Sarah Welch-Larson, Author at Bright Wall/Dark Room

There’s something special about taking part in a treasure hunt at the heart of a hidden gem of a festival. True/False Film Festival feels special because it’s so intimate, populated by cinephiles who love the underestimated and misunderstood genre of documentary features.

My God, It’s Full of Stars

Sarah Welch-Larson·

Issue 115: Best of 2022

Mad God is a stop-motion nightmare, a film that reads like a Boschian painting, a voyeur’s dream, and a dire warning all at once.

Saying Goodbye

Sarah Welch-Larson·

Issue 113: Recovery

On Kogonada’s After Yang and its depiction of grief, love, belonging, and the lovely, wounding ache of memory.

You’re Gonna Give Me Back My Spur

Sarah Welch-Larson·

Issue 110: 1987

Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark bites into the myth of American individualism and exceptionalism in Western movies by throwing vampires into the mix.

You Think I Can’t See You for Who You Really Are?

Sarah Welch-Larson·

Issue 109: Voyeur

It’s no secret that Drew Goddard is interested in stories about characters watching and being watched by other people. Bad Times at the El Royale takes this fascination and folds it into the very walls of the titular hotel.

Phantom of the Paradise (1974) | art by Tom Ralston

He Sold His Soul for Rock and Roll

Sarah Welch-Larson·

Issue 104: Opulence

Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise is decadence splashed on celluloid, a celebration of the shine of glam rock, and a preemptive funeral for the scene officiated by the dark underside of the business.

Dune (2021): A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Sarah Welch-Larson·

New Releases

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is a self-fulfilling prophecy that undoes itself in the telling, an ouroboros regurgitating its own tail rather than eating it.

Stealing Fire: Frankenstein (1931)

Sarah Welch-Larson·

Issue 100: Transcendence

Frankenstein rests in the meeting place where the borders between transgression and transcendence touch.

You May Find Yourself

Sarah Welch-Larson·

Issue 99: Desert Island Movies

Stop Making Sense is a beautiful magic trick: show the stage for the hard concrete reality it is, then transform it into an island of motion and movement that’s unreal and exaggerated.

I’ll See You In Hell

Sarah Welch-Larson·

Issue 96: Best Laid Plans

The Empire Strikes Back is about doing the work after all passion for that work is gone, about the slow, hard attempts to see a long-term plan through with no hope of success in sight.

Collateral | DreamWorks Pictures/Paramount

Objects in Motion

Sarah Welch-Larson·

Issue 93: Dynamic Duos

The tension Michael Mann’s Collateral sustains is effective because the movie understands the unequal relationship between employer and employee, between driver and passenger.

The Hunt for Red October (1990) | Paramount Pictures

Some Things in Here Don’t React Well to Bullets

Sarah Welch-Larson·

Issue 90: Frames

In this single shot, The Hunt for Red October presents its stakes: the struggle between an individual and the vast and powerful forces that threaten to swallow him.