The last Sundance Film Festival based in Park City, Utah, has drawn to a close. The future sees the fest relocating to Boulder, Colorado, but for now, Little Village brings dispatches from Sundance to you in Iowa — starting with three documentaries that premiered at the fest. Representing three U.S. regions, these films critique the […]
Ariana Martinez
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Worth a Rewatch: ‘The Thing’ finds normal people resisting a violent invasion of their snowy home
There’s nothing like beginning the year at the end of the world. As Iowa City’s FilmScene prepares for its yearly showing with two screenings, how does John Carpenter’s cult classic, a film infamously received as off-putting during the Reagan era, land on our laps as we face our own rising tide of conservatism and real-world violence? […]
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Film critic and UI grad Jason England explains why he found this Oscar frontrunner ‘extremely goofy’
In his discerning review for Defector, England argues that One Battle After Another lacks the heart and soul required of texts seemingly devoted to political revolt, a spectacle synonymous with many left-leaning signposts that rely on performances of politics, rather than action. His piece received substantial attention, most disputing England’s argument, but it was not the discourse that spurred my conversation with England. At the tail end of his review, England surprisingly mentions Iowa City…
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‘You’re My Waterloo’: How a very 1982 tourism song became a Cedar Valley sensation
In 1982, the inaugural My Waterloo Days Festival was held as a celebration of the beginning of the summer. Replete with a parade, laser light shows and hot air balloons, it was a special event seeking to foster community bonding amid economic strife. John Deere was seeing mass layoffs, the Rath Packing Company was on […]
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Review: ‘Videoheaven,’ a genre-defying film essay at Refocus, stirred and challenged Iowans’ rental store nostalgia
Do you remember your favorite video store growing up? Director Alex Ross Perry, who recently released his experimental documentary film Pavements, chronicles the now virtually extinct rental shop industry in Videoheaven, a three-hour film that screened at the Refocus Film Festival earlier this month. Fascinatingly, it’s not really a documentary. Videoheaven is uniquely devoted to studying […]
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Review: Queer desire ruled at Refocus 2025, from ‘She’s the He’ to ‘Hedda’
The Refocus Film Festival awarded its Audience Choice Award to She’s the He, the debut feature from director Siobhan McCarthy. In it, high school best friends Ethan and Alex find themselves tangled up in a queer coming-of-age. Alex (Nico Carney), desperate to impress his dream girl, insists that they pretend to be trans women in […]
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Film critic and frequent ‘Filmspotting’ podcast guest Michael Phillips talks adaptations, Trump fatigue and the Refocus film that feels most pertinent
Michael Phillips, former film critic at the Chicago Tribune, is coming back to Iowa City for the Refocus Film Festival. There, he will join UI Professor and Filmspotting co-host Adam Kempenaar for a live taping of the podcast Friday, October 10. Little Village met with Phillips to chat about the festival and reflect on his long career in a fickle field.
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Beth M. Howard’s ‘Pieowa’ is the taste-good, feel-good film of the year
It is the first weekend of the Iowa State Fair, and Beth M. Howard is still thinking about pie. “I’ve tried to get away from pie a couple of times,” she said, “and I just keep getting pulled back. I’ve surrendered.” Howard has made a career off the pastry, first by writing a memoir about […]
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Film review: Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington’ depicts a small town spiraling in May 2020. It’s as bleak and familiar as you’d think.
“Don’t make me think. Post it.” Sevilla County Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) blurts out this line during his haphazard campaign against mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) in Ari Aster’s latest film Eddington. Set in May 2020, pandemic panic slowly infects the titular New Mexican town before any nasal swabs come into play. Though our […]
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The 25th Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival featured stories local, global and out of this world, all with an Iowa connection
Collins Road Theatres was positively buzzing the weekend of April 4-6, and not just because A Minecraft Movie had premiered. The Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival (CRIFF) returned to screen a new slate of original, Midwest-made films inside an unpresuming Marion shopping center. As the lights dimmed for my first film of the fest, I […]
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The Iowan-produced ‘Bob Trevino Likes It’ premieres at Varsity Cinema, FilmScene Friday
What does it mean to foster a chosen family? To find a community so welcoming, it becomes another unit of intimacy altogether? For film producer Edgar Rosa, it meant cultivating a hub of artistry at an early age. Born in California, but raised in Iowa, Rosa was involved with the Des Moines Playhouse by age […]
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Valentine’s Day at the movies: Sweet and sour date stories at local cinemas
Growing up, everyone urged me to never have my first date at the movie theater. It simply isn’t the ideal location! There is little room for conversation, and a first date should promote learning about the other person.
