Hammer to Nail

When words fail, cinema is the purest form of expression, believes experimental filmmaker J.D Fernández Molero. Cinema is the closest thing to dreams, in its ability to conjure existence and twist reality. Cinema is a punku,  meaning for “gateway” in...

(Check out Chris Reed’s The Ballad of Wallis Island movie review, it’s in theaters now via Focus Features. Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) An adaptation of a 2007 short film from the same creative team (director, writers/co-stars), James Griffith’s The Ballad...

Filmmaker Courtney Stephens (Terra Femme, The American Sector) blurs fiction and autobiographical nonfiction in her newest 16mm feature, Invention. It stars Callie Hernandez (who co-wrote the script with Stephens) as a woman who returns to her hometown following the passing...

After nearly two decades of making cinematic, boundary-pushing period pieces, Paul Thomas Anderson is coming back to the present day with an explosive political satire. One Battle After Another, Anderson’s tenth feature, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a former civil rights...

Carson Lund’s directorial debut Eephus arrives like a rare, carefully crafted pitch – deceptively simple yet loaded with unexpected depth and movement. Set during a final game between two New England recreational baseball teams whose beloved field faces imminent destruction, the film...

(Check out Matt Delman’s Misericordia movie review, it’s in theaters now! Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) Misericordia is quite the title for a film, and learning that it’s a Latin word meaning ‘Mercy’ makes it even...

Half a decade after his last feature directorial venture Her Smell, former HtN contributor Alex Ross Perry is back with a new experimental undertaking. Pavements is a tribute to the iconic indie rock band Pavement, led by frontman Stephen Malkmus...

Belgian director Leni Huyghe just premiered her debut feature, Real Faces, at SXSW 2025 (where I reviewed it). The film follows its two protagonists, Julia (Leonie Buysse) and Eliot (Gorges Ocloo), as they separately and together navigate conflicts on their...

(Check out MJ. O’Toole’s movie review of Who By Fire, now playing at NY’s Film at Lincoln Center LA’s Laemmle Theaters. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) French-Canadian director Philippe Lesage knows how uneasy it is to...

(We here at Hammer to Nail are all about true independent cinema. But we also have to tip our hat to the great films of yesteryear that continue to inspire filmmakers and cinephiles alike. This week, “The Curbside Criterion” continues...