A Vigilante (2019)

This MiamisFF Review is on the short film 'Rewind Thirty'. Created and released in the United States, this short film has an unclear message.

In Jeymes Samuel's history-infused, neo-spaghetti western, Black women are center stage with a fresh hip hop mixtape keeping rhythm in the backdrop.

What seems like such a simple story of survival is so much more than that—it’s a story of family, and of war, and of destruction. It’s painful to watch, but not in a bad way. It makes its audience reflect on their own actions, and in how they are complicit in the sufferings of others as the adults in this film are. Grave of the Fireflies does not hold back from being heartbreaking, and it shouldn’t. It tells a message that needs to be heard decades after the war, and a story that cannot be forgotten by history.

Released on Netflix this last July, Mile End Kicks, catches the eyes of those who are wanting to escape the disasters of 2026 and visit the era of peak Tumblr, unforgettable music hits, and iconic fashion trends—-of 2011. This coming-of-age film directed by Chandler Levack succeeds at portraying an accurate representation of what life was like in the early 2010’s.

The trouble with Yara (2021) is that in its attempt to tell the whole story, it struggles to tell a consistently engaging story.

The sequel to the first film, A Second Chance: Rivals! talks about Maddy combating cyberbullying and racism.