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Expanding the cinematic universe of her first feature The Unknown Country, Morrisa Maltz’s Jazzy is a beautifully crafted portrait of childhood in South Dakota, conjuring an aesthetic that at times recalls the ethereal works of Sofia Coppola. Made in close collaboration with her subjects, Jazzy expands one of the documentary interstitials featured in her previous film, creating a portrait of a country that is known through the eyes of two tween girls growing up in a material community. For much of the film, adults are heard but remain offscreen, the fathers are unseen, and the film’s third act contains a catharsis that recalls how The Unknown Country resolved itself. Maltz often collaborates with a population she is not part of, her films often revolving around the idea of community––those you find or get back together with.
For fans of The Unknown Country, the third act of Jazzy...
For fans of The Unknown Country, the third act of Jazzy...
- 6/18/2024
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
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Morrisa Maltz renders the realities of girlhood with compelling tenderness in her sophomore narrative effort Jazzy. The film, which takes place in the same cinematic universe as the director’s critically acclaimed debut feature The Unknown Country, follows six years in the life of its protagonist as she navigates friendship, romantic crushes and the small freedoms of growing up. Jazzy’s story is based on that of Maltz’s goddaughter, Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux, with whom the director worked closely on this delicate narrative.
Premiering at Tribeca, Jazzy trails its titular character from age 6 through 12. The film combines the experimental narrative and temporal sweep of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood with the considerate eye of films like Maimouna Doucouré’s Cuties and Minhal Baig’s We Grown Now. Maltz takes the problems of her protagonist seriously, and so much of what makes Jazzy engrossing is how the director portrays daily events with a stirring profundity.
Premiering at Tribeca, Jazzy trails its titular character from age 6 through 12. The film combines the experimental narrative and temporal sweep of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood with the considerate eye of films like Maimouna Doucouré’s Cuties and Minhal Baig’s We Grown Now. Maltz takes the problems of her protagonist seriously, and so much of what makes Jazzy engrossing is how the director portrays daily events with a stirring profundity.
- 6/13/2024
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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While there was much Oscar buzz around “Killers of the Flower Moon” actor Lily Gladstone (one of the most exciting cinematic names of the past decade), there was another Gladstone-starrer out in the world last year, quietly captivating a smaller audience in limited release. That picture was Morrisa Maltz’s hypnotic road movie “The Unknown Country,” an original narrative touched by a documentarian’s perceptive sensibility that followed Gladstone’s Tana on a journey through the American Midwest and, ultimately, her grief. Those who made the time for Maltz’s modest film then met the young Native girl Jasmine “Jazzy” Shangreaux, Maltz’s real-life goddaughter. Now, the young girl gets her own vehicle with the tender and poetic “Jazzy,” debuting at Tribeca Festival.
At first glance, “Jazzy” might seem more polished and traditionally structured than its predecessor. But the two films share a proudly scrappy and loose-limbed spirit in their soulful,...
At first glance, “Jazzy” might seem more polished and traditionally structured than its predecessor. But the two films share a proudly scrappy and loose-limbed spirit in their soulful,...
- 6/13/2024
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
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Taking place June 5-16, the 2024 Tribeca Festival has unveiled its features lineup, featuring a selection of narrative, documentary, and animated films. World premiere highlights include Joel Potrykus’ Vulcanizadora, Michael Angarano’s Sacramento starring Michael Cera and Kristen Stewart, Jazzy, the latest collaboration between The Unknown Country director Morrisa Maltz and star Lily Gladstone.
Films that have premiered at prior festivals that are set for Tribeca include Nathan Silver’s Between the Temples, Karim Aïnouz’s Firebrand, Daddio starring Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn, Kneecap, the Sundance winner In the Summers, Treasure starring Lena Dunham, Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s The Devil’s Bath, Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger, Skywalkers: A Love Story, and more.
Explore the lineup below.
2024 Tribeca Festival Feature Film Selection
Opening Night Gala
Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge, (United States) – World Premiere. Child of a Holocaust survivor, Princess by marriage, and founder of a fashion empire,...
Films that have premiered at prior festivals that are set for Tribeca include Nathan Silver’s Between the Temples, Karim Aïnouz’s Firebrand, Daddio starring Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn, Kneecap, the Sundance winner In the Summers, Treasure starring Lena Dunham, Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s The Devil’s Bath, Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger, Skywalkers: A Love Story, and more.
Explore the lineup below.
2024 Tribeca Festival Feature Film Selection
Opening Night Gala
Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge, (United States) – World Premiere. Child of a Holocaust survivor, Princess by marriage, and founder of a fashion empire,...
- 4/17/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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Exclusive: Lily Gladstone is set to reteam with Morrisa Maltz on Jazzy, a companion piece and follow-up to their acclaimed indie drama The Unknown Country, released by Music Box Films, which brought Gladstone a Gotham Award last fall. In addition to starring, Gladstone will exec produce, along with the team at Duplass Brothers Productions.
While The Unknown Country followed Gladstone’s character — the grieving Tana — on a lonely road trip across America, it also introduced the scene-stealing character of Jazzy, based on and played by Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux, a young Oglala Lakota girl growing up in South Dakota. The roles are flipped in Jazzy, with Shangreaux taking center stage and Gladstone supporting her narrative journey. Shot over six years, the film sees Jazzy and her peers grow up on camera as they navigate the space between childhood and young adulthood. When her best friend moves away, Jazzy experiences both a...
While The Unknown Country followed Gladstone’s character — the grieving Tana — on a lonely road trip across America, it also introduced the scene-stealing character of Jazzy, based on and played by Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux, a young Oglala Lakota girl growing up in South Dakota. The roles are flipped in Jazzy, with Shangreaux taking center stage and Gladstone supporting her narrative journey. Shot over six years, the film sees Jazzy and her peers grow up on camera as they navigate the space between childhood and young adulthood. When her best friend moves away, Jazzy experiences both a...
- 2/14/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
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Just two miles outside of their destination, the Cadillac that star Lily Gladstone was driving for director Morrisa Maltz’s “The Unknown Country” ran out of gas amid a 2,200-mile road trip, the pair recently told IndieWire. And just days before their film was set to be released, SAG-AFTRA went on strike, leaving Gladstone unable to promote the passion project in its homestretch.
“The Unknown Country,” an independent road trip movie that blends documentary and narrative elements to gorgeous and profound effect, is Maltz’s debut feature and is finally hitting theaters Friday after premiering at SXSW 2022. It’s also the type of movie that might struggle to find any sort of wider audience, if not for Gladstone’s involvement.
For months, Gladstone had this week circled on her calendar for promotion. But, per the strike rules laid out by SAG-AFTRA, actors are unable to promote past, present, or future projects produced by struck companies.
“The Unknown Country,” an independent road trip movie that blends documentary and narrative elements to gorgeous and profound effect, is Maltz’s debut feature and is finally hitting theaters Friday after premiering at SXSW 2022. It’s also the type of movie that might struggle to find any sort of wider audience, if not for Gladstone’s involvement.
For months, Gladstone had this week circled on her calendar for promotion. But, per the strike rules laid out by SAG-AFTRA, actors are unable to promote past, present, or future projects produced by struck companies.
- 7/28/2023
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
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There is no unknown country in “The Unknown Country,” a gently meandering road trip through an America that even those of us directly unacquainted have traveled via the movies: Morrisa Maltz’s lovely second feature trades in the familiar imagery of unfettered highways ribboned through the great, grassy middle of nowhere, roadside inns outlined in humming hot-pink neon, gas stations slumped against the sparse landscape like oily oases. It’s the people building their lives along this route, however, that this sociable, inquisitive docufiction seeks to discover, as Maltz profiles the faces flashing by the driver only passing through. A diner hostess, a convenience store clerk, a motel proprietor — here, all get to share their stories beyond the usual scope of road-movie bit parts.
Indeed, for much of the film’s compact running time, we learn more about these foregrounded background figures — playing themselves with generous candor and good humor...
Indeed, for much of the film’s compact running time, we learn more about these foregrounded background figures — playing themselves with generous candor and good humor...
- 7/28/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
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Tana, the compassionate protagonist of The Unknown Country, is asked about her plans at one point in the movie and answers with a slightly embarrassed smile: “Just kinda floatin.’ ” Cut loose from the day-to-day by the death of her grandmother and far from home, Tana might not have a specific itinerary, but, mile by mile in what will turn out to be a 2,000-mile journey, she’s searching, in her guarded way, and open to possibilities. Lily Gladstone inhabits the role with warmth and deep wells of feeling, striking nuanced notes in Tana’s watchful solitude as well as her interactions. The people Tana meets during her travels include characters played by actors and real-life locals playing themselves, and the quiet but stirring effect is a dreamscape of eye-opening geography, existential longing and the enduring workaday.
Filmed over a four-year period, screenwriter-director Morrisa Maltz’s drama began as a photography...
Filmed over a four-year period, screenwriter-director Morrisa Maltz’s drama began as a photography...
- 7/27/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival. Music Box Films releases the film in select theaters on Friday, July 28, with expansion to follow.
To deem Morrisa Maltz a spiritual disciple of revered master Terrence Malick may seem too facile a reference. Still, the evident links are all there: she’s from Texas and made a movie that traverses the Badlands of South Dakota for her heroine to get back to “The Lone Star State.” But while the stirring visual fluidity of “The Unknown Country,” her first fiction feature and a kind-hearted triumph, provides further arguments pointing to Malick likely being an influence, what distinguishes Maltz’s approximation to that style of evocatively loose filmmaking is that it’s grounded on the personal victories of real individuals. Based on that, she forges eclectic narrative devices for a tone poem with substantial dramatic meat on its bones.
To deem Morrisa Maltz a spiritual disciple of revered master Terrence Malick may seem too facile a reference. Still, the evident links are all there: she’s from Texas and made a movie that traverses the Badlands of South Dakota for her heroine to get back to “The Lone Star State.” But while the stirring visual fluidity of “The Unknown Country,” her first fiction feature and a kind-hearted triumph, provides further arguments pointing to Malick likely being an influence, what distinguishes Maltz’s approximation to that style of evocatively loose filmmaking is that it’s grounded on the personal victories of real individuals. Based on that, she forges eclectic narrative devices for a tone poem with substantial dramatic meat on its bones.
- 3/13/2022
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Indiewire
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