After witnessing a violent beating on the boardwalk, a 12-year-old boy starts to feel his sleepy coastal town closing in around him. “Sparrow,” directed by Boris Krichevsky and Nikita Zarkh, is a quietly arresting character study rendered with striking images of desolate seaside locales. The boy,...

An incisive dissection of jealousy, and the need for independence within a relationship. It stumbles into some absurdly funny territory, but it's largely a drama, one that burrows deep quickly and leaves you feeling punched in the gut. The explosive performances by writer/director Ben Petrie and ...

Anne gathers herself for a job interview, a casual one at a coffee shop, but still a job interview. When her potential new employer arrives, a smooth, well-dressed man named Georg, giving off all the social cues of a first date, she’s caught off-guard and scrambles to react. Brilliantly observed ...

Waking in the home of a one night stand, a woman steals one thing while forgetting another. “Girlpower,” directed by Caydon LiRocchi, is a minimal, richly observed character study about a morning in the life of a young woman in L.A. Slowly we learn fragments about her life. She has an upcoming do...

On the anniversary of his father’s death, Tariq dedicates a dance to him, triggering childhood memories. “Muscle Memory,” directed by Saladin White II, is a poignant tone poem about fatherhood presented in vignettes of the present day and flashbacks. We follow Tariq, himself a father to a young b...

During a lonely summer break, a teenage girl explores her sexuality via a dating app. Matthew Brennan directs “Summer Vacation,” an intimate snapshot of Alice, a high school runner who goes on a series of dates and struggles to feel any sort of passion. When Alice runs into an old friend, Jill, h...

After being abandoned at a rehab by her mother, young Bea is forced to evade authority figures and fend for herself. Kerry O’Neill directs “Bea at Rehab,” a tense drama that tracks a girl and her at-the-moment surrogate mother through a desperate whirlwind of a day. To hide her presence at the fa...

A lonely bookseller in Brooklyn navigates the world as best as he can post pandemic. His store is closed, but he still goes in once a week to mail out online orders and compose personal letters to his customers. Before the shut down, he met a young woman in his store that he felt a strong connect...