Category Archives: Film reviews

Ebertfest 2025, Film reviews

Color Book (Ebertfest 2025)

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Directed by David Fortune, this is a realistic journey about impactful changes that lead to fulfillment. The film’s cinematography is black and white and presents a story that is mind-boggling and mentally enticing. It is also emotional weaving in high and low moments. What hit me close to home in Color Book was the relationship between a father and his son who has Downs Syndrome. The story explores how parenting requires patience and unconditional love despite challenges. In this story, the challenges are greater because the father is raising his son alone.

Color Book’s screenplay is heartfelt and one-of-a-kind. The setting is Atlanta, Georgia. The father is Lucky (played by Wiliam Catlett), and his son is Mason (played by Jeremiah Alexander Daniels). Mason struggles with sensory overload. After the passing of his Mason’s mother, Lucky must help Mason find coping skills and raise him to have a fulfilling life. Mason has a fascination with having a balloon by his side which is the personification of calm. Mason also enjoys coloring which is linked to the film’s title. Lucky strives to make Mason happy, but it is mentally difficult for both father and son. 

The film’s mission is to find the connection between Lucky and Mason. Lucky promises to take Mason on a trip to a baseball game. This adventure has hurdles along the way as they encounter blockades of frustration. Deep down, however, there is love extending from Lucky to his son, Mason. At certain moments in the film, it may not be presented as love, but the new challenges serve as meaningful signs to the film’s audience. Color Book is a breathtaking portrait of acceptance and encouragement which are essential to the bond between Lucky and Mason.

Color Book felt soothing to me as Lucky and Mason learned to adapt. While there are struggles, happiness abounds. Despite the differences between father and son, Color Book highlights the beauty of acceptance as a form of love. Color Book creates a pattern of how a heart can love unconditionally. 

Seeing this masterpiece at Ebertfest reminded me how movies can spark emotions. I felt many different feelings during the turmoil throughout the film. I also felt the engagement of the audience around me. Color Book filled me with empathy due to the high-quality cinematic narrative. The film is not only deep, but visually stunning. Color Book reminds its audience to think about how others may see the world. People like Mason or his father Lucky who view the world from their own unique perspectives. The story also demonstrates how different behaviors lead to different outcomes. For example, Mason frequently has conflicts based on his sensory complications, and Lucky struggles to adapt. Deep down, human values so beautifully woven into the film’s story kept me intrigued. I thought about all the love that was present, but also what new elements both individuals had to adapt to while tolerating each other. This movie is an unforgettable portrait of love and parenting that is filled with artistic value. Three-and-a-half out of four stars for Color Book.

Ebertfest 2025, Film reviews

Desperately Seeking Susan (Ebertfest 2025)

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It was my first time ever watching Desperately Seeking Susan. What came to mind during the film were themes of attention and attractiveness based on the characterizations and personalities of Rosanna Arquette and Madonna. This movie helped Madonna on her rise to world fame. Desperately Seeking Susan was an amazing experience for me. The value of popularity and seeking attention in New Jersey incorporated elements which contributed to Arquette’s performance (as Roberta) and the concept of envisioning a completely different life. Since I was born in the 1990s, it was special for me to see Desperately Seeking Susan at Ebertfest. The festival highlights unique films from various eras, many of which turned into unexpected successes like Desperately Seeking Susan. Finally seeing this heartfelt film about connection, is something I’ll always cherish from Ebertfest 2025. This classic film remains vibrant with ambition and still holds up!

Film reviews

The Legend of Ochi Review

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This is one of those films where I felt a sense of connection that was mesmerizing. More by the fact that struggles with family in a fantasy setting loops in desperation and urgency—senses of feeling united throttle The Legend of Ochi. Written and directed by Isaiah Saxton, his focus brings his audience to a universe where one finds a cause to care for a particular creature. The setting has filming in Romania—a setting where mountains and villagers have a sense of brutality and norms. Saxton’s era is magnificent—because it is an adventure and fantasy that challenges a new approach to the sense of taking objectives that are right and sincere.

In the film, its main character is Yuri (played by Helena Zengel), and she is one who lives in the village of Carpathia. A destitute island with a vibe of mixed moving parts. It is written like politics are associated, but deep-down Yuri is the one who is alone. With a stubborn father Maxim (played by Willem Dafoe), and a questioning mother Dasha (played by Emily Watson). Yuri’s life revolves around scenarios that are not normal. Her life changes though when she comes across an “Ochi.” It is an animal where the village has been trained to despise, but Yuri feels that this creature is one that is in her hands to protect it. She decides to escape and make this creature her new opportunity. It is a newborn. She runs and Maxim hunts to bring her home, and so does her brother Petro (played by Finn Wolfhard).

The magnificent aspect is the lines of wanting to do good. There is also that nurturing personality of writing that thrives to make The Legend of Ochi feel like E.T. Overall. It is just in an era that is almost in the same period as E.T., but this one has more moving parts hidden beneath the surface. A lot of questions to why an “Ochi” is a creature of despise. Deep-down though, the bond is strong and heavy, and my hope for that true connection that thrives vigorously was when I kept praying for in The Legend of Ochi.

What kept coming to my mind is the pattern of the attitude with the performance of Zengel, Dafoe, and Watson—because throughout the setting of the film, they have that display of disconnect that throttles the sense of desperation. Of course, though, the village setting is in the protective zone, and that is what fuels the film’s loneliness side of the journey to save a creature. However, there is also a sense of good deeds invigorating the core. The Legend of Ochi tends to bring in beliefs to add layers of curiosity but also layers for optimism to keep burgeoning.

The setting of resources and times in complicated places is the valuable aspect in The Legend of Ochi. The writing of hardship and family patterns to maintain is where I found a light of hope that was insightful. The Legend of Ochi is a tail that invigorates a good deed for a cause of inspiration. “Inspiration” of what some will do to feel the lack of love—they will do the empathetic deed. Yuri is the one on the mission to fulfill that destiny. The task is not easy, but along the way, it spirals with magnificence.

Where depth and happiness throttle, it is in a moment when Yuri communicates with the “Ochi.” It is almost like speaking gibberish or Klingon (the language from Star Trek). In that key moment my gut for love felt nourished. That is because that makes the film revive a lonesome moment. It also leaves the door open for change to come around. Fantasy, the forests, and Yuri are the foundation to The Legend of Ochi. Truly magnificent, touching, wonderful, and a grandeur of wackiness with classiness on a level that goes dark to create a bigger meaning of empathy in a fictional tone. Four out of four stars for The Legend of Ochi.