From my virtual experience taking part in the Film Girl Film Festival, I got the chance to experience Yucca Fest. In Chelsea Murphy’s directorial debut, her brilliant vision and craft makes Yucca Fest a heist film like no other. There are no explosions, no violence, but simply four friends, a concert festival, and lots of California scenery. I love Yucca Fest because it is a film that is both realistic and artistic. Yucca Fest speaks to the society we live in today which is filled with concerts, money, and risky decisions among young adults. More importantly, the film is presented faithfully through the eyes of Murphy herself.

Yucca Fest is the name of the festival, and the film takes place in the Joshua Tree area in southern California. The four friends are Summer (played by Monroe Cline), Pete (played by Jey Reynolds), Zach (played by Nicholas Harsin), and Kevin (played by Dale van Slyke). They are all young adults who make bad decisions involving pickpocketing and stealing money in a variety of ways. The friends realize they can score big money if they rob a music festival which they know is risky. The question that keeps the audience curious is if the friends can pull their plan off because someone else may be onto the money as well. Yucca Fest is a film of frustration and disbelief as struggling young adults aspire to a more fulfilling financial life. Sadly, their focus on the financial part of life leads to poor decisions.

What spoke to me about Yucca Fest were the decisions related to criminal behavior.  These are young adults who are engaging in conversations about how money impacts their lives. However, instead of enjoying the real experience of attending the festival, their focus is on the money they’ll make by stealing. It is a reverse money’s worth situation for the four young adults.

The setting in California enhances the film’s narrative of Yucca Fest. There are many stereotypical California characters in the movie, including those who love skateboards and trendy clothes, and who revel in the freedom the state has to offer. During this freedom, viewers are left wondering why the young adults are making such poor life choices. Murphy challenges her audience by making the situation overwhelming for the four friends. The magnitude of the heist is portrayed as both remarkable and astounding.

Yucca Fest is a film I will remember for being a very different, unpredictable heist movie. It is not one’s typical heist thriller, but it is clever and realistic with generous believability. Three stars for Yucca Fest. The film can be viewed on Filmgirlfilm.com as part of the Feature series in the Film Girl Film Festival. The festival runs March 25-31 and be accessed virtually. For more of my reviews, my site is movieswithtarek.com.

The Outfit is a scintillating cat and mouse game from the brilliant mind of writer, producer, and now director Graham Moore. Moore won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2015 for The Imitation Game. In The Outfit Moore brings us another excellent film that draws his audience into a dangerous and spellbinding situation.

The Outfit takes place inside a tailor shop in Chicago in the 1950s. Mark Rylance plays a world class tailor named Leonard who calls himself a “cutter” and is a man of few words. Leonard has an assistant, Mable, played by Zoey Deutch. Leonard’s shop is where the local gangsters get their suits made and one night two of the mobsters, Richie and Francis, played by Dylan O’Brien and Johnny Flynn, come to Leonard for help identifying a rat in the organization. During a harrowing night in the tailor shop, Leonard and Mable—and possibly Richie and Francis—face grave danger as Leonard tries to figure out how to safeguard them.

The Outfit a mysterious film where no one has all the pieces to the puzzle of who the rat may be, and there are unexpected twists. Mark Rylance’s quiet character is perfectly suited for his role as Leonard, and director Graham Moore really helps his actors play to their strengths.

I loved The Outfit. Despite being filmed entirely inside one location, it is just pure adrenaline. The solitude of Leonard, the crazy mob situation in the tailor shop, and the unexpected disasters all lead to a mesmerizing experience. It is a true classic from the mind of Moore. Four stars for The Outfit.

From director Ti West comes a film, X, that combines the horror and adult film genres. X manages to surpass the limits of graphic killings and slashings of Wes Craven’s Saw franchise, while also including a lot of sexual content. Fair warning—this is a film that may be more than some moviegoers can handle. But it is well done and I actually loved it.

X takes place in in 1979 in rural Texas. A group of filmmakers rent out a property to make an adult film. The porn gang includes Maxine, Lorraine, Bobby-Lynne, Jackson, RJ, and Wayne, played by Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, Kid Cudi, Owen Campbell, and Martin Henderson, respectively. The film starts with laughter, a lot of sex, and the gang partying down like there’s no tomorrow. But the fun starts to go downhill when landlord Howard, played by Stephen Ure, realizes what they are doing on his property. Then the porn stars must fight for their life from this insane landlord, as he stalks them in the woods where alligators lurk and traps await them.

All slasher thrillers have some obvious commonalities, and X is similar to some other slasher films I love, like Vacancy(2007), both versions of The Last House on the Left (1972 and 2009), Sinister(2012). Besides the gore, horror films always leave the audience wondering how the good guys could possibly make it out alive when the killer is around every corner. In X the good guys have more places to hide, but that means there are also more places for the crazy landlord to hide. Plus, the land itself is dangerous with the alligators and other traps lurking.

X was filmed on a Sony Cinealta Venice camera, which greatly enhances its cinematography quotient, and the overall enjoyment of the film. No camera captures natural light and vivid colors like the Venice.

There aren’t many slasher thrillers that can shock fans of this genre, but X does manage to shock at times, and it’s just different enough to make it not your typical brand of horror. It really is a knockout work of art. Three and a half stars for X.