandering for its concept, it spends too much time developing forgettable characters, which makes the emotional moments lack punch. It takes 1 hour 13 minutes to get to its different-realities gimmick, and even then the reunited couple just talk with lackluster audio. It could’ve been a decent Twilight Zone episode, but it doesn’t make for a good movie.

Mackenzie

A coming-of-age drama about a kid running away from home to be with her crush, 1980s teen heartthrob Mackenzie Astin. Far too slow-paced and meandering, with a kid’s silent adventure to California through the wilderness. Never really taps into childhood innocence or celebrity crushes.

Run Amok

A dark comedy about a student trying to come to terms with the death of her mother in a school shooting by directing a musical play about school shootings. Although uneven, it is decently quirky and compelling in its focus on the catharsis of school gun violence.

Small Talk

Drama about a young man moving back to the Twin Cities and struggling to accept his current circumstances. Hiding behind nostalgia, he looks to avoid the future and a potential terminal illness of a parent. Meandering but relatable dialogue about the Minnesota experience of trying to reconnect with friends and dealing with the death of a family member. It features some local humor with a funny punchline about the Shane Company on the radio after a breakup.

Small Town Girl

Retro drama about a 1970s teen girl being betrayed by her community while trying to become a star. Odd twist, but a good-looking movie with some solid performances.

T

Drama about a transmasculine, non-binary character conflicted about where to go with relationships. Although the premise has a Boyhood-style appeal of filming amid real testosterone use, there are some genuinely moving performances in this film that aren’t afraid to tackle the trickiest of situations for the non-binary, bisexual Em. It has plenty to explore, and it pulls it off with earnest warmth and frustration, from the uncertainty of dating to the awkwardness of reconnecting with family.

Test

Drama about an amateur bodybuilder whose life falls apart as he tries to become bigger, resulting in mixed sexual feelings. Filled with fury about how the hobby of bodybuilding encapsulates everything, from relationships to abuse to sexual desires.

Noxturne

Romantic thriller about a piano-playing woman whose injury makes her grow paranoid and furious about her drunk husband’s growing success after losing her ability to play. Decently erotic, but messy with its surrealism of a disabled woman growing paranoid that her husband’s fame is overtaking her piano career and a possible affair.

Blisters

1980s coming-of-age drama set in Manhattan, 1983. Sweet, but too light and dreamy about an immigrant girl’s headspace.

Woman Land

Drama about two Somali sisters in Minneapolis struggling to balance their family life with their secret business of a background-checking dating app. Strong atmosphere and characters, highlighting the complex feelings of a double life in matchmaking and living up to family expectations.

Not Dead Yet

Comedy of elders in the Hamptons trying to find projects, with Richard Kind aiming to start a diner. It’s a bit whimsical, following elders looking for something to do, but the tone is light and sweet, with strong performances from a notable cast. It’s always nice to see Richard Kind in a more prominent role, and Paul Raciti, as an artist with some bite, was charming. I would say the film could use more time to hang out with these lovable characters, but it would probably become too sugary. It’s best to keep a film this sweet short.