An adaption of Bastien Vives’ graphic novel, Polina tells the story of a young girl in Moscow training to join the Bolshoi ballet company. Her life takes an unorthodox turn when she falls in love with a young dancer and moves to France where she discovers contemporary choreography. The film is the directorial debut of world-renowned choreographer Angelin Preljocaj along with co-director and screenwriter Valérie Müller. Newcomer and professional dancer Anastasia Shevtsova stars as Polina, alongside award-winning actors Juliette Binoche, Niels Schneider and Aleksei Guskov. Polina premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year before making its way to America. (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

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›› ISSUE Feature: Anastasia Shevtsova

Thousand Oaks, CA’s Angelo De Augustine releases his new album Swim Inside The Moon. The video for album track ‘Crazy, Stoned, and Gone’ is a mixed media animated visual by Sufjan Stevens that incorporates several original drawings by De Augustine. Swim Inside the Moon is the second full-length from the 24-year-old, and captures a sound he’s been looking for since he started playing music a decade ago. “A sound behind the voice,” says Angelo, who recorded all of this record in his home’s bathtub using a reel-to-reel machine and a single Shure SM57 microphone. “I noticed that when you sing off a reflective surface you hear two voices. I was compelled to isolate that voice and bring it more to the front of the songs because in many ways I feel more connected to and comforted by that voice following me.” Sufjan Stevens said of this album: “Angelo’s music feels timeless and whole, unhindered and pure. In our age of exhibitionism and over-sharing, his music is quiet, sheltered, simple, and restrained.” (Asthmatic Kitty)

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From up-and-coming director and former frontman of The Fever, Geremy Jasper, Patti Cake$ tells the story of an aspiring rapper from New Jersey who overcomes the haters, bills and broken dreams that lie between herself and stardom. Up-and-coming actor Danielle Macdonald stars as Patricia Dombrowski, a.k.a. Patti Cake$, alongside supporting actors Bridget Everett and Cathy Moriarty and newer faces Mamoudou Athie, McCAul Lombardi and Siddharth Dhananjay. One of this year’s highly-anticipated films, Patti Cake$ has garnered multiple awards and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize following it’s premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. (Fox Searchlight)

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›› ISSUE Feature: Danielle Macdonald

Justin Chon’s directorial debut, which won an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival, is a riveting black and white drama that follows an unlikely friendship between two Korean American brothers and a young African American girl as they are forced to defend their struggling shoe store during the 1992 Rodney King riots. There is an electric energy to this biting debut, which tackles the prickly tension of race relations while paying obvious homage to the 90’s and Spike Lee’s seminal classic, Do The Right Thing. Starring writer-director Justin Chon, as well as David So, Curtiss Cook Jr. and Simone Baker, Gook artfully balances lighthearted moments against a backdrop of building racial unrest, ultimately evolving into a heartfelt exploration of the true meaning of family. (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

›› ISSUE Feature: Justin Chon x David So in conversation

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Singer-songwriter Sophie Payten, or “Gordi” as her family and fans know her, began writing music from a young age on her farm outside the small town of Canowindra, Australia. Her anticipated debut album Reservoir follows last year’s EP Clever Disguise, a favorite of critics like NPR. Gordi recorded Reservoir amidst studying for her medical degree and playing shows, including supporting label mate Bon Iver during performances of his recent album. The album is built on brooding layers of electronica and folk and captures feelings of loss, especially in friendship. (Jagjaguwar)

›› ISSUE Feature: Live performance and interview with Gordi

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Winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Prize at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, Ingrid Goes West showcases a stellar ensemble cast (Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Wyatt Russell and Billy Magnussen) and through its unforgettable central duo of Plaza and Olsen, embraces the joy and horror of over-sharing in our hyper-connected age. In his breakout feature debut, writer-director Matt Spicer mines wicked comedy, dark psychodrama and scathing satire out of friendship and connection in the “like me” era – where loneliness, vulnerability and deception bubble just beneath the surface of our carefully constructed public personas. (Neon)

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Adapted from the bestselling memoir by Jeannette Walls, this stirring and at times heartbreaking coming of age drama is helmed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12) and stars Woody Harrelson, Naomi Watts, Ella Anderson and Academy Award winner Brie Larson. It delves into the turbulent and poverty-ridden childhood of Jeannette Walls (played at different ages by Chandler Head, Ella Anderson and Brie Larson) and her three siblings, portraying through flashbacks the nomadic and neglectful disfunction they endured at the hands of their unstable parents: a charismatic alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother. The film follows the family as they move from the Arizona desert, to Las Vegas, to an Appalachian mining town, the children learning to fend for themselves as their parents outmaneuver bill collectors and the authorities, finding themselves both inspired and inhibited by their unconventional and reckless upbringing. Ultimately, this poignant drama unfolds as an inspiring story of success in the face of adversity, tapping into the power of imagination and the unshakable bonds of familial love. (Lionsgate)

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Some Freaks is a beautiful and powerful indie film starring breakout Lily Mae Harrington and Thomas Mann. Lily Mae Harrington’s debut role has been dubbed as remarkable, winning awards across the festival circuit. The film, which is the directorial debut of Ian MacAllister McDonald, is hailed as a modern day interpretation inspired by the John Hughes teen classics, with characters that includes a plus-sized girl, a one-eyed guy and a closeted gay teen. (Good Deed Entertainment)

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