Hammer to Nail

It has been a long road for Ethan Berger’s directorial debut The Line to hit the big screen. The film, which premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival where it wowed critics and audiences, struggled to get picked up for...

AJ’s life is so perfect – buttered toast breakfasts, low stress job, regular meals with his dad and his friends, and regular trips to the dog park for his two puppies – that even his boss understands why he won’t...

South Korean filmmaker Jason Yu steps into the spotlight with his feature directorial debut Sleep, a taut psychological thriller that debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023. Drawing from his experiences in his own marriage, cinema history, and his work as an...

(The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival ran September 5-15 and HtN has you covered once again. Check out M.J. O’Toole’s Cloud movie review. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa has long been fascinated...

(Check out Chris Reed’s The Universal Theory movie review. It hits theaters Friday, September 27 via Oscilloscope Laboratories. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) The Universal Theory opens in 1974, in Hamburg, Germany, as a...

One of the most acclaimed, visually stunning animated films of the year is, without a doubt, Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow. It premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival to an overwhelmingly positive reception, and went on to win multiple awards at...

(Check out Chris Reed’s Rez Ball, movie review. It drops on Netflix Friday, September 27 on Netflix. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) Underdog sports movies are nothing new. From Rocky to Hoosiers to The...

Indie icon Crystal Moselle (Stake Kitchen; The Wolfpack) is once again blurring the line between fiction and documentary. She teams up with actor/rapper Derrick B. Harden to co-direct The Black Sea, a new cinema verité-like feature about a life turned...

Rising filmmaker Alessandra Lacorazza made waves at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival with her debut feature, In the Summers. The poignant coming-of-age drama, which follows two sisters’ complex relationship with their father over four summer visits, captivated audiences and critics...

(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 Brad Cook dives into...