There can be multiple reasons for not delivering a product on time. An example would be where progress slows down or grinds to a halt because of a client’s requirement cannot be met. It can be due to the designer who doesn’t have the right design tool for the task.
Your toolbox may be well stocked, but there may be a tool or web design resources you frequently use that simply isn’t up to the task at hand. Even though it is one that has served you well in the past.
The following 15 tools and resources for designers and agencies are the best in their respective categories. As such, they can be productivity boosters, and in some cases, life-savers.
This multipurpose WordPress theme is tops in its class in terms of its potent array of core features and design options, together with its flexibility and user friendliness. Given that sales of this long-time favorite web design tool now exceed the 200,000 mark, you you can be assured of getting tangible value and a great return on your investment.
Be’s 40+ core features provide all the tools for designers and flexibility you’ll need to meet the harshest of deadlines
The BeTheme Muffin Builder/Admin Panel/Shortcode Generator trio lets you drag and drop your way through a task without any need to write a line of code.
If there is a single secret to Be’s success it would be its library of more than 600 responsive and customizable pre-built websites. They cover 30 industry sectors along with every popular website type or style.
Be’s Layout Generator makes it a simple task to start a page from scratch, and you can rely on this theme’s wealth of layout and other design options to see your project through.
Click on the banner to learn more about what BeTheme can do for you.
Timezy’s brand new and modern design with easy to use dashboard and booking forms can simplify a booking operation’s workflows from beginning to end and speed up the operation by 75% or more, making it a real game-changer for service driven businesses.
Timezy:
Manages your appointments, services and employees
Automatically transmits email notifications to your customers and employees
Easily and fully integrates with Zoom
Lets you customize the Timezy Booking Form to go with your brand
Manages pricing, online payments, and employee’s work and vacations schedules
Timezy is still in an early phase of operation. If you would like to help shape and improve it you can do so by providing feedback, this way you can shape this software to make it even better.
Click on the banner to learn more about Timezy and to sign up and participate.
While there is no shortage of quality table and chart-building applications on the market, the number of those that can be counted on to do a good job for you significantly decreases if you require one or more of the following:
The ability to create responsive and interactive tables and charts
A frontend editing capability that allows tables and charts to be easily maintained
An ability to process extremely large amounts of data that can come in various formats and/or from various sources
The ability to process large amounts of data, including real-time data in minutes if not seconds
Conditional formatting and styling capabilities to improve table/chart readability and understandability by highlighting or color coding key information
With the wpDataTables plugin, you can do all the above and more. Additional features include advanced filters, Gravity and Formidable Forms add-ons, and a detailed user manual.
Click on the banner to learn more about this best-in-its-class tool.
This pixel-perfect creative multiuse theme is particularly suitable for creative individuals and agencies. More than 80.000 sales have made it a ThemeForest best-seller.
Features include:
A Frontend Editor for designing in real time;
More than 400 Wireframe section templates and 70+ pixel perfect design concepts;
The WooCommerce Custom Builder that features the Single Product, Cart, Checkout, and more;
When visiting the site, be sure and visit Uncode’s inspirational library of user-created websites.
LayerSlider, a longtime favorite of web designers, is no longer just for creating amazing sliders. It is now a multi-use application for animation and content creation that millions of active users enjoy.
It’s the perfect tool for giving an old website a modern look
Popups with extensive animation capabilities are a unique LayerSlider feature
LayerSlider is all drag and drop and mobile device and SEO friendly
With the Amelia WordPress booking plugin you can manage appointments, events, and employees’ schedules with a single tool.
There is no limit to the number of appointments, clients, or employees
Clients can book or change appointments online 24/7, and do not have to login to WordPress to do so
Amelia easily integrates with Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Zoom, and the Elementor page builder
Clients and employees have their own separate front-end panels for easy booking management
8b is brand new, easy to use, features a simple and futuristic UI, and can be used on a desktop or a mobile device whether you are at home or on the go.
Google AMP guarantees your site will be lightning-fast and responsive
8b comes with 250+ website sections and 16 cool starter templates
You can link to any domain you wish
Download your own copy for free.
Total is a flexible, fast, super user-friendly multipurpose theme that you can use to create any type of website’
Features you are not using won’t slow you down
The Dynamic Template Function and Theme Customizer give you the flexibility to design layouts and pages exactly as you want to
Total is Translation ready and WooCommerce and WordPress plugin friendly
Broken links are not only annoying but can hurt a site’s search engine rankings as well. Dr. Link Check saves you the trouble of having to periodically check every link on your site.
Dr. Link Check crawls through your site looking for:
Broken links and improper URL formatting
Blacklisted sites with malicious content
Placeholder sites that lack meaningful content
and generates a daily, weekly, or monthly report with its findings.
Mobirise is easy to use, offline, and free. This website-building tool enables you to create a fast, responsive, Google-friendly website in minutes.
Because Mobirise is offline, you have total control over your design
4,000+ stunning website-building templates come with the package
Since Mobirise is drag and drop there’s zero need for coding
Mobirise’s Google AMP and Bootstrap 4 frameworks guarantee outstanding performance
You can download Mobirise to Windows or Mac for free.
Heroic Inbox helps business departments and teams manage their email inboxes.
Heroic Inbox:
encourages staff members to work together to manage email assignments and responses
features a snappy UI and smart workflows that makes it possible for staff members to achieve the coveted Inbox Zero status in no time at all
tracks key metrics to better understand team performance
WhatFontIs is the best online tool for helping you identify fonts from uploaded images in a matter of seconds. This application’s rapid search capabilities are based on its advanced font-finding AI software and its catalog of more than 700K fonts.
60+ related fonts are shown for every clean uploaded image
WhatFontIs correctly identifies a submitted font in 90% of the cases
Cursive fonts can be identified as long as the letters are separated
The Litho responsive multipurpose HTML5 template, with its ready-made template blocks and professionally-crafted inner pages, offers an excellent starting point for any business’s website design.
Litho’s Bootstrap 4 framework guarantees fast performance
The package features 36+ home pages, 230+ ready templates, and beautiful page styles for blog, shop, gallery, and portfolio sites
Attractive hero sliders, interactive banners, working contact forms, and other useful website elements are included
Litho provides detailed documentation and top-of-the-line user support.
A word to the wise for anyone looking for a low-cost, trouble-free way to build an online store: Don’t overlook xStore!
Here is what you get for only $39:
100+ amazing shops you can customize to fit your brand
$500+ worth of premium plugins
A Single-product page builder, product filters, and a full Ajax shop
You’ll quickly discover that building an eCommerce website doesn’t have to be difficult.
GOODIE helps people and businesses get their websites reliably coded and up and running.
GOODIE delivers custom web design, custom WordPress development, WooCommerce development, email development, and more.
GOODIE supports web designers who want to connect with a reliable web developer and startups looking to test their business concepts on the web
GOODIE specialties include small websites, WordPress websites, responsive email templates, and eCommerce websites
*****
You’ve no doubt placed an impressive collection of industry tools, tips, and tricks in your designer’s toolbox. There might even be a few old favorites of yours in that collection you would be hesitant to part with and replace with something else.
You want to remain competitive it’s important to seek out and stock up on the latest and greatest design tools you can find. Even though it can be time consuming and at times frustrating to do so.
We are delighted to be able to assist you in that regard by sharing with you these top 15 tools and resources for designers and agencies. Choosing one or more will definitely help you stay on top of your design game and could even make your day.
Make A Difference With Design — Enter World Design Impact Prize 2021
World Design Organization (WDO)® is currently calling for submissions for the , which aims to recognize industrial design-driven projects that have a positive impact on our social, economic, cultural or environmental quality of life.
™ was established in 2011 to honour and elevate industrial design driven projects that use design and/or design thinking to make a positive impact on our social, economic, cultural and/ or environmental quality of life. Following a public submission and nomination process, a multi-disciplinary panel of experts selects a shortlist for the Prize, which is then voted on by WDO’s member organizations.
“Win or lose, through the process of this call, we hope to not only find outstanding examples of design-led innovation, but to leverage our voice as an international organization to shine a spotlight on products and projects that have an impactful story to share about the communities they affect, the challenges they address and ultimately the difference they are making in the lives of everyday people,” WDO President Srini Srinivasan expressed.
Projects should showcase the expanding ways that design can make a positive impact on the world, including the design of systems and experiences.
Submissions or participation from other design disciplines are welcome but eligible projects must:
currently be in production or in use in one or more locations
yield positive impact and reflect socially conscious design
be industrial design driven and/or showcase innovative uses of industrial design
demonstrate design thinking in the planning (participatory planning, co-design) as well in the design itself
reflect the vision of WDO to create a world where design enhances our social, cultural, economic and environmental quality of life
The key dates to keep in mind are:
January 13 — April 30: Submission periodMay — June: Project showcaseJune 29: Shortlist announcedSeptember 1–15: Voting periodSeptember: Finalists announcedOctober: Winner announced
Interested parties are invited to submit project details via no later than April 30, 2021.
Additionally, WDO is also accepting nominations for projects until 31 March by individuals who do not have a project of their own to submit, but who know of one that would be deserving of this recognition.
The New Orleans Pelicans currently sit in 12th place in the Western Conference standings. This is a team who is not living up to the expectations they had entering the season. A loss on Thursday night to a weaker Orlando team adds to the disappointment they’ve had in 2020–21. 1.5 games behind the 10th place play-in spot was not where this team pictured themselves being with over 50 games in the books.
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NEW ORLEANS PELICANS HAVE FAILED TO LIVE UP TO THE HYPE THUS FAR
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This NOLA roster is not one that lacks talent by any means. The Pelicans are composed of players like , who is averaging 26.4 points per game, at 23.8 points per game, , , , and , who are all above-average NBA players. This roster is very capable of making the playoffs, and should be expected to, considering their star talent and quality depth.
Williamson is in the top-10 in PPG this season, and for a player of his caliber to not even make the play-in game would be disappointing for his young career and not ideal for the NBA either. Their loss to Orlando was just one of the many discouraging losses this team has had this season, as it has been a recurring issue.
Their consistent lack of defense makes it seem like there doesn’t appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel for this season’s chances. Something needs to change for this program to turn it around and make the play-in tournament, setting the tone for what could be a .
Worst single-season DEF RTG in NBA history: 1. ’20-’21 Kings, 2. ’20-’21 Blazers , 3. ’18-’19 Cavs, 4.
Zion Williamson is the 1st player with 4 GP of 30+ PTS & 80+ FG% since Shaquille O’Neal in 1993–1994
Zion now has the 2nd longest streak of GP (24) with 20+ PTS & 50%+ FG , trailing only Shaquille O’Neal (25 GP)
Pelicans are currently 21–26, sitting in 12th place among 15 Western Conference teams, ahead of only OKC, MIN, and HOU
: NOP -200 (Spread -5.0)
: $8.69 (via FANDEX)
Zion has been one of the few bright spots this season
Rick Carlisle on Zion Williamson: “This is a Shaquille O’Neal-type force of nature with a point guard skill set.”
Zion’s last 4 games:
38 PTS, 6 AST, 65% FG
39 PTS, 5 AST, 84% FG
27 PTS, 5 AST, 69% FG
30 PTS, 1 AST, 69% FG
Full game highlights from ORL-NOP
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It has been some time since Flickchart has reviewed a new wide theatrical release. With the COVID-19 pandemic raging, the movie exhibition situation has been far from ideal. But with theaters starting to reopen in a larger way, Disney has pushed to theaters and Disney+ streaming simultaneously, and we’re here for it!
The newest movie from , Raya and the Last Dragon takes place in the fictional Asian nation of Kumandra, which divided between five tribes in the wake of a devastating supernatural war. Dragons defended humanity from a consuming force known as the Druun. Most of the dragons were defeated while holding the Druun at bay. Only one piece of dragon magic remains in the world: a magical stone.
Raya lives in the tribe of Heart, where her father invites the other tribes in an attempt to forge peace. But discord and lack of trust causes the stone to split, which allows the Druun to come back and turn nearly everyone to stone. And that’s just the intro.
After this epic opening segment, there is a substantial time jump, and Raya emerges as a young adult determined to revive the last dragon and undo the ravages of the Druun.
As always, Disney does a great job setting up a vibrant new fantasy world. The characteristics of the five tribes are simplistic, but they are a neat and fairly seamless way of introducing children to different aspects of Asian culture.
Raya’s quest is a metaphor for building trust and unity in a discordant world. It doesn’t take a genius to see the parallels between the film and contemporary politics, where it seems like different tribes of people are constantly at each other’s throats. Disney seems to suggest that unity and peace can be achieved if we can learn to trust one another again — and believe in a little Disney magic in the form of the dragon Sisu, voiced by the wonderful . While the messaging may be a tad obvious at times, it’s still good storytelling, and well-realized characters mostly make it work.
is great in the lead role of Raya. She brings a strong force to the lead and is a believably a flawed protagonist. She struggles with trust issues, understandably, and her process of learning from the very trusting Sisu feels real. Even after constant betrayals, the film keeps its faith in the notion of trust, and is all the better for it. Raya gradually gathers a group of vagabonds from various tribes as she journeys across the land gathering pieces of the broken stone.
The movie bears some familiar hallmarks of modern children’s entertainment, which too often doesn’t trust children’s maturity. There are some goofy hijinks that belong to a lesser movie, such as the Minion-like monkeys that accompany a baby hero from the Talon tribe. These purely silly touches feel out of place in an otherwise rather mature story.
Raya and the Last Dragon has a real sense of stakes. It isn’t afraid to get fairly dark in segments, a decision that hearkens back to kids’ films of the 80s like and , and the movie doesn’t short-change its central conflict. It almost stands as one of Disney’s best adventure films period.
Unfortunately, the film sticks just a tad too close to formula to become truly transcendent. Still, it’s a very well-made work and its script is solid. The animation is gorgeous, though one still might be missing the hand-drawn look of earlier Disney fare. The colors are vibrant and all of the characters are expressive. The film features a great Asian-American, and the story might be just what the world needs to see playing in theaters right now.
Tell us your thoughts below and rank on your Flickchart today!
In March 2020, South By Southwest was one of the first major global events to cancel because of the COVID-19 epidemic. It was a real blow to ticketholders, artists, and the city of Austin, but of course it was only a sign of things to come.
A year later, SXSW finally returned, but in a new form. The 2021 festival was online-only. It was better than nothing, and actually had its advantages for this reviewer, but people did miss the camaraderie of in-person events and the vitality of downtown Austin and its many venues.
The 2021 film slate was strong in spite of the difficulty of producing content in 2020. Here’s our ranking of 18 features, in ascending order:
18.
Offseason struggles through a thin metaphor about a tourist trap town that goes “dead” in the offseason, after the boys of summer have gone. There isn’t an original beat in it, but it’s almost worth watching for a strong supporting performance by (Boogie Nights, Magnolia). She’s a recently deceased Hollywood actress who hails from an island village that harbors a dark secret. Her daughter () uncovers the mystery all too quickly when she visits the island for the first time to tend to her mother’s grave. The townies feel off right from the jump, except for the one whose role is to provide exposition that the dead actress already provided in flashbacks. The daughter zips through an arc from skeptic to believer that culminates in a lackluster flash of Lovecraft lite. Reviewer ranking: 2628/3087
17.
A, forgive me, dormant documentary about a significant yet short-lived recording studio on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. Some of the greatest tracks of the late 1970s and early 1980s were recorded there, including Dire Straits’ monumental Brothers in Arms album as well as material by Elton John, The Police, The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Buffett, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, and more. Artists and former employees of the studio reminisce about the days of free-flowing booze, great music, and sunny vistas, but there’s a sense that you really had to be there. It came to an end in a one-two punch of hurricane and volcanic ash, and the documentary crew received special permission to film at the ruined studio that sits inside the island’s uninhabitable exclusion zone. The music and stories are pleasant enough for fans of boomer rock, but the concert DVD Music for Montserrat that raised money for the island after the eruption is still the best movie on the subject. Reviewer ranking: 2388/3087
16.
A between two old lovers, one of whom has since transitioned, aims for brutal emotional honesty but ultimately feels pat and manufactured. It takes place over the course of a night in a restaurant, bar, backyard, and art studio in the college town where Kris (Pooya Mohseni) and Naomi (Lynn Chen) dated during their student days. Naomi now works there as a professor while raising her two children, and the visiting Kris hopes to reminisce about the good times they had without talking about the painful way it ended. Kris’s stories about discovering her gender identity and learning to live as a woman are touching, and what Naomi cautiously reveals about her frustrations with career and family are relatable and sometimes heartbreaking. Unfortunately the movie takes too long to get to the core of these characters and their conflict, and when it does it abandons verisimilitude for melodrama and unlikely coincidence. An unearned epilogue suggests a vision not fully realized, which at least mirrors the way the two characters feel about their lives. Reviewer ranking: 2394/3087
15.
Creators respond to the world around them and work with what they have, so it’s no surprise that there are a couple of stories on this year’s South By slate. The most modest of them is The End of Us, about a young couple who breaks up on the cusp of lockdown and has to quarantine together for the next several months. It’s an exceedingly realistic, small-scale drama dotted with Zoom dates, furloughs, bread-baking, mask-making, dog adoption, socially-distanced walks, and other day-to-day markers of the era. Actors Ben Coleman and Ali Vigniano are believable and likable as two people making mistakes and working on themselves in a time of restrictions. If their COVID-era story is ultimately forgettable, it’s because it is so normal. Movies like The End of Us will be valuable time capsules for future viewers who want to get a sense of what 2020 was like for many people. Reviewer ranking: 2681/3087
14.
Violation is a disjointed revenge narrative centering on two English sisters and their significant others. The younger sister’s husband owns a lot of land in the American countryside — beautiful, misty, forested land which the camera highlights in generous macroscopic and microscopic shots. With equal patience and reverence, the movie details a murder and its grisly aftermath, but a scrambled and incomplete storyline leaves too many questions unanswered. Madeleine Sims-Fewer co-wrote, co-directed, and stars as the elder sister determined to be her sibling’s “white knight.” Her character’s is fairly compelling, but there isn’t enough payoff for the work the movie asks us to do to understand it. People who prefer their horror extreme will find certain moments riveting but many more tedious, whereas viewers with a more psychological bent will find a lot of smoke and not much fire. Reviewer ranking: 2347/3087
13.
Maybe the sweetest movie on the 2021 SXSW docket, Swan Song stars septuagenarian character actor as a retired hairdresser who was once a local legend and gay icon in Sandusky, Ohio. When one of his former clients dies, he escapes the nursing facility he has lived in for some twenty years and slowly makes his way to the funeral home to fix her hair for the big send-off. Along the way he discovers a reviving that he no longer knows, and that no longer knows him. Swan Song often requires you to suspend your disbelief — for example, that the protagonist would happen to visit his favorite old dance club on the very night of its final drag show — but Kier’s blend of flamboyance and grief is grounded enough to keep viewers invested. The movie is a valentine not only to a real-life “Liberace of Sandusky” whose picture we see in the closing credits, but to an unsung generation of gay men who spent their lives in small towns where acceptance could be fickle and contingent at best, and where friendships could make the difference between hope and despair. Reviewer ranking: 2381/3087
12.
It’s getting harder and harder to dismiss as exaggerations, and after 2020 few would make that mistake with Executive Order, wherein Brazil’s government begins forcibly deporting “high-melanin” citizens to Africa. The movie follows two well-off black Brazilians, a lawyer () and his pregnant wife (), as the faceless soldiers of a patronizing white government abducts their neighbors, family members, and friends. The movie is billed as a thriller and a resistance film, but it’s too slow and overly-wordy for that, and is more comparable to the one-man-against-the-system fantasies of the 1970s like …and Justice for All and Network. It replaces the grainy shadows of those movies with eye-popping, super-wide frames that juxtapose color and chrome, diversity and sterility. Some cultural details and turns of phrase are lost in translation, but the central idea is terrifying universal in an era when borders are closing and nationalism and white supremacy are surging. Executive Order is not only a good-looking movie, but a timely warning. Reviewer ranking: 2487/3087
11.
If you live in a major city, there’s a decent chance you’ve seen a skyscraper with the WeWork logo plastered on its upper floors. You may have dismissed it as just another trendy tech startup, or if you watch financial news you might remember its abortive IPO rollout and subsequent bankruptcy. What you probably don’t know is the extent to which WeWork was not really a business at all, but a cult of personality that ensnared celebrities, venture capitalists, and a lot of wide-eyed young people with more to lose than they knew. The details the toxic, messianic psychology of former CEO Adam Neumann and his crunchy, new-age wife Rebekah, and traces the boom and bust of the business they said could “elevate human consciousness” by renting desks. Investigative journalists have done a lot of that legwork already in the wake of WeWork’s headline-grabbing fall from grace, but the documentary distinguishes itself in its decision to spotlight young employees who gave up jobs, homes, and relationships for the communal and controlling WeWork lifestyle. The documentary’s weakness is that the story isn’t over yet. Though ousted from WeWork, the Neumanns have recently been trying to convince parents to place their children in a system of bizarre, for-profit schools under the cringy banners of WeGrow and SOLFL (Students of Life for Life, pronounced “soulful”). A sequel seems sadly likely. Reviewer ranking: 1925/3087
10.
The coolest and creepiest concept in a South By film this year belongs to Broadcast Signal Intrusion, a fine study in paranoia and obsessive pattern-finding. stars as “James,” probably not his real name, who comes across an unsolved media crime that may be linked to his wife’s apparent suicide several years before. Over a period of many years, a tech-savvy prankster hijacked local TV signals in order to air creepy homemade videos that may have contained subliminal messages regarding the disappearance of several women. James combs through old VHS cassette tapes and obscure message board posts from hobbyists who collect these “broadcast signal intrusions,” the most unsettling of which are known as “the Sal-E Sparx incidents.” A series of mysterious strangers guide James on his search for the twisted mind behind Sal-E Sparks and the truth about his wife. Moody and haunting, Broadcast Signal Intrusion shows director Jacob Gentry’s command of the style, but whether its unanswered questions are a feature or a bug depends on the viewer’s own tolerance for going down rabbit holes. Reviewer ranking: 1699/3087
9.
this touching, smart, funny movie that takes place entirely over Zoom, but not because of COVID, which makes it a bit more timeless than the pandemic-specific titles above and below it on this list. Morales plays a Spanish tutor, and , who co-wrote the script, is a slightly neurotic man whose husband bought him 100 weeks of online Spanish lessons as a surprise birthday gift. There’s a very early twist that shouldn’t be spoiled, but once it hits we are immediately invested in both characters, who get to know each other exactly as we get to know them: over a screen, a few minutes at a time. Language Lessons is as small-scale as it gets, but its intimacy and focus serve it well, and it has much to teach us about trust, friendship, loss, and Spanish. Reviewer ranking: 1570/3087
8.
Hysterical is the ideal documentary about comedy. It is very thorough in its exploration of its topic — women who do and the unique challenges they face — and at the same time it is very, very funny. Hysterical spotlights current and rising stars like Kelly Bachman, whose in-person takedown of Harvey Weinstein at a New York comedy club made headlines in 2019, but also their predecessors, from established acts like Kathy Griffin and Margaret Cho to pioneers like “Mobs” Mabley who transgressed barriers in the 1950s and 60s. Clips from recent and older shows are delightful, but the sit-down interviews with the younger generation of women are the real takeaways. They are all the funnier for their unblenching honesty about what it’s like to be a woman in the stand-up industry, and director doesn’t shirk from calling out some of the male titans of the genre for perpetuating a boy’s club mentality. To be funny while speaking the truth is a conceit of stand-up, and Hysterical proves its power. Reviewer ranking: 1480/3087
7.
Paul Dood is an underdog and doesn’t know it. “I can act, I can sing, and I sure as shit can dance,” he tells his audience of two on a streaming site called TrendLadder. The middle-aged Dood () works a dead-end retail job and looks after his dying mother, but he has a plan to hit the big time by entering Britain’s trendiest internet talent show, hosted by the hilariously fake Jack Tapp (). Unfortunately it all goes wrong for Dood, who can neither act, nor sing, nor dance, but that’s not the worst of it. On his way to the audition, seemingly every person he encounters goes out of their way to obstruct him, from an officious railroad employee to a corrupt priest to a wanna-be samurai, all played by archly funny English character actors. It’s all too much for Dood, so he embarks on a lunchtime vendetta that, despite his fecklessness, threatens to make him infamous as well as internet-famous. This fast-paced, soft-hearted was a festival favorite and could be destined for cult-classic status. Reviewer ranking: 1626/3087
6.
Potato Dreams of America feels like a work of unbridled creativity, so it’s always surprising to remember that it’s based closely on true events. Nevertheless, the movie is not content to be a mere autobiography, and writer/director Wes Hurley experiments freely with actor changes, style changes, and tone changes. It’s an effective way to illustrate a young life punctuated by abrupt and dramatic shifts. The first and biggest one is the fall of the Soviet Union, where young Potato spent his childhood. The next is his move to the United States with his mother, who works hard to become a mail-order bride. Along the way Potato discovers both Jesus and his homosexuality. Each twist comes with its own aesthetic, sometimes nearly theatrical and other times heavy on close-ups and montage, but always darkly, weirdly funny. Potato has a unique window on the world, and his movie is eccentric and personal enough to do it justice. Reviewer ranking: 909/3087
5.
If you’re going to make a three-and-a-half-hour documentary on horror movies, it had better be damn near encyclopedic. Writer/director Kier-La Janisse’s Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror is as close as you can get to a visual encyclopedia of a certain mode of horror moviemaking. The topic is handled clinically, but not without love. “,” a subgenre of movies involving pagan rites, rural cults, ancient gods rising from cornfields, and so forth has clear connections to real-world political and social movements and long-term economic trends, and the movie’s interview subjects describe those connections clearly and authoritatively. But this is not a dry, bloodless lesson in film analysis. It is an organized onslaught of evocative, haunting, bizarre, funny, beautiful movie clips, each illustrating some facet of folk horror. For movie obsessives (if you’re still reading this and aren’t related to me, that’s you), this is like opening a treasure chest that contains a lost tome that gives you a riddle that leads to a maze that contains the secrets of the universe at its center. It’s a comprehensive list of 234 essential folk horror movies, organized more or less geographically and chronologically — a watchlist that could feed your obsession for a long, long time. The first and best section of the documentary focuses on the flourishing of the genre in England in the 1960s and 70s. This is followed by sections on American folk horror and international folk horror. There are things you’ve seen and things you’ve never heard of but instantly know you need to find. Many documentaries include calls to action, and the call here is to watch more movies; how could we not love it? Reviewer ranking: 893/3087
4.
Maybe sympathy is a finite resource. That’s the charitable interpretation of why politicians, the media, and ordinary people in the USA, Canada, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, et al. decided to despise, disown, and forget the mostly-teenaged girls who left home to become “brides” of ISIS. They were kids, usually children of immigrants, who did not feel at home. They fell prey to internet propaganda, something few of us can honestly say we have never done. They went to the caliphate expecting a paradise. They found slavery, rape, disease, and death. They have paid dearly for their naivety. Their surviving children are paying for their young mothers’ naivety as well. The long-suffering Kurds look after these ISIS widows and their kids, running the dangerous, dirty camps where the now-stateless women are confined. The women’s home countries have stripped them of their citizenship and defined them as terrorists, refusing to acknowledge the degree to which they were victims of ISIS, psychologically and physically. A selection of women bravely share their stories with each other, with their Kurdish administrators, and with the crew — stories that could expose them to reprisals within the camps; stories that, however horrifying, are unlikely to move the hard-hearted residents of Europe and America who have decided that some people, however young, however brutalized, are not worth forgiveness or second chances. It takes a special kind of hope to put this documentary into the world, and I hope it pays off. Reviewer ranking: 587/3087
3.
Think about your favorite comedies. Do you think the actors really liked each other? How long had they even known each other? Whitney Call and Mallory Everton have known each other for a long time, and it shows. Watching their characters riff feels like spending time with your best friends on your best day. It must be nearly as natural and effortless as they make it look, because they wrote and produced this COVID-inspired road trip movie in only eight weeks (“I don’t recommend it,” one said in the online Q&A). The pace of the jokes, the way they flow into each other, the ease of each pivot from silly to witty to irreverent, is something you just can’t fake. The result is not only hilarious, it’s aspirational. I had so much fun with these characters and their journey (it involves mice, a nursing home, a dick pic, roller skates… you just have to see it) that I watched the movie twice, which I have never done during a festival. I can’t wait to see what Everton and Call do next. Reviewer ranking: 191/3087
2.
After a , we usually learn a couple of names: that of the shooter, and that of the “spokesperson,” the survivor who faces the cameras or logs on to Twitter to remind an increasingly numb populace that thoughts and prayers are not enough. We forget the names of the victims quickly, and we never know the names of hundreds or thousands of anonymous survivors. The Fallout is a reminder that those unknown kids and their pain matter, too. In this fictional movie about a very real topic, two such survivors are Vada () and Mia (), girls from different social circles who huddle together in a school bathroom during an active shooter event. Vada thinks she’s fine because she can control her emotions. The deeply wise screenplay, and a therapist Vada’s parents make her see, know that that’s not really true. To avoid feeling unpleasant feelings, Vada and Mia retreat into their own world, cutting off former friends and family members. What they give each other is valuable, if frightening and confusing to others and sometimes to themselves. Yet there is also value in reconnecting with oneself and one’s community after coming face to face with life’s fragility. Going through that arc with Vada is, if not a pleasure, then a balm, thanks to ‘s excellent writing and direction. The Fallout is a hard but validating movie that feels authentic to an experience that nobody should ever have. Reviewer ranking: 266/3087
1.
A once-in-a-generation masterpiece of myth- and hero-making, The Spine of Night is more than just a great movie. It is the kind of movie that will inspire new artists and set a new bar for their work, particularly in the arena of animation. “Hyperviolent,” adult, racially diverse, and feminist, it is like the promise of Ralph Bakshi, Gary Gygax, Conan, He-Man, and Xena fulfilled and given new intensity and purpose. The voices of and anchor a cast that also includes , , and , but it’s not a movie about individuals. Good or evil, strong or weak, each character is only a piece of a larger story that extends beyond the runtime of the movie. The Spine of Night has images, ideas, and worlds to spare; a scene midway through in which a mage and warrior battle atop a citadel as a great eye opens in the sky would be the centerpiece of a lesser movie, but here it is only foreshadowing. Occupying a realm beyond criticism, The Spine of Night is nothing less than a new touchstone. Reviewer ranking: 117/3087
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