DOC NYC review: David Siev’s ‘BAD AXE’ features hope pushing past hate. IFC will release one of the year’s best docs in theaters and on digital tomorrow!

BAD AXE

Synopsis: ​​After leaving NYC for his rural hometown of Bad Axe, Michigan, at the start of the pandemic, Asian American filmmaker David Siev documents his family’s struggles to keep their restaurant afloat. As fears of the virus grow, deep generational scars dating back to Cambodia’s bloody “killing fields” come to the fore, straining the relationship between the family’s patriarch, Chun, and his daughter, Jaclyn. When the BLM movement takes center stage in America, the family uses its collective voice to speak out in their conservative community. What unfolds is a real-time portrait of 2020 through the lens of one multicultural family’s fight stay in business, stay involved, and stay alive.


The Siev family patriarch Chun is a Cambodian refugee who came to the US to attain the American Dream. He and his wife Rachel opened a donut shop named Baker’s Dozen. Times were hard, and money was tight, but the Siev family stuck together and thrived. In 2000 they opened Rachel’s, a family restaurant in their hometown of Bad Axe, Michigan.

Director and only son in the Siev pack, David had the foresight to capture the upheaval of his family and their community beginning in March 2020. Like many families, the Sievs found their adult children moving back into their homes to help their vulnerable parents. Bad Axe is a small, tight-knit town with two stoplights. It’s a nice place to raise a family. When lockdown begins, local tension boils over, and the Siev family becomes targets of racism and conspiracy theories.

The eldest daughter, Jaclyn, has palpable anxiety. She tries her hardest to protect her father. The tension and stakes are higher than they’ve ever been. The family’s livelihood, quite literally, is on the line. Siblings, Michelle and Raquel, joined by Jaclyn’s husband Mike, Rachel’s boyfriend Austin, and a small handful of Rachel’s loyal employees, work day and night to feed the community and maintain a sense of normalcy while facing political and racial upheaval.

The intimate nature of Bad Axe is visceral. The Siev family could be anyone’s neighbors. They are friendly, hardworking, and respectful members of their community. They bug each other as much as they love each other. They remind me of my holidays when all four siblings invade our childhood home with inside jokes, arguments, and an unconditional adoration for one another.

Chun is a fascinating member of the family. He is a proud man. An opinionated individual, a responsible gun owner, and a survivor of the Cambodian killing fields, Chun’s unresolved trauma reveals itself in harsh words toward Jaclyn. He knows it and owns it. His emotional journey is everything.

The footage of the Black Lives Matter confrontation made my palms sweat. The aftermath of ignorant racist attacks will undoubtedly infuriate you. You will not believe the sheer terror these people have to endure. The courage of the Siev family makes my heart swell. Their bravery to move forward in the face of chaos is astounding. David’s commitment to telling their story gives audiences a peek inside the hatred stirred up by those in politics and the media that I refuse to give fuel by naming them. We all know who is responsible for the uptick of hate. May he lose again and again.

While we witness the many trials and tribulations alongside the Siev family, in the end, BAD AXE is a love letter to an ever-evolving community and an ode to a family that believes love conquers all. I can easily say Bad Axe is one of the year’s best documentaries.


BAD AXE — Directed by David Siev

New York Premiere — Winner’s Circle — IFC Films Release on Nov 18, 2022

Produced by ​​Jude Harris, Diane Quon, Kat Vasquez, David Siev 

Executive Produced by Daniel Dae Kim, Jeff Tremaine

Featuring Chun Siev, Rachel Siev, Jaclyn Siev, Skylar Janssen, Michael Meinhold

 

Screenings:

Online Screening Window – Sunday, November 13, 2022 12am through Sunday, November 27, 2022 at 11:59pm

Run Time: 102 minutes


 

The First Trailer for ‘The Divergent Series: Allegiant’ Has Arrived!

Allegiant1

Lionsgate just released The Divergent Series: Allegiant trailer and we have it for you below!

The cast of both films will include stars Shailene Woodley and Theo James, along with Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer, and the Oscar-nominated Naomi Watts. Jeff Daniels also joins the cast for the third and fourth films in the franchise along with returning cast members Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q, Keiynan Lonsdale and Jonny Weston, as well as Mekhi Phifer and Daniel Dae Kim. New cast members include Nadia Hilker and Bill Skarsgård as well.

The Divergent Series: Allegiant will hit theaters on Friday, March 18, 2016. The fourth installment, The Divergent Series: Ascendant, is slated for release on March 24, 2017.

The Final Divergent Movies Have New Names!

Insurgent

Lionsgate today announced (via MTV) that they are changing the naming scheme for the final two parts of “The Divergent Series” franchise, which were previously known as “The Divergent Series: Allegiant – Part 1″ and “Part 2.”  The first part of the two part films will now be called The Divergent Series: Allegiant, while the final film is now called The Divergent Series: Ascendant. You can check out the posters below!

Both films are also getting new taglines: Allegiant’s new tagline is “break the boundaries of your world,” while Ascendant promises that “the end is never what you expect.

Author Veronica Routh took to Tumblr to comment on the name change. This is what she had to say:

“What does this mean? Well, basically, it means there are going to be some changes, but it’s really too early to know exactly what those changes will be or the extent of them. I know changes always make fans of the books — and the author! — nervous, but hopefully the characters we know (and love. Or sometimes love to hate?) will still be intact, which is really the important thing. I am eager to see how these movies turn out, along with you guys.”

The cast of both films will include stars Shailene Woodley and Theo James, along with Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer, and the Oscar-nominated Naomi Watts. Jeff Daniels also joins the cast for the third and fourth films in the franchise along with returning cast members Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q, Keiynan Lonsdale and Jonny Weston, as well as Mekhi Phifer and Daniel Dae Kim. New cast members include Nadia Hilker and Bill Skarsgård as well.

Allegiant will be released on March 18. Ascendant will hit theaters on March 24, 2017.

FIN01_Allegiant_Tsr_Online-mtv-1441889472 FIN01_Ascendant_Tsr_Online-mtv-1441889469

Michael’s Review: ‘The Divergent Series: Insurgent’

Insurgent The adventures of reluctant heroine Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) continue in The Divergent Series: Insurgent, a film that seems to rehash a lot of the plot points from the prior film, Divergent, but with daunting task of keeping audiences interested enough to get to next year’s (and the year after that’s) grand finale Allegiant: Part 1 and 2. Director Robert Schwentke (Red) takes over the franchise this time around which sees Tris facing off, once again, against Jeanine (Kate Winslet), the films antagonist and resident psychopath politician with goals of Divergent extinction. The film is suppose to represent the series’ great civil war but it’s execution barely rates higher than a middle school scrum. Will audiences be intrigued enough to continue the series past Insurgent?

InsurgentFollowing the assault on Abnegation by Jeanine’s mind-controlled Dauntless soldiers in the first film, Eric (Jai Courtney) and his platoon are searching through the wreckage of Abnegation for an artifact, a box of unknown origin containing the symbols of all the factions. Upon its recovery, the box is taken to Erudite, where Jeanine claims that she believes it to contain a message from the city’s founders, and the means to end the Divergent problem once and for all. However, only a Divergent can open the box, and she orders that all Divergents be hunted down and captured.

InsurgentWe find Tris, Four (Theo James), Peter (Miles Teller), and Caleb (Ansel Elgort), weirdly enough all three love interests from Woodley’s last three films, hiding out amongst Amity, who have offered the group sanctuary. All four have become fugitives now after Jeanine has declared that Divergents and their sympathizers are enemies of the city. After being tracked down by Eric and the rest of his dauntless followers, the group is forced to split up and escape. Tris decides to take the fight to Jeanine’s doorstep by attacking Erudite, but Four knows the fight will be harder than Tris thinks. Knowing an army is needed, Four hopes to reconnect with their dauntless faction and reassess the situation, but an unlikely ally presents itself which will force Tris and Four to make hard decisions. With the lives of her friends at stake, Tris makes a decision that will have ramifications for all the people she loves and will take her deep into enemy territory to face her fate.

InsurgentFans of the Insurgent novel will notice quite a bit of differences between the book, but writer Veronica Roth believes the changes “really work” so I guess we should too. The story is constructed in a way to keep us wanting to know what’s in that box, but it stalls at various times during the film as the need to plug in some unnecessary cry time for Woodley’s Tris just to let us know what we already assume, which is that this is all really trying on the young hero. The chemistry on screen between Woodley and James has improved drastically over the last film, which is a positive, as the original film had some truly awkward moments between the two. Woodley herself is becoming more comfortable with the character and it really shows on screen. Kate Winslet never seems to truly grasp the concept of being the antagonist. The actress has a fantastic scene presence, but really needed to let go over her constraints and let her inner psychopath out. The rest of the supporting cast, minus Teller who is enjoyable in his limited screen time, is relegated to the background this time around with a few welcome additions from the book series who were omitted from the first film.

InsurgentIf nothing else, the second installment into the The Divergent Series, Insurgent, will act as a primer for the real show when Allegiant: Part 1 hit theaters next year. Insurgent is much better than a lot of the YA adaptations out there and fans of the series will no doubt be left with a lot to talk about, but don’t fear those among us that don’t read, the film is much different than the book so you won’t be left in the dark. Insurgent is a fun popcorn movie that should entertain teens and adults alike.

Stars: 2 1/2 out of 5

After Credit Scene? No

Trailer: