Anyways, let’s get to it. Welcome to The Maine Playweek…

Spider-Man: Brand New Day & Jason and the Argonauts

July 31st and August 1st at 8:35pm | Bridgton Twin Drive-In, Bridgton

Look, the new Spider-Man is out this weekend and no other release wants to step on its spidey toes. Plus, we’re still hot on the heels of The Odyssey, so there aren’t that many screens available. That being said, it should still be a really fun ride. But I really wanted to give the Bridgton Twin Drive-In its flowers for yet another amazing double feature: the new Spider-Man and 1963’s Jason and the Argonauts. Just awesome. I think Brand New Day is a perfect drive-in movie for our current day and the best way to present that is with 1963’s perfect drive-in movie.

Tickets

Spider-Man Showtimes

State of Firsts

All week | PMA Films, Portland

Need a good dose of hope? This is the perfect medication. State of Firsts follows Sarah McBride’s historical run to be the first openly transgender member of Congress, complete with great optimism and annoying shitheads. It’s a truly awesome story that gives you some of the most access to the inner workings of political campaigns and features one of the greatest response to adversity. Grab your kleenex and see this!

Tickets & Showtimes

Maddie’s Secret

July 31st at 7pm | SPACE Gallery, Portland

An amazingly melodramatic satire from the comedic genius John Early, Maddie’s Secret is simply something to behold. It’s somehow simultaneously over the top while being deeply emotionally grounded, Maddie’s Secret is a tale of a woman who wants to be a cooking personality but accidentally triggers her dormant bulimia. The first showing at SPACE sold out quite quickly, so I wouldn’t sleep on these tickets for too long.

Tickets

WarGames

August 5th at 7pm, August 8th at 2pm and 7pm | Kinonik, Portland

Yes, Kinonik is showing WarGames. Yes, you need to see it. This is non-negotiable. If you do not, I will hack your computer and start a thermonuclear war. That is all. END OF MESSAGE

Tickets

But Wait, There’s More!

We’re nearly ready to put out some of our MIFF and MOFF interviews, so be sure to stay tuned! Plus, we’ve got some fun paid subscriber perks coming soon so be sure to upgrade your subscription!

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MIFF Favs on Repeat

MIFF may be over, but we’ve got two different films that were shown at the festival that are currently getting encores. First up is the Audience Award winner Child of Dust, a story of the scars the Vietnam War left on the Vietnamese people as well as a tale of trying to find your parents. That’ll be showing all week up at Maine Film Center. Also, up at the Alamo Theatre in Bucksport is Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass! I loved this movie, it’s super ridiculous. That’ll be showing July 31st through August 2nd.

Child of Dust Tickets

Alamo Theatre

Drive-In Round-Up

note - this is in addition to the above Spidey/Jason double feature…

• Bridgton Twin Drive-In

  • Spider-Man: Brand New Day - August 2nd-6th at 8:35pm

  • The Odyssey - all week at 8:35pm

• Narrow Gauge Drive-In, Farmington

  • Moana - July 31st and August 2nd at 8:30pm

• Prides Corner Drive-In, Westbrook

  • Spider-Man: Brand New Day & The Breadwinner - July 31st-August 2nd at 7:30pm

• Saco Drive-In

  • Spider-Man: Brand New Day & The Breadwinner - July 31st-August 2nd at 8:30pm

• Skylite Drive-In, Madawaska

  • Disclosure Day - all week at 8:30pm

Everything Else We’re Intrigued By This Week

• The Floaters - July 31st-August 5th at 1pm and 6:45pm | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland

• Stand By Me - August 1st at 5:15pm | Leavitt Theatre, Ogunquit

• Twilight: New Moon - August 1st at 10am; August 2nd at 10am, 3:30pm, 6:30pm; August 5th at 3:30pm and 6:30pm | Flagship Cinemas, Auburn, Falmouth, Thomaston, Waterville

• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (the good one with Gene Wilder)

  • August 2nd at 3:30pm and August 5th at 6:30pm | Black Bear Cinemas, Orono

  • August 2nd at 7pm | Apple Cinemas, Saco and Westbrook

• Omaha - August 3rd and 4th at 5pm and 8pm | Rangeley Lakeside Theatre, Rangeley

• Detour - August 4th at 6:30pm | Fort Kent Cinema, Fort Kent

• Animal House - August 5th at 6:30pm | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland

• Tourmaline Prize winners

• Maine’s summer film festival landscape

• time loops

• bespoke merch and self promotion

• the cinematic equivalent of leaping from an airplane

• the movie viewer’s imax forgiveness PSA

As always, check out showtimes.themaineplayweek.com and let us know what you think. And don’t forget to follow us @themaineplayweek on Instagram!

With that pre-tangent out of the way, it’s time to talk movies! Let’s get to it, welcome to The Maine Playweek.

Hadestown: The Musical

All week | Black Bear Cinemas, Orono; Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland; Patriot Cinemas at Freeport Village, Freeport; The Gem Theater, Bethel; Maine Film Center, Waterville; Smitty’s Entertainment, Windham; Bangor Mall Cinemas, Bangor; Flagship Cinemas, Auburn and Falmouth; Apple Cinemas, Saco and Westbrook; Regal Cinemas, Augusta

Hadestown and I have a very interesting history: I was lucky to see Anaïs Mitchell at a performance in Burlington back in 2009 for the Champlain quatercentenary where she performed a song entitled “Hades & Persephone” off her (then) new album. This song was later retooled and renamed “How Long?” for her musical that, ten years later, would go on to win Best Musical and Best Original Score at the Tony Awards. For me, however, I wouldn’t see the musical until this past winter when I went to see my high school’s performance. If you haven’t had the chance to see it, you absolutely need to see it while it’s in theatres now. It’s a beautiful show with amazing music and performances, and while the tale isn’t all too new (it’s based on the tragedy of Eurydice and Orpheus) the telling of it is completely new and original.

Tickets and Showtimes

American Flyers

July 29th at 7pm, August 1st at 2pm and 7pm | Kinonik, Portland

The World Cup may be over, but the Tour de France is just about to finish up this weekend! What better way to celebrate than by watching one of the most “trapped in amber” films about cycling?! Starring a young Kevin Costner and featuring main characters with the most 80s names (Marcus, David, Sarah, and Becky), American Flyers is (somehow) simultaneously a sports drama, comedy, sexploitation, and western all at once. It’s a real trip, and Kinonik is showing it on film at their place so you can experience it as if you were transported back to the 80s yourself! Minus the cigarette smoke…

Tickets

Final Three Days of MOFF

July 24th - 26th | PMA Films, Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Eastern Promenade, Salt at Maine College of Art & Design, Three of Strong Spirits

We’ve got only three days of MOFF left! Here’s what’s on the docket:

• Friday, July 24th

  • The MOFF Pitch - 10am | PMA Films

  • Mountain Magic Shorts Program - 12:15pm | PMA Films

  • Community Currents: Fighting Apathy in the Age of Climate Change - 2:30pm | Salt at Maine College of Art & Design

  • Catching Pinecones + House of Light - 5:00pm | PMA Films

  • Gale Force Shorts Program - 8pm | Gulf of Maine Research Institute

• Saturday, July 25th

  • Old Man Lightning + Against the Clock + Humble Schist - 12pm | PMA Films

  • Around the World Shorts Program - 2pm | PMA Films

  • Crafting the Core: Finding the Story (Filmmaker Panel) - 4pm | Three of Strong Spirits

  • Unearth - 5pm | PMA Films

  • What’s Next? Securing Support (Filmmaker Panel) - 5pm | Three of Strong Spirits

  • MOFF Networking & Happy Hour - 6pm | Three of Strong Spirits

  • Squall Shorts Program - 8pm | Eastern Promenade

• Sunday, July 26th

  • MOFF Plog + Jog Fun Run - 9am | Preble Street Lot at Back Cove

  • The Cutoff - 11:30am | PMA Films

  • Earth Love Shorts Program - 1pm | PMA Films

  • Split - 3:45pm | PMA Films

  • Fork in the Road - 5:15pm | PMA Films

  • Tailwind Shorts Program - 8pm | Eastern Promenade

Tickets

But Wait, There’s More!

If you’ve been following us on Instagram, you heard that we did a bunch of interviews while up at MIFF. We did! We’ll be coming out with all of those, as well as some interviews we did at MOFF, very soon so keep an eye here so you don’t miss a thing!

Christmas? In July?

The Leavitt Theatre down in Ogunquit is throwing their annual “Christmas in July” celebration this Saturday! They’ll have a Surfer Santa there to take photos, plus they’ll be showing the Christmas classic Elf for free at 5:30pm! And, while I wholeheartedly disagree with it being classified as a Christmas movie, they will also be showing Die Hard for free at 8:15pm. It’ll be fun, even if I disagree with the classification.

Drive-In Round-Up

• Bridgton Twin Drive-In

  • The Odyssey - all week at 8:40pm

  • Toy Story 5 & Moana - July 24th and 25th at 8:40pm

  • Toy Story 5 - July 26th - 30th at 8:40pm

• Prides Corner Drive-In, Westbrook

  • The Odyssey & Jaws - July 24th-26th at 7:30pm

• Saco Drive-In

  • The Odyssey & Young Washington - July 24th-26th, 29th, and 30th at 8:40pm

• Skylite Drive-In, Madawaska

  • Minions & Monsters - all week at 8:30pm

Everything Else We’re Intrigued by This Week

• Her Private Hell - all week | Colonial Theatre, Belfast; Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland; Bangor Mall Cinemas, Bangor; Flagship Cinemas, Auburn and Falmouth; Apple Cinemas, Saco and Westbrook

• Reading Lolita in Tehran - all week | Strand Theatre, Rockland

• Possession - July 24th at 8:30pm | Colonial Theatre, Belfast

• Tremors - July 25th at 10am; July 26th at 10am, 3:30pm, and 6:30pm; July 29th at 3:30pm and 6:30pm | Flagship Cinemas, Auburn, Falmouth, Thomaston, and Waterville

• The Fifth Element

  • July 26th at 3:30pm, July 27th at 6:30pm | Black Bear Cinemas, Orono

  • July 26th and 27th at 7pm | Apple Cinemas, Saco and Westbrook

• The Right Whale: Tales of Resilience and Hope - July 26th at 6pm | Harbor Theater, Boothbay Harbor

• The Lion King - July 26th at 4:30pm | Leavitt Theatre, Ogunquit

• Horsegirls - July 26th at 5pm | Strand Theatre, Rockland

  • This film screening will be followed by a Q&A with producer Michael Sherman and the film’s stars Lillian Carrier, Gretchen Mol and Jerod Haynes.

• Jaws - July 27th at 5:30pm and 8:15pm | Leavitt Theatre, Ogunquit

• The Blueberry Blues - July 28th at 6:30pm | Colonial Theatre, Belfast

• Barrio Triste - July 29th at 7pm | SPACE Gallery, Portland

• Close Encounters of the Third Kind - July 29th at 6:30pm | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland

• Out of Print - July 30th at 7:15pm | Lincoln Theater, Damariscotta

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I’ve always been a sucker for capital-R Romantics. For the uninitiated, Romanticism isn’t about passionate bodice-ripping (necessarily), but an arts movement grounded in the love and reverence of nature and the embrace of individualism. If I had to sum up Romanticism in one picture, Casper David Friedrich’s painting Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog would have to be it (and Wikipedia seems to agree). And if I had to sum up Romanticism in a moving picture, as a documentary making Romantic art reality, then Catching Pinecones is hard to beat.

Prior to watching, I had never heard of Herb and Jan Conn. Apparently, in the world of rock climbing and spelunking, they’re kind of a big deal. Many records and notable firsts in climbing and cave exploration belong to them, which the film details lovingly and I shan’t recap here. But the Conns are so much more than a pastime they seemed to have picked up by accident.

Beginning with a humble courtship in the 1930’s, Jan and Herb cultivated a partnership and lifestyle that those of us living now in 21^st-century America can only dream of. They buy hundreds of acres of property in the Black Hills of South Dakota with the ambition of climbing every nubbly, rocky precipice within. A hollow in the same property is furnished with rubblestone and timber to become their full-time, off-the-grid residence (punningly known as “The Conn Cave”). Herb uses his engineering degree to calculate that nearby Jewel Cave, once thought to be a “small” cave, is actually thousands of miles deep, with only hundreds thus far explored by humans (namely, themselves). And Jan nurtures her talents as a lyricist and multi-modal musician: indeed, the film’s soundtrack is entirely her own works.

It’s hard to not love the Conns as the movie documents the pictures, diaries, and other ephemera that survive them. Jan Conn, who passed away in 2023, sits with us on and off screen for much of the feature, telling us tales throughout the years that would seem too fantastic to be real were there not proof otherwise. But it’s the footage of the lone wanderers, standing atop one of the many Needles, gazing afar, that really makes my Romantic heart race. Casper David Friedrich dreamt it; the Conns actually did it.

Catching Pinecones is playing on Friday, July 24 at 5pm at the Portland Museum of Art, as part of the Maine Outdoor Film Festival.

Tickets

🌲 FULL MOFF SCHEDULE 🌲

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I love movies about moviemaking. I would argue you get a better appreciation for the art form by seeing the process from start to finish. In just under thirty minutes, the film Stories to Save Us: The Saltmarsh Sparrow delivers a compelling story about why these filmmakers are choosing this tiny bird in particular to show you how to appreciate the world you live in. This all culminates in the final six minute narrative sequence the first half hour spent preparing you for. You know every shot that is coming, you know how long it took them to film, and you know how it ends. And yet, the emotion of seeing this sequence play out uninterrupted is no less powerful. It’s deliberate. It doesn’t shy away from showing you something because you were there in the marsh with them when they shot it. The movie was made with you, the audience member, as an active participant in the process.

Salt Marsh Sparrow writer and producer Melanie Finn takes us through marshes around the east coast, meeting with experts and framing the biome as one of immense importance. “Sea level rises affect the amount of water that flows into marshes, and that affects the animals within them, specifically the salt marsh sparrow,” she says. Marshes, for most of their history, have been viewed by humans as less-than-spectacular spots. The film wants you to understand that by seeing what’s happening to the marshes in real time, we can understand how climate change isn’t something that will happen. It’s already well underway.

The film also follows Matt Aeberhard, Director and Cinematographer, as he collects the footage that will culminate as the ending sequence of the film. Wrestling with how to show rising tides, he opts for a number of approaches, hoping to instill the most intrigue and artistry. There is a certain melancholy that persists over him the entire film. Getting attached to these animals throughout the course of making the film, he knows what’s coming for them. But he keeps coming back to the marsh day in and day out. Again and again.

And isn’t that like all of us? We go about our days, our jobs, our relationships, perhaps unaware or just ambivalent to the various crises around us. And yet we persist. We do what we know works and we change when we can no longer be ignorant to the scope of our surroundings. We’re fortunate that we can survive in many places and habitats. For the saltmarsh sparrow, that’s not up to them. For thousands of years they’ve been using the grass of the marsh to raise broods and hunt insects. But they cannot live that way any longer without our help. As Matt puts it, “The bird’s tragedy is a way of educating people.” Sometimes we need to snap out of it. See things differently. I think this movie will change you if you want it to. And if the story of the saltmarsh sparrow can save you, I have hope for the future of humanity.

Stories to Save Us: The Saltmarsh Sparrow is playing on Wednesday, July 22 at 2:30pm, as part of MOFF’s short film block and panel event “Community Currents.”

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The internet tries to describe Mark Jenkin’s newest film, Rose of Nevada, as a sort of science fiction mystery: two men join the crew of an eerily strange fishing boat that has been missing for thirty years, then find themselves transported back in time to when the boat first disappeared. This is an objectively accurate detailing of the plot, but it seems to miss the point of the movie as a whole, as it focuses not on the heart of the story, but on how it most relates to popular films that have come before. At the end of the day, Rose of Nevada is in fact a fantasy—or perhaps a delusion or simply a piece of imagination—in which two men living a vagrant existence on the ravaged Cornish coast of England suddenly find themselves with the chance to occupy a very different and more meaningful role.

This follows a recent and exciting lineage of mainstream stories finding a resonance with magical realism, where the description of what actually “happens” in the story often fails to capture what it’s trying to accomplish. The ineffectual plot descriptions of this film demonstrate how these types of movies are unusual according to our current expectations for what movies could and should be; and yet these films in particular have been gaining traction, with the popularity of features such as All of Us Strangers, which uses a similar time-travel plotting but which one would never call science fiction; and, to some extent, recent A24 hits Love Lies Bleeding and The Iron Claw, both which end in places where reality inexplicably bends and distorts in ways that previously would have been thought impossible.

Rose of Nevada does indeed involve traveling through time: these two men (George Mackay, Callum Turner) find themselves living the lives of two different men from the past who had once disappeared at sea. They are given a chance at a new life not only for themselves, but for their countrymen, their town, and the entire future of this community, which will be otherwise doomed to depression caused by globalization and modern changing whims. This is not a story about what it might be like to travel into the past, but what it could be like to have a new opportunity, to help in a generational struggle against hardship.

The specifics and mechanics of time travel fall out of view and become unimportant; instead, it is why these two men are tangled in this dilemma that becomes the real concern—a far more mystical and existential question, one that forefronts the search for identity and meaning that most genre stories leave to subtext.

Jenkin’s films have regularly dealt with themes and images of the working class, shifting economies, and the values and identities of his home in Cornwall. (Check out his 2018 film Bait for another great example.) All of his films, including Rose, employ some rather dated filmmaking techniques in order to capture the tactile and the analogue aspects of his subjects—such as shooting on 16mm film with an old-school Bolex film camera, using an unusual aspect ratio that makes the image on the screen appear almost square, and recording all dialogue and sound in post-production. These aspects give the film a sense of having been lost to time and rediscovered, as though it has been sitting in a canister in a basement for the last thirty years, waiting to be put back on the screen.

The most glaring way in which this is different from Jenkin’s previous work is the presence of George Mackay and Callum Turner, the most universally known faces to appear in a Jenkin production by several orders of magnitude. Their appearance on the poster alone is enough to give audiences a particular expectation for what the movie will be like, and it certainly influences the descriptions of the film that one finds online. It’s nothing short of astonishing to begin watching and to discover the movie for what it really is: a patient, careful study of a town in decline, of the textures and materials of a certain working class, of a feeling of hopelessness and desperation that is rooted in place and time.

It feels both strange and wonderful to see something so tactile and handmade being released in the evolving digital landscape of 2026, on a big screen, with stars that the population at large recognize and want to watch (not least because of Turner’s recent nuptials with popstar Dua Lipa). I’m sure that some audiences—particularly those who don’t engage with movies made before the 1990s—will be put off by this movie’s slowness, its dated aesthetic, and a camera that doesn’t give into today’s breakneck pace of movement and editing. But if those people actually watch and think about this movie as a whole, then perhaps they will discover some of the reasons why it was made in such a specific way, and therefore feel the satisfaction of meeting the film in conversation at its own level.

Mainers in general should relate to such a tale of economic depression, of a working waterfront in decline; while they also might resonate with the prospect of rediscovering a sense of community. Among my own friends, I know that the prospect of Turner and Mackay, playing sailors working together on a ravaged English coast, will be more than enough enticement.

Rose of Nevada is playing at PMA Films throughout July, and will be opening at the Eveningstar Cinema on August 7.

Showtimes

Welcome to The Maine Playweek…

Maine Outdoor Film Festival

July 21st - July 26th | Eastern Promenade, MECA&D, PMA Films, GMRI, and SPACE Gallery, Portland

Ain’t no rest ‘round here! We’re finishing out MIFF with the start of MOFF! Showcasing some of the best outdoor films shown outdoors, the Maine Outdoor Film Festival is one of the coolest experiences you can have during the summer in Maine. Plus, if you’re lucky enough to grab a ticket on the Prom, you get to watch some of them outside! We’ll be doing coverage throughout the festival, so be sure to stay tuned!

Schedule

The Odyssey

All week | Everywhere around the state (no joke)

It’s arguably the film event of the year, so there’s not much I could write that could convince you one way or the other: guys, gals, and nonbinary folk, it’s Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. TBH, I’m pretty excited. I’ll watch it in IMAX at some point in the near future. It’ll be good. Yup, that’s all I’ve got to say.

Tickets & Showtimes

Maine Silent Film Festival

July 22nd and 23rd at 7pm | Alamo Theatre, Bucksport

Need more festival in your life, but could do without talking? Oh boy, do I have the festival for you! The Maine Silent Film Festival returns for another year at the beautiful Alamo Theatre for two days of curated programming. On the 22nd, they’ve got the sneaky funny titled day of “Horse & Marriage” and, on the 23rd, a block titled “Perilous Railroads.” Plus, we’ve got the amazing Doug Protsik, who did the accompaniment for the silent film series at the Lincoln Theatre, doing the accompaniment on both days!

Schedule & Tickets

But Wait, There’s More!

We’ll be coming out with Kyle’s review of The Rose of Nevada tomorrow, but I wanted to mention that you can still see it at PMA Films starting 7/17 going through 7/23. Once the review is published, we’ll add a link here.

Drive-In Round-Up

• Bridgton Twin Drive-In

  • The Odyssey - all week at 8:45pm

  • Minions & Monsters and Moana - July 17th-18th at 8:45pm

  • Moana - July 19th-23rd at 8:45pm

• Prides Corner Drive-In, Westbrook

  • The Odyssey and Jaws - July 17th-19th at 7:30pm

• Saco Drive-In

  • The Odyssey and Obsession - July 17th-19th and July 22nd-23rd at 8:45pm

• Skylite Drive-In, Madawaska

  • Minions & Monsters - all week at 8:35pm

Everything Else We’re Intrigued By This Week

• Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World - all week | Strand Theatre, Rockland

• Jurassic Park - July 17th at 6pm | Leavitt Theatre, Ogunquit

• Maddie’s Secret - July 18th at 4pm | SPACE Gallery, Portland

• Bellissima - July 19th at 5pm | Strand Theatre, Rockland

• A Bigger Splash - July 19th at 12:30pm | PMA Films, Portland

• Ferris Bueller’s Day Off - July 20th at 5:30pm | Leavitt Theatre, Ogunquit

• Goldfinger - July 20th at 7pm | Opera House Arts, Stonington

• Backdraft - July 21st at 6pm | Fort Kent Cinema, Fort Kent

• 1776 - July 21st at 6:30pm | Colonial Theatre, Belfast

• Breakfast at Tiffany’s - July 21st at 7pm, July 22nd at 2pm | Lincoln Theater, Damariscotta

• The Muppet Movie - July 22nd and 25th at 11am | Patriot Cinemas at Freeport Village, Freeport

• Red River - July 22nd at 7pm, July 25th at 2pm and 7pm | Kinonik, Portland

• The Godfather - July 22nd at 6:30pm, July 23rd at 1pm | Lincoln Theater, Damariscotta

• The Matrix - July 22nd at 6:30pm | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland

We’re still in Waterville at the Maine International Film Festival, have you seen our coverage? Follow us on Instagram and see all our MIFF reviews here. But this post is about MOFF— the Maine Outdoor Film Festival, July 21-26 in Portland. Catch more MOFF film reviews over the next week by subscribing to The Maine Playweek!

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Split immediately endears you to its characters, Tom and James, in what I can only describe as “comedic nihilism”. And for a movie about environmentalism, I’d say the tone befits the message that director Charlotte Workman, also a character in the film, is trying to tell. The title in this case has a double meaning as well. Split refers to a splitboard, a snowboard that can be transformed into skis, making it useful for scaling terrain, and what each member of the team uses for their expedition as they set out to climb (and potentially snowboard down) a remote area of mountains in Greenland. It also refers to the split personality conundrum of our two leads, Tom Reynolds and James “Veeds” Van der Hoorn. The conundrum? Tom and James are both environmentalists as well as airline pilots. Planes emit more carbon dioxide per mile than any other transportation on earth. A fact that isn’t lost on either man. This movie suggests it has only made them better environmentalists.

The real kicker of the film is the relationship between the two best mates. After developing an instant “bromance” when they met in UK Flight School, Tom and James bonded over their obsession with endurance sports like extreme cycling, where they set the world record time for cycling to seven countries in one go. In Split they set out to push their bodies to the limits yet again, while promoting environmentalism in two distinct ways. Going straight to the source, James is preparing to give a lecture at the Royal Aeronautical Society about contrails, hoping to enact change from the inside with the people in the country that could actually change how much CO2 is being emitted per flight. Tom, however, asserts that real change happens from the outside, as we see him joining a climate change march in the streets of London.

Much of the expedition that we see on screen is them pulling their pulks, or sleds, through the fjords. These pulks are carrying everything they need to survive for six weeks alone, including all the heavy film equipment that Charlotte needs. In theory, the hardest part of this whole, crazy idea should be the start. They will be pulling the most weight at the beginning of their journey, and be the weakest physically. It should set them up nicely for the eventual summiting of mountains never before climbed. However, it ends up being more difficult than they anticipated, as they come upon felled avalanches. With the three explorers being of different weights, it also makes following each other’s paths difficult with the snow layers at varying depths. Charlotte elects to hang back on a particularly difficult climb, wanting to allow the boys to continue without her, but Tom shoots the idea down. He trusts his co-pilot in this sense and decides it’s not worth doing if the whole team isn’t feeling safe. They still have plenty of opportunities and an abundance of nameless peaks in front of them.

I have to admire the artistry of director, cinematographer, editor, and film subject Charlotte Workman. Along with Tom and James, she pulls double her weight in gear in freezing temperatures, not to mention she’s the one who is out there creating these amazing shots of the arctic landscape. You may not fully appreciate it when you are watching, but to know that she is capturing all the footage you see solo, is simply awesome. Especially after she nearly contracts frostbite on her toes. Split can feel monumental in terms of its world scale on activism, and also extremely intimate in its portrayal of the human condition. Both of which it handles with extreme care. Its stakes are real and told in a way that is ultimately hopeful. Remember how I said it felt like “comedic nihilism” was front and center in this film? Well you can decide for yourself, but I’d say by the end of this thing you’ll be feeling a little better about the strides you are taking on a daily basis to reduce, reuse, and recycle. And if we can all feel like every small moment matters, then maybe we can believe every big moment is possible.

Split is showing as part of the Maine Outdoor Film Festival on Sunday, July 26 at 3:45pm at the Portland Museum of Art.

Tickets

Whip Hubley is no stranger to the big screen, having appeared in well-known projects like Top Gun (1986) and A Cinderella Story (2004). Thirty years ago, when he was still out on the West Coast, the script of a smaller project grabbed Hubley’s attention. He was soon cast in Michael Shoob’s Driven (1996), as Jason Schuyler, a down-on-his-luck Los Angeles taxi driver. The film, by Hubley’s own admission, never grabbed widespread attention, despite warm receptions at festivals. Nonetheless, this passion project is yielding a sequel, coming soon to Portland.

Hubley returns as Jason in Road to Everywhere, a collaboration between himself, Shoob, and three other actors from Driven, now screening in Maine. Jason Schuyler is no longer down on his luck—he’s fully burned out. “He’s driving a cab in the day of Uber—I mean, imagine,” says Whip. Offered five thousand dollars to drive gambler Jake (played by Yellowstone’s Robert Mirabal) to the Navajo Nation, Jason doggedly continues on the only path he’s ever known.

It’s this element of Jason’s character that is so appealing to Hubley—in some ways, the gap between the two films is integral to the story they tell, and personally appealing to Hubley. In the mid-90s, he spent a blissful period of time in Australia—he had steady work on a TV show, and was able to bring his family there while he worked. Upon his return, he landed in a far less welcoming landscape: a post-dot-com-bubble Hollywood, where his representation had been bought out by a large, impersonal agency. “I went down a hole,” admits Hubley.

But much like his character Jason, Hubley continued on the only path he knew. Through feast and famine, he continued acting, which ultimately led him to Maine. He appears these days mostly in stage productions around the Portland area, and discovered a renewed love for the art. “It’s a freeing experience. It’s a whole new phase of life,” he says. (For more info straight from Whip, check out his interview with News Center Maine!)

And now that his newest film is being shown? Hubley is excited for audiences to see the story that’s developed. “It’s a road trip movie about two guys whose lives didn’t turn out the way they wanted to, taking a look back and seeing where their mistakes have taken them […]. It’s about that journey that we take in life. We can either shut down to it and die as a grumbly old fuck, or we can, as my daughter says, open the aperture and let the light in.” I spoke with Whip freshly after the film’s screening in North Haven, where Whip has been spending time for 49 years. “That’s the most nerve-wracking situation”, said Whip when I asked him, “when people know you.” But the reception of the film was warm, and was followed by a Q&A where Whip was able to explain more of how the film came to be. Road to Everywhere screens at the Portland Museum of Art on Friday, July 17th at 5:30pm, and will be followed by a Q&A with Whip and Bob Keyes. Other screenings details are available at the film’s website. If you too want to open the aperture, I hope you’ll plan to attend.

Let’s get to it, welcome to The Maine Playweek…

Maine International Film Festival

July 10th - July 19th | Maine Film Center and Waterville Opera House, Waterville

Y’all, MIFF is here! If you couldn’t tell, we’re quite excited for this year’s iteration of the festival and we’ll be providing on the ground coverage from the festival all week. Be sure you follow us on Instagram so you don’t miss all of our coverage, but we’ll also be posting here on Substack as well. If you want to check out the full festival line-up, you can go to the MIFF website at miff.org or you can visit our showtimes website at themaineplayweek.com/showtimes, navigate over to the festival tab, and check out all of the amazing films. It’ll be a great time of new films, modern classics, and amazing art, so come join us!

MIFF Website

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass

All week | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland; Patriot Cinemas at Freeport Village, Freeport; Flagship Cinemas, Auburn and Falmouth; Apple Cinemas, Westbrook

July 13th at 3pm | Maine Film Center, Waterville (shown as part of MIFF)

Do you like a romp? Do you like celebrities? Do you want to have sex with John Hamm? If you answered yes to at least one of those questions, this is the movie for you! It’s a seriously ridiculous quest to use a “celebrity sex pass” in order to save a new marriage that ends in an adorable group of misfits becoming friends. Plus, it’s got John Slattery playing a caricature of himself, Weird Al Yankovic wielding a gun, and Joe Lo Truglio as a quasi-mob boss. Definitely recommended if you loved Wet Hot American Summer. Still on the fence? Check out our piece we published earlier this week!

Tickets & Showtimes

The Invite

All week | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland; Flagship Cinemas, Auburn and Falmouth; Apple Cinemas, Saco and Westbrook; Bangor Mall Cinemas, Bangor

Your upstairs neighbors are having extremely loud sex every night, preventing you from sleeping and doing your work. Should you invite them over and confront them? And, once they are over and ask to have a foursome with you and your wife, should you agree? That’s the basis of The Invite, the newest film from director and star Olivia Wilde and writers Will McCormack and Rashida Jones. It’s a pretty intensely yet wonderfully hilarious film that really showcases the breadth of skill from all four of its actors (Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton). Will it be awkward? Of course, but sometimes the awkwardness leads to some great stuff.

Tickets & Showtimes

Roman Holiday

July 12t at 5pm | Strand Theatre, Rockland

Yeah yeah yeah, Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, beautiful scenery, classic movie, you know the deal. What’s really exciting about this is the fact that, after the presentation of this film at Strand, New York Times critic A.O. Scott and TCM host and writer Alicia Malone will be leading a discussion on the film! This is an extremely unique opportunity to listen to some of the best critics and writers talk about the craft of film and what makes this film in particular such a lasting presence in film history. If you are in Midcoast and can’t make your way up to MIFF this weekend, please try and make it!

Tickets

But Wait, There’s More!

In case you missed it, we’ve put out a bunch of reviews of MIFF films over the past couple of weeks including on Mallory’s Ghost, In Transit, the aforementioned Gail Daughtry, and Downeast Hardcore. Be sure to check them out!

Drive-In Round-Up

• Bridgton Twin Drive-In

  • Moana with Toy Story 5 - July 10th-11th at 8:50pm

  • Minions & Monsters with Disclosure Day - July 10th-11th at 8:50pm

  • Moana - July 12th-15th at 8:50pm

  • Minions & Monsters - July 12th-15th at 8:50pm

• Prides Corner Drive-In, Westbrook

  • Minions & Monsters with Disclosure Day - July 10th-12th at 7:30pm

• Saco Drive-In

  • Minions & Monsters with Scary Movie - July 10th-12th, 15th, and 16th at 8:45pm

• Skylite Drive-In, Madawaska

  • Scary Movie - all week at 8:30pm

Everything Else We’re Intrigued By This Week

• Evil Dead Burn - all week | Black Bear Cinemas, Orono; Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland; Flagship Cinemas, all locations; Apple Cinemas, all locations; Regal Cinemas, Augusta; Bangor Mall Cinemas, Bangor; Smitty’s Entertainment, all locations

• Rose of Nevada - all week | Strand Theatre, Rockland

• Contact - all week | Colonial Theatre, Belfast

• Earth’s Greatest Enemy - July 10th at 3:30pm | Eveningstar Cinema, Brunswick

• Romería - July 11th at 12pm, July 12th at 3pm, July 15th at 1pm | PMA Films, Portland

• Canoe Dig It? - July 11th at 7pm | SPACE Gallery, Portland

  • There will be a Q&A with director Sam Dunning after the screening with our very own Julia Dunlavey!

• My Neighbor Totoro

  • Dubbed

    • July 11th and 12th at 4pm | Apple Cinemas, all locations

    • July 12th at 7pm | Black Bear Cinemas, Orono

  • Subbed

    • July 13th and 14th at 7pm | Apple Cinemas, all locations

    • July 13th at 7pm | Black Bear Cinemas, Orono

• Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - July 11th and 12th at 3:30pm | Eveningstar Cinema, Brunswick

• Twister - July 12th at 4pm, July 14th at 6:30pm | Black Bear Cinemas, Orono

• H is for Hawk - July 13th and 15th at 5pm and 8pm | Rangeley Lakeside Theatre, Rangeley

• Backdraft - July 14th at 6pm | Fort Kent Cinema, Fort Kent

• Maddie’s Secret - July 14th at 7pm | SPACE Gallery, Portland

  • We would’ve talked about this film more, but it’s currently SOLD OUT as of publishing. That being said, if a ticket becomes available, you should jump at the opportunity to see this amazing movie. Plus, there’ll be an encore screening on the 18th!

• Caddyshack - July 15th at 6:30pm | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland

• Sebastiane - July 15th at 7pm, July 18th at 2pm and 7pm | Kinonik, Portland

A familiar town, a familiar voice, a familiar movie. Or is it?

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass starts with a familiar and comforting premise. The story of hometown heroes Gail Daughtry and her fiancé Tom’s relationship is quickly shown through a montage of photos, keepsakes, and newspaper clippings. It’s a saccharine-sweet romance for the ages, narrated to the audience by the friendly neighborhood mailman (Fred Melamid), whose butter-smooth voice whisks the audience away for what is sure to be the latest and greatest Hallmark classic romance. And then not one minute in Tom (Michael Cassidey) is shown out on the lawn of their suburban home “pitching a tent” in nothing but his boxers.

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass isn’t a romance at all. It’s not even a romantic comedy; this film is no more and no less than a shot of absurdist comedy straight into the veins.

I’ll admit this came as no surprise. This film is directed by David Wain and written by Wain and longtime collaborator Ken Marino. I’ve followed the pair’s work since the sketch comedy troupe The State and religiously watch Wet Hot American Summer to mine a fresh quote with which to delight my film nerd friends. I swear, every time I go back and watch Wet Hot, I see some bit I hadn’t noticed before, but my all-time favorite still has to be the going into town montage. After all, it’s always fun to get away from camp, even for an hour. So, knowing the filmmaker’s past work, I was pleasantly unsurprised that Gail Daughtry stays right in that unflinching absurdist lane.

We follow the titular Gail Daughtry, played by Zoey Deutch, throughout the entirety of the film. Zoey has the unenviable task of maintaining the bright, hopeful personality of the lead actress without ever winking at all the craziness going on around her, and she does a fantastic job. From the inciting incident of her walking in on her fiancé doing the dirty with none other than Jennifer Aniston, and then attempting to gaslight her into thinking it’s no big deal due to the rules of the celebrity sex pass (apparently everybody gets one??), to setting out on her own quest to make her impending marriage work by making the score even and sleeping with Jon Hamm, Gail gets caught up in so many shenanigans it will make your head spin. Thankfully, the writing is up to the challenge, and Zoey gets to put her finger on the scales on more than one occasion, getting to create the chaos rather than just get swept up by it.

Gail’s companions on her quest don’t just steal the show; they are the show. Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is brought to life by its ensemble cast, which grows more and more stacked as the film goes on. Just like Dorothy picks up a new compatriot as she seeks the Wizard of Oz, Gail acquires new member of her troupe in every scene. Miles Riley as her ride-or-die hairdresser friend, Ken Marino as a down-on-his-luck paparazzo looking for his “white whale” shot of John Hamm, Ben Wang as a lovable talent agent, and John Slattery as an exaggerated version of himself make for an eclectic group. It would be all too easy for this kind of mishmash ensemble to feel forced and bland, but the unexpected character traits they all bring to the table and the oddly charming group dynamic that forms really holds up. I’d also be remiss not to mention the fantastic dynamic between two the mobsters played by Joe Lo Truglio and Mather Zickel, who chase after the heroes and really ham it up in the best of ways. The two have one of the best evil villainous laughs I have heard in some time.

Everyone on the cast has plenty of space to shine, and that’s saying something considering the staggering number of celebrity cameos outside of the main gang. I won’t spoil whether or not the band of misfits actually does reach Jon Hamm in the end, but they sure do come across plenty of other big names who play themselves in the film, Jennifer Aniston included. It’s clear that so many talented and funny thespians wanted nothing more than to play around with their other talented and funny friends in this production, and it wasn’t for the payday. A small budget comedy isn’t going to be shelling out the big bucks, but maybe with the success of films like the latest Naked Gun, that trend may start to reverse. In any case, in watching Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, it was clear that everyone was having a real fun time, and in this day and age, it just feels nice to be a part of something like that.

Does every joke in Gail Daughtry land perfectly? Of course not. But you can be secure in the knowledge that the next zinger is coming right around the corner. I sincerely hope you go out and see Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, which will be showing at the Maine International Film Festival on July 13th.

See Gail Daughtry at the Maine International Film Festival on Monday, July 13 at 3pm. And see all of our MIFF coverage here!

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MIFF29 Articles

For our next MIFF review, our friend from The Bollard wrote about a new documentary Downeast Hardcore: Stories from The Kave about a DIY hardcore venue in Bucksport.

Like narrative films, a good documentary needs heroes and villains to generate dramatic tension and keep our attention. In Downeast Hardcore: Stories from the Kave, it’s obvious who the heroine is: Kathy Findlay, affectionally nicknamed Kathy Kave. An occupational therapy assistant at a middle school in coastal Bucksport, Maine, Findlay fostered a chem-free hardcore music scene in the early 2000s and kept it going for 15 years, operating an all-ages club called The Kave on her small family’s woodland property where local and national acts could rage.

The villain is amorphous but crushingly powerful. Charles Baudelaire fingered it in the 1850s in his poem, “To the Reader,” which reads in English like proto-hardcore lyrics:

Folly, error, sin and avarice
Occupy our minds and waste our bodies,
And we feed our polite remorse
As beggars feed their lice.

Among all these enemies of humankind, “There is one uglier, more wicked and more foul than all!” reads Wallace Fowlie’s 1964 translation from the French of The Flowers of Evil.

Although he does not make great gestures or great cries,
He would gladly make the earth a shambles
And swallow the world in a yawn;

It is boredom! …

Boredom stalks the youth of Bucksport and surrounding towns like a serial killer, but its bodycount is no simile. The opioid crisis started taking lives in rural Maine in the late 1990s and peaked during the period covered in the film. Crisis-level social problems in our state — including poverty, domestic abuse and neglect, childhood hunger, and clinical depression and anxiety disorders — also feed this beast. Suicide is the second-most-common cause of death among Maine youth ages 10 to 24, and its rate has more than doubled since 2003, according to state government statistics.

Among the many people interviewed in Penobscot filmmaker Ricky Leighton’s tribute to The Kave — punk and metal musicians and fans who played and hung out there as kids — maybe one or two more-or-less says the place saved their life. But it’s obvious that Findlay spared dozens of outcast youth from the reaper of ennui with her maternal kindness and the sincere respect she showed for their brutal art.

“It’s pretty rough, especially if you are a young person,” says longtime Bangor Daily News culture writer Emily Burnham, who now publishes the Substack newsletter The Other Maine. “When you get to the age when you can have some independence, you’re gonna be not only so bored, but have lots of opportunities to get into some stuff that is not gonna be great for you.”

“All we got is fuckin’ drugs, alcohol and fishing,” local Chris Saunders says on camera with a rueful laugh. “If you don’t do those three, there’s not much left to do.”

Findlay, who got into classic rock while growing up in this area, saw her students’ plight and stepped up big-time. Crucially, she was not repulsed by hardcore music, the raison d’être of which is, in no small measure, to antagonize adults. She genuinely loves the genre and recognized how hardcore empowered kids and provided the sympathetic and creative community they lacked elsewhere, albeit one whose central ritual involves stomping around in front of the stage swinging fists at invisible tormentors.

And Findlay definitely wasn’t in it for the money. There’s very little to be made in hardcore music generally, and the crumpled bucks she collected selling pizza slices at shows hardly made a dent in the electric bill. The bands and fans themselves pitched in to keep this DIY venue going until a leukemia diagnosis forced Findlay to close The Kave 10 years ago.

Leighton does an excellent job rooting this film in the social conditions that spawned the scene and giving viewers a palpable sense of what it was like to experience a Kave show, aided by archival footage from Lenny Smith of Lennyvision. Findlay, the film’s executive producer, is justifiably championed for her generosity of spirit and deed, but not by anyone of any prestige or pedigree, like a politician or some self-described expert.

“I think what’s amazing is that she did it all without any assistance from town or government,” Leighton told Joey Jett and John Boit of the Penobscot-based digital newsroom The Rising Tide. “She had more impact on rural Maine youth than most of those programs could ever attempt to do. Imagine what could be done if they took unconventional approaches or actually empowered kids to have some say in what they need.”

We don’t need to imagine what the status quo has wrought. The film ends with a lengthy sequence honoring members of the Kave community who’ve died, none of whom are old. Downeast Hardcore is an important and inspiring document of one Maine woman who made a real difference.

Downeast Hardcore: Stories from The Kave premieres at MIFF at 9pm on July 18th with an encore screening at 4pm on July 19th. It will be shown in competition for the Tourmaline Prize, a juried award recognizing the best Maine-made films of the festival.

Tickets

Jaclyn Bethany’s film In Transit is, ironically, a movie about holding still.

Lucy (played by the film’s screenwriter Alex Sarrigeorgiou) is a bartender working in small-town Maine. After dropping out of college to take care of her father before his death, she now works at the same bar he helped build. It’s a life of familiar routine— serving beers to the regulars, chatting about their lives, and spending the evening with Tom, her chef boyfriend (François Arnaud)— but one that Lucy seems largely content with having fallen into.

When Ilse (Jennifer Ehle), a worldly painter stuck in a creative rut, arrives in town for an artist’s retreat, she takes a shine to Lucy, fascinated by both her easy rapport with customers and her face. A brief sketch turns into an offer of a modelling job, and Lucy soon finds herself regularly modeling for Ilse’s paintings. To work as an artist’s model is to be scrutinized without being seen, to be reduced to shadows and angles while holding as still as possible, but Ilse and Lucy’s relationship quickly develops beyond a surface-level transaction.

The two women may be at vastly different moments in their lives–one young, unmarried, and deeply imbedded in her childhood home, the other older, recently divorced, and a globe-trotting, acclaimed artist— but they nonetheless find themselves drawn to each other. Ilse is renowned and financially successful as an artist, but finds herself dissatisfied by her artistic output. Lucy, on the other hand, initially seems content with her small-town world until she learns her beloved bar is changing ownership. While Ilse finds a new muse in Lucy, Lucy is also invigorated by their relationship as she begins to question if she wants more out of her life.

Set and filmed in midcoast Maine, In Transit also works as a lesser-seen snapshot of a state often shown as a summery vacation destination. The Maine depicted in Bethany’s film is one shrouded in snow and fog, a sleepy town burrowed down beneath long winter nights. While Ilse breezes into town, hoping a change of scenery can jog her creativity, Lucy and Tom work hospitality jobs that ebb and flow with the arrival and departure of seasonal tourists. The slowness of winter months also reflects the emotional tenor of Ilse and Lucy’s life, both stuck in their own ways as the spring thaw creeps closer.

Much like Ilse and Lucy’s modeling sessions, In Transit is a slow, contemplative film. Mimicking the gaze of a painter, the camera lingers on conversations and poses. Each subtle change in posture and expression— the shift of an elbow, the slide of clothing down a limb, the tilt of a head, and the pinning of a gaze— is captured with deliberation. From the frozen tableau of wintertime Maine to the warm amber of a kitchen window against the dark night, the unhurried cinematography of In Transit lets itself linger in the world it has constructed.

Fitting for a film that is, at its heart, about looking, Jennifer Ehle brings a quiet focus to Ilse. To be a painter is to be an observer of humanity, cataloguing the physical and emotional, the fall of shadows and the splay of light. Lucy, on the other hand, is more unformed and unsure, stuck in her life more out of inertia than choice, and Alex Sarrigeorgiou imbues her with an increasing restlessness. François Arnaud also brings surprising depth to a character who, by virtue of the narrative, spends much of the story pushed further and further away by Lucy.

While modeling for a painter may be a passive job, allowing another person to arrange your limbs and capture your visage, Lucy’s relationship with Ilse helps her realize how stuck she is in her life. Does she really want to work at the same bar for the rest of her life, marry her boyfriend and raise children in her childhood home? Or is there another life out there, one past the bounds of her familiar routine? Just as a painter’s model cannot hold still forever, Lucy begins to realize that, perhaps, she needs to let herself move on.

In Transit is showing at MIFF on July 16th at 1pm and July 18th at 3pm and is in contention for the Tourmaline Prize, a juried award recognizing the best Maine-made films of the festival.

Oh hey! We’ve got a TMP Express for you this week! We’ve got a lot of stuff cooking in preparation for festival season and, while there are some fun things coming out this week, general releases are a bit light due to the premieres of some big blockbusters. So here’s a quick breakdown of some fun films that you can see in the coming week:

Jackass: Best and Last

All week | Black Bear Cinemas, Orono; Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland; Flagship Cinemas, All locations; Apple Cinemas, All locations; Smitty’s Entertainment, Sanford and Windham; Bangor Mall Cinemas, Bangor; Regal Cinemas, Augusta

It’s Jackass. You know it, you probably love it. Plus, this is (allegedly) the final installment in the franchise with the original crew. And since Jackass 4 came out during the pandemic, this is the perfect time to transport yourself back to the 2000s and laugh your ass off with a bunch of people.

Tickets & Showtimes

In Jackson Heights

June 27th at 2:30p | PMA Films, Portland

In the PMA’s final film of their Frederick Wiseman retrospective, we’ve got an amazing portrait of the extremely diverse Queens neighborhood, Jackson Heights. Like all of Wiseman’s documentaries, it’s such a wonderful portrait into a life that you may have never considered as well as an extremely personal perspective.

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Drifts

June 27th at 2pm | Reel Pizza Cinerama, Bar Harbor

A beautiful little short film that is set between New York City and Maine is having its Bar Harbor premier this weekend. It’s an intimate little view into a father-son dynamic as well as the difficult of a mid-life crisis. The director will be in attendance to do a Q&A, plus the composer will be doing a set of music inspired by the score for the film.

Tickets

The classics are alive in Maine

There’s a bunch of throwback films from the 70s, 80s, and 90s (plus one from 2001) that are being shown all around the state, so let’s go through them:

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show - June 27th at 8:30pm | Colonial Theatre, Belfast

• Spaceballs - June 27th at 10am; June 28th at 10am, 3:30pm, and 6:30pm; July 1st at 3:30pm and 6:30pm | Flagship Cinemas, Auburn, Falmouth, Thomaston, Waterville

• Jurassic Park - June 27th and 28th at 7pm | Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor

• The Iron Giant - June 28th at 1pm | Lincoln Theater, Damariscotta (Free Screening)

• Blade Runner - June 28th at 4pm and June 30th at 6:30pm | Black Bear Cinemas, Orono

• Shrek - June 29th at 6:15pm | Leavitt Theatre, Ogunquit

• Jaws - July 1st at 6:30pm | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland

• A League of Their Own - July 2nd and 4th at 7pm | Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor

Drive-In Round-Up

• Bridgton Twin Drive-In

  • Supergirl & Masters of the Universe - June 26th and 27th at 8:55pm

  • Toy Story 5 & The Breadwinner - June 26th and 27th at 8:55pm

  • Supergirl - June 28th - July 2nd at 8:55pm

  • Toy Story 5 - June 28th - July 2nd at 8:55pm

• Prides Corner Drive-In, Westbrook

  • Toy Story 5 & Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu - June 26th and 27th at 7:30pm

• Saco Drive-In

  • Toy Story 5 & Masters of the Universe - June 26th - 28th at 9pm

• Skylite Drive-In, Madawaska

  • Toy Story 5 - all week at 8:30pm

Everything Else That I Couldn’t Fit Into a Theme

• Supergirl - all week | EVERYWHERE!

• 100 Years of Route One: A Centennial Road Trip - June 28th at 5:30pm | Harbor Theater, Boothbay Harbor

• You Are Here - June 29th at 6:30pm | Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor

• Recovery in Maine - June 30th at 6:30pm | Colonial Theatre, Belfast

• Canoe Dig It? - June 30th at 6:31pm | Fort Kent Cinema, Fort Kent

• Resurrection - June 30th and July 1st at 5pm and 8pm | Rangeley Lakeside Theatre, Rangeley

“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Leviticus 18:22-23 (KJV). While this biblical passage often used to condemn gay sexuality is never directly quoted in Adrian Chiarella’s 2026 Australian horror film, its shadow looms large over the movie, which also takes its title from the third book of the Old Testament. (Interpretations and translations of this passage can vary.) Leviticus, released in American cinemas this June, is a psychologically complex horror film that constructs its fear not just from supernatural elements, but from its all-too-real portrayal of religious homophobia and conversion therapy.

Teenage Naim (whose name also comes from the book of Leviticus), portrayed by Joe Bird, is a newcomer in the desolate industrial Australian town where Leviticus lays its scene. He’s recently moved there with his born-again Christian mother (Mia Wasikowska) and the only bright spot in his new life is Ryan (Stacy Clausen), another teenage boy whose parents attend the same congregation. When not stuck listening to school lectures or church sermons, the two of them explore the outskirts of town, tussling in the dry grass fields and breaking into an old mill. Away from the eyes of peers and parents, their roughhousing becomes something else, a wrestling match bleeding into a kiss. Bird and Clausen imbue these early scenes with a kind of hesitant, playful tenderness, capturing both the sweet rush of a teenage crush and its furtive secrecy.

A secret teen romance is hardly new territory for a queer film (and, if you’re so inclined, you can even do what I did and give yourself tonal whiplash by pairing Leviticus with Hayley Kiyoko’s lesbian coming-of-age romance Girls Like Girls, also in theaters in this month), but Leviticus takes a sinister turn when the boys’ parents learn of their queerness. A “deliverance healer” is called in for a ritual meant to publicly cleanse away homosexuality. The ritual, however, turns out to be more than just a moment of public humiliation as the boys soon realize they’re being hunted by a bloodthirsty demon who takes the form of the person you desire most: in this case, each other.

Wisely, Leviticus doesn’t complicate its premise with too much demonology or supernatural lore. The focus isn’t on the nature of the demon or the deliverance healer’s powers, but on the psychological impact the curse has on Naim and Ryan. The demon functions by a series of rules that are as simply as they are inescapable: it comes when you’re alone, in the form of the person you desire most, and the more time you spend with that person, the better the demon is at imitating them. Every kiss can be mirrored in a moment of violent supernatural retaliation, every glimpse of a familiar face underscored by the fear that it’s actually a demonic impersonator.

Leviticus’s demon, at its heart, is a kind of supernatural conversion therapy, aiming to hammer fear and shame into Naim and Ryan until they’re willing suppress their desires and feign straightness. (It’s worth noting that Leviticus isn’t a period piece. Conversion therapy isn’t a thing of the distant past and was only outlawed in the state of Maine in 2019). Ultimately, the fear that demon exacerbates Naim and Ryan is an externalization of the conservative religious environment they’re raised in, one in which parents hold a dangerous “lover the sinner, hate the sin mentality” and the butterflies of a teenage crush are unable to flourish before they’re dragged down by fear.

Clocking it at just under an hour and a half, Leviticus doesn’t overwork its premise into repetition. Accompanied by Jed Kurzel’s subtle yet ominous score, Naim and Ryan are hunted with increasingly accuracy and violence by demonic doppelgangers of each other, trying to survive without succumbing to what their church wants: to be afraid of themselves, and the desires they harbor for each other. Much of Leviticus’s tension comes from waiting, from knowing the horror could come at any moment–or questioning if it’s already there, hiding in plain sight. Still, the most haunting moment of the film to me was not a scene of supernatural menace or gore, but something far more mundane: Naim’s mother, after subjecting him to supernatural torment to straighten out his sexuality, picks the olives off a slice of pizza in an unasked gesture of maternal care from a woman who’d rather see her son cursed than love him for who he really is.

A few years ago, I never would have braved theaters to watch Leviticus as soon as possible. I was just too easily frightened by every jump scare or ominous chord to get any real enjoyment out of horror films. When my love of Guillermo del Toro’s films led me to watch Crimson Peak, it was through my fingers in my well-lit living room, and I only watched films like Get Out and A Quiet Place at the insistence of friends who didn’t mind if I squeaked at jump scares or clutched a sofa pillow in a death grip.

Oddly enough, it was a global pandemic that began to open me up to the possibility of enjoying horror on a regular basis. With the world suddenly plunged into an uncertain and terrifying state, I had trouble escaping into stories where characters worried about everyday things like parties and romance–their problems suddenly felt quotidian and only reminded me of the normal world I wasn’t experiencing. Ask ten horror fans why they like horror and you’ll probably get ten different answers, but for me, it was originally simple: I liked reading and watching about characters having a worse time than me.

“Well, it could always be worse!” isn’t necessarily the kind of philosophy that can fuel your exploration of a wide-ranging genre like horror, and I soon came to appreciate other aspects of the genre. There’s the almost joyful thrill of well-constructed scares, the way that a thoughtful horror story can excavate and analyze societal ills, and the way that the horror genre seems especially welcoming of low-budget innovation.

In a cinematic landscape that often seems choked by big-budget blockbusters and reboots, the last one can seem especially refreshing. To me, it seems that horror fans especially like it when a movie is a bit of an underdog, whether that’s films that were critical/commercial failures turned cult classics (Jennifer’s Body), a mix of campy and gory (The Lost Boys), or intentionally grainy and shaky (28 Days Later, every found-footage film). The current embrace of horror films from directors who cut their teeth on YouTube–Talk to Me, Backrooms, Iron Lung, and Obsession, to name a few–could also be seen as an extension of that fondness for the scrappy, the innovative, and the genuinely scary. While these films vary in their production and reception–and that’s to say nothing of other recent horror hits like Sinners, Longlegs, and The Substance–it’s clear that one thing that draws audiences to the theater these days is a simple desire to be really, really scared.

In a time in which horror seems to be having an ongoing moment, Leviticus arrives in a market that is both incredibly full, but also, hopefully, ready for such a riveting and intrinsically queer story. It’s not a film that garnishes itself with big-budget set pieces and complicated demonic lore. Instead, it’s a supernatural story that underscores its fear by how firmly it’s anchored in the real world. The demon doesn’t haunt an otherworldly hellish wasteland, instead lurking in the abandoned industrial mills and peeling-paint neighborhoods that Ryan and Naim call home, summoned by extremist believers whose gray cinderblock church echoes with Christian rock and hate. Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen’s phenomenal performances are the poles around which the film builds itself, able to weave together the poignancy of illicit young love alongside mounting dread and panic. How can you escape fear, Leviticus asks, when it lives inside you, stoked by every spark of desire? In film as in life, there’s no easy way out, but Adrian Chiarella’s film is a response as eerie as it is genuine.

Leviticus is now showing in theatres across Maine. You can find showtimes at themaineplayweek.com/showtimes or by visiting this link.

Our first feature comes to us from Kyle Manning, who watched Mallory’s Ghost, a Maine-made film shot in and around Portland which is eligible for this year’s Tourmaline Prize at MIFF. We’ll be posting reviews, interviews, and more leading up to the festival, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing!

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On the surface, Arabella Oz’s debut film Mallory’s Ghost tells the story of a couple from New York City who spend a few days at a friend’s house in Maine so that Sam, a struggling playwright, can focus on his writing. Mallory, with no such creative outlet, is left to wander the massive and somewhat creepy property to the point that she begins to see a spectral version of Sam’s fabled ex, Louise, who is an accomplished writer and who Sam spent time with in this very house. So begins a haunting emotional adventure that brings Mallory into conflict with the past, her relationship, and herself.

But this description does not do justice to what makes the film great. The story begins in the form of a lighthearted “rom-com-dram” as we meet the two main characters in a flurry of smart quips and fast cuts that carry us through the dynamics of their relationship. As they step inside the house in Maine, however, Mallory is forced to explore her new space in the dark, as the electricity has been mysteriously cut; suddenly we’re in something more akin to a horror film, as Oz uses darkness and jump scares to portray the uncertainty into which we are heading. As Mallory begins to uncover and delve into this place that is inundated with her partner’s past, her sense of a present reality is confused and obscured. We get the sense that neither Mallory nor the audience are aware of what kind of story they’re getting into.

From there, one might consider the film to be a drama, a bildungsroman, or even a fantasy, depending on the scene; it ultimately manages to avoid encapsulation by any one of these monikers, however, by abandoning any strict sense of what needs and should happen in any one of those genres. Instead, the film invests everything it has—including any strict sense of time or reality—into allowing the characters to drift from each genre and trope to the next in search of what may or may not lead to their fulfillment.

I’m comfortable saying that this movie will take you by surprise. It faithfully follows the beat of Mallory’s confusion, her self-consciousness, and hidden desire to be okay with herself. It’s all stitched together and accentuated by talent both in front of the camera and behind; the characters are brought to life by a minute yet intimate cast (Nick Canellakis, Anjelica Bosboom, Delphi Harrington, and Arabella Oz herself) in a way that makes the film feel like the best kind of local theater. That feeling is solidified by the film’s modest budget and its occasional (and very endearing) hokeyness.

Which brings us to what endeared me to the film from the very beginning: its sense of humor. Great cinema, as well as great literature, knows that a laugh here and there does not necessarily make a story a ‘comedy’; the ability to insert a joke into an otherwise very serious situation is in fact a sign of a writer’s deftness and understanding of their story. Oz’s Mallory is quietly hilarious, in the way that we all wish we could be while in the midst of wrestling with our partners, their pasts, and ourselves. In between the film’s subtle jokes and very human moments of weakness, it’s all too easy to want to be Mallory’s friend, to want to see her come out of this house with her whole self intact.

Mallory’s Ghost is showing at the Maine International Film Festival on Friday, July 17th, 1pm at the Waterville Opera House and on Saturday, July 18th at the Maine Film Center along with animated short film Something Greater Than You.

Full MIFF Program

Anyway, let’s get to it. Welcome to The Maine Playweek…

Girls Like Girls

All week | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland; Maine Film Center, Waterville

Based on her 2023 novel of the same name, first-time writer/director Hayley Kiyoko brings the extremely complicated and difficult story of romantic and sexual awakening as a teenager navigating sexual identities. It’s a beautiful snapshot in time that anyone can relate to, even if you don’t identify as queer. The performances from the leads Maya da Costa and Myra Molloy are beautifully subtle and painful as they navigate friendship, popularity, and budding love. Will this make you cry? Yes, no doubt about it, but it’ll transport you back to a time when even the smallest movement, sentence, or action means the world (or the end of the world) to your social and romantic life.

Showtimes and Tickets

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

June 24th at 7pm, June 27th at 2pm and 7pm | Kinonik, Portland

Fun fact: during the filming of Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Werner Herzog threatened to kill star Klaus Kinski and himself after the actor threatened to leave the production after shooting the tip of an extra’s finger off and demanding Herzog fire a sound assistant. This is a perfect microcosm of the absolutely tense atmosphere and absolutely terrifying acting of Kinski in this film. Of course, it’s a classic for a reason, but I still get goosebumps every time I watch it. This is also an extremely unique opportunity to watch it on film at Kinonik, which is also how I watched it the first time in college. It makes the entire film even richer and more visceral than simply watching it on a modern screen.

Tickets

Bless Their Little Hearts

June 19th at 6pm | PMA Films, Portland (Free Screening)

I’m going to be completely honest with you: I’ve never seen Bless Their Little Hearts and I need to change that ASAP. But that shouldn’t be overly surprising, considering this film was only shown for a couple of weeks in New York and LA when it was released in 1984. However, it’s stock has only grown in the intervening years, with people applauding the understated performances and novel visual style, especially for when it was released. By 2013, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry. It looks to be an absolutely beautiful and devastating portrayal of mental health and employment struggles for black Americans in the 1980s.

Tickets

We Are Pat

June 22nd at 7pm | SPACE Gallery, Portland

Do you remember the 90s SNL character Pat? If not, the whole schtick of each sketch was the fact that their gender was ambiguous. This led to 4 years of sketches followed by a film called “It’s Pat!” that used that same joke for a full 78 minutes. The film became notorious for its poor reception (it still sits at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes) and slightly tone-deaf script. Fast forward to 2025 and filmmaker Ro Haber, an unabashed lover of “It’s Pat!”, attempts to reclaim the character of Pat as a trans icon. This is an amazingly sweet and funny documentary that wonderfully places an oft-maligned character in a fully appreciative and beloved context.

Tickets

But Wait, There’s More!

Last night, we published our interview with Maine Outdoor Film Festival director Nick Callanan to discuss the upcoming festival (happening July 21-26) and film in general! Have a listen!

Super Duper Special Events

There are a couple of neat special events in the film world this coming week and I wanted to take a little bit of time to showcase them:

• Summer 2026 Torchlight Showcase - June 23rd at 5:15pm | Colonial Theatre, Belfast

  • Much like our friends over at Smooth Feather, the folks at Torchlight are an awesome youth media organization that seeks to use media arts as a tool for empowering local voices through storytelling, economic resilience, and social advocacy. This showcase will have a wide variety of media projects from the participants plus a bunch of added bonuses (did someone say oysters?).

• Regional Film Artists: Stephen Wardell - Kinship Formation Devices - June 25th at 7pm | Kinonik, Portland

  • The second installment of Kinonik’s “Regional Film Artists” series showcases Amherst professor Stephen Wardell’s 16mm films that span a wide variety of genres and styles. From experimental narratives to documentary portraits to handmade films, each work intrigues the audience to no end.

Drive-In Round-Up

• Bridgton Twin Drive-In

  • Toy Story 5 & Hoppers - June 19th and 20th at 8:55pm

  • Toy Story 5 - June 21st - 25th at 8:55pm

  • Disclosure Day & Obsession - June 19th and 20th at 8:55pm

  • Disclosure Day - June 21st - 25th at 8:55pm

• Narrow Gauge Drive-In, Farmington

  • Toy Story 5 - June 19th - 21st at 8:30pm

• Prides Corner Drive-In, Westbrook

  • Toy Story 5 & Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu - June 19th and 20th at 7:30pm

• Saco Drive-In

  • Toy Story 5 & Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu - June 19th and 20th at 8:45pm

• Skylite Drive-In, Madawaska

  • Toy Story 5 - all week at 8:30pm

Everything Else We’re Intrigued By This Week

• Leviticus - all week | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland; Colonial Theatre, Belfast; Flagship Cinemas, Auburn and Falmouth; Apple Cinemas, Westbrook; Bangor Mall Cinemas, Bangor

• The Death of Robin Hood - all week | Black Bear Cinemas, Orono; Colonial Theatre, Belfast; Flagship Cinemas, Auburn, Falmouth, and Thomaston; Apple Cinemas, all locations; Bangor Mall Cinemas, Bangor; Narrow Gauge Cinemas, Farmington

• Toy Story 5 - all week | Literally everywhere (I’m not joking, throw a rock and you’ll find it)

• True Grit - June 19th - 21st at 7pm | Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor

• Three Ages - June 19th at 6:30pm | Leavitt Theatre, Ogunquit

• Raiders of the Lost Ark - June 20th at 10am; June 21st at 10am, 3:30pm, and 6:30pm; June 24th at 3:30pm and 6:30pm | Flagship Cinemas, Auburn, Falmouth, Thomaston, and Waterville

• Field of Dreams - June 20th at 5pm | Strand Theatre, Rockland

• The Princess Bride - June 20th at 5pm | Leavitt Theatre, Ogunquit

• Ocean’s Eleven

  • June 21st at 3:30pm and June 24th at 6:30pm | Black Bear Cinemas, Orono

  • June 21st and 24th at 7pm | Apple Cinemas, Saco and Westbrook

• Stand By Me - June 21st at 4:30pm | Leavitt Theatre, Ogunquit

• She’s the He! - June 21st at 6:15pm | Colonial Theatre, Belfast

• Being John Malkovich - June 24th at 6:30pm | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland

• Everybody to Kenmure Street - June 25th at 7pm | Strand Theatre, Rockland

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You should go see a movie. There’s a lot of great ones out right now.

Okay, that’s all. Let’s get to it, welcome to The Maine Playweek…

Stop! That! Train!

All week | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland; The Gem Theater, Bethel; Maine Film Center, Waterville; Apple Cinemas, Westbrook; Bangor Mall Cinemas, Bangor

I want you to think of the movie Airplane! Okay, got it in your mind? Cool. Now, have it take place on a train and fill it with some of the greatest drag queens of the age (Ginger Minj, Jujubee, RuPaul, and more). That’s Stop! That! Train!, and incredibly silly and campy action movie spoof that shows off the acting chops of the queens and reminds us how awesomely hilarious RuPaul is. Turn your brain off for a little while and go laugh, you won’t regret it.

Showtimes & Tickets

Disclosure Day

All week | Black Bear Cinemas, Orono; Eveningstar Cinema, Brunswick; Magic Lantern Theater, Bridgton; Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland; The Gem Theater, Bethel; Temple Theatre, Houlton; Reel Pizza Cinerama, Bar Harbor; Spotlight Cinemas, Skowhegan; Bangor Mall Cinemas, Bangor; Fort Kent Cinemas, Fort Kent; State Cinemas, Calais; Center Theatre for the Performing Arts, Dover-Foxcroft; Smitty’s Entertainment, All locations; Flagship Cinemas, All locations; Apple Cinemas, All locations; Regal Cinemas, Augusta; Entertainment Luxury Cinemas, South Portland

This film is quite an interesting one. Naturally, this being a Spielberg alien film, there isn’t that much available on the plot outside of a few (appropriately) sparse trailers, but the little I can put together is that aliens are finally making contact with humans. That’s all I know. However, from some of the reviews I’ve read, this is an extremely personal story from Spielberg as well, with the alien of it all just acting as a vehicle for our human story. Plus, Emily Blunt’s acting is reportedly top-notch. Go see it, it’s as close you’ll get to the experience of seeing E.T. or Close Encounters in theatres for the first time.

Showtimes & Tickets

Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair (Part 2)

June 12th - 14th | PMA Films, Portland; SPACE Gallery, Portlan

It’s the second part of Bleak Week! In case you missed it last week, American Cinematheque is presenting a “global film festival” that showcases films that explore the darkest sides of humanity. There are some doozies this weekend, spread over the PMA and SPACE. Here’s what’s on show:

• The Turin Horse - June 12th at 2pm | PMA Films

• Beau Travail - June 12th at 6pm | PMA Films

• Watership Down - June 13th at 4pm | SPACE Gallery

• The Plague Dogs - June 13th at 7pm | SPACE Gallery

• Amour - June 14th at 12pm | PMA Films

• Taste of Cherry - June 14th at 3pm | PMA Films

  • This will be an extremely special screening, with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Todd Field in attendance and conversation after the screening!

Bleak Week Info

The Python Hunt

June 15th at 7pm | SPACE Gallery, Portland

Already being heralded as one of the best films of the year, if not the best documentary of the year, The Python Hunt chronicles several hunters participating in the annual Everglades Burmese Python Hunt, sponsored by the Florida Department of Fish and Wildlife. You’ll see a bunch of different extremely unique people, along with tales of sadness, elation, confusion, and near-death experiences. The Python Hunt is a truly unique documentary that doesn’t come around all to often. It reminds me of some of my favorite documentaries in its display of humor and hope (think Finders Keepers), effects of small time fame (think Indie Game: The Movie), and beautiful storytelling (nearly every doc). You won’t regret this one.

Tickets

But Wait, There’s More!

Did you miss our piece on the film Steal This Story, Please! that was released last week? No worries, here it is:

Plus, you’ve got an opportunity to watch it this week at PMA Films on June 17th at 12:30pm.

Festival Season Is Coming…

It’s already the middle of June (which I refuse to accept), and that means we’ve got some festivals right around the corner! MIFF and MOFF have both announced their schedules and we’ve got them on our showtimes website! Head over to themaineplayweek.com/showtimes, navigate to the “Festivals” tab, and start thinking about which films you want to see!

Drive-In Round-Up

• Bridgton Twin Drive-In

  • Disclosure Day & Obsession - June 12th and 13th at 8:50pm

  • Scary Movie & Passenger - June 12th and 13th at 8:50pm

  • Disclosure Day - June 14th at 8:50pm (No concessions)

  • Scary Movie - June 14th at 8:50pm (No concessions)

• Prides Corner Drive-In, Westbrook

  • The Super Mario Galaxy Movie & The Big Lebowski - June 12th and 13th at 8:45pm

• Saco Drive-In

  • Michael & The Devil Wears Prada 2 - June 12th and 13th at 8:45pm

• Skylite Drive-In, Madawaska

  • Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu - All week at 8:20pm

Everything Else We’re Intrigued By This Week

• The Currents - All week | Maine Film Center, Waterville

• 2001: A Space Odyssey - June 12th at 2pm, June 13th at 6:30pm | Lincoln Theater, Damariscotta

• Fargo - June 12th at 7pm, June 13th at 2pm | Lincoln Theater, Damariscotta

• Magic Hour - June 13th at 7pm, June 14th at 2pm, June 16th at 7pm, June 17th at 7pm, June 18th at 2pm | Milbridge Theatre, Milbridge

• But I’m a Cheerleader - June 14th at 4:30pm | Leavitt Theatre, Ogunquit

• Throne of Blood - June 14th at 6:30pm | Colonial Theatre, Belfast

  • This screening is part of a full event called “An Evening with Lady Macbeth” which includes a live performance from the cast of the MidCoast Shakespeare Studio’s production of (Lady) Macbeth

• The Matchmaker - June 15th at 6:15pm | Leavitt Theatre, Ogunquit

• Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul - June 17th at 7pm | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland

• Army of Darkness - June 17th at 6:30pm | Nickelodeon Cinemas, Portland

• The Comfort of Strangers - June 17th at 7pm, June 20th at 2pm and 7pm | Kinonik, Portland

Support The Maine Playweek

— founder & publisher Julia, who has no problem using her friend’s birthday to shill for her passion project of providing film culture journalism to Maine moviegoers. All complaints may be directed to hello@themaineplayweek.com.

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When you think of keeping up with the news these days, how does that make you feel? Bombarded? Overwhelmed? Obligated?

Speaking for myself, I’ve felt the need to limit my news consumption over the past few years. Now I listen to NPR while driving, use the BBC for world news, and read my local print newspaper (shoutout Portland Press Herald!). I still feel the occasional guilt that I’m not staying informed enough, but I quickly remind myself that failing to maintain this tenuous equilibrium could easily send me plummeting back into a quagmire of hopeless paralysis.

So it was with much surprise, that after my viewing of Steal This Story, Please! I actually felt excited to increase my news consumption. But not just any old news, only the juiciest morsels, prepared by inventive and experienced investigative reporters will do!

Steal This Story, Please!, a documentary film directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, follows investigative reporter Amy Goodman throughout her decades long career in news media. As mentioned earlier, I lean towards staying uninformed, so I went into this viewing without any prior knowledge of Amy or the news outlet she currently works for, Democracy Now!, but this proved to not be any sort of obstacle when it came to getting sucked into this film.

Steal This Story, Please! begins with Amy Goodman doggedly pursuing President Trump’s climate advisor through the halls of the 2018 United Nations Climate Summit. The music in the background is bouncy and energetic, pairing wonderfully with the delicious sight of a grown adult fleeing as fast as he can power walk away from the diminutive Amy Goodman, who is armed with nothing more than pointed questions. Pointed questions which she asks professionally, with a hint of glee in her voice. This gleefulness, the genuine excitement emanating off Amy as she does what she does best, is front and center throughout the film and the decades of her life shown in it. This attitude makes watching Amy Goodman in action a joyful experience.

To be clear, most of the content covered in the film is nowhere close to joyful. From the massacre of the civilian population in East Timor where Amy Goodman and her colleague were brutally beaten while reporting on the ground to the devastating health risks posed to those in any around Ground Zero after 9/11 and all the way up to near present day with coverage of Israel and Palestine. Amy Goodman has covered and continues to cover some of the most deeply sorrowful and impactful events happening around the world. The documentary shows expertly edited footage of these past events combined with present day talking heads that makes for a visceral and contemplative watch.

I can’t claim any insight into these events or on how Amy and her team covered them throughout the years, only that my own perspective and bias is a close match for that propagated by Democracy Now!. But I’d like to think no matter what your take on the issues, what anyone can and should appreciate about Amy Goodman’s reporting is her dogged pursuit of answers from those people (men, let’s be real), in positions of power.

In one scene, the Democracy Now! radio studio received an unexpected call from then-President Bill Clinton. He was expecting to leave a quick message encouraging the station to get out the vote but instead is immediately met with Amy pulling no punches. He gets fired up in response to her pointed questions and instead of a meaningless sound bite, Amy gets his genuine response. And this is far from the only time she manages to pull off a feat like this either. Asked how she does this kind of magic trick, Amy says it’s as simple as asking the questions that no one else has bothered to.

Amy Goodman is exactly the kind of investigative reporter I’ll sleep soundly knowing is out in the world and after watching Steal This Story, Please!, one I feel is worth listening to. I’ll have to make some space in my day for just a little more news; I have a feeling it will be well worth my time.

Steal This Story, Please! is showing at PMA Films on select dates this month:

• Friday, June 5 at 6pm

• Saturday, June 6 at 12pm

• Wednesday, June 17 at 12:30pm

• Sunday, June 21 at 3pm

• Saturday, June 27 at 12pm