Giving Voice (James D. Stern and Fernando Villena, 2020). It was only a couple years after the death of playwright August Wilson that a national competition centered on his works was established. High school students from across the country were invited to compete, delivering monologues from Wilson’s plays with a chance to perform on Broadway for the finals as a prize even more enticing than the scholarship dollars at stake. Giving Voice follows several participants in the 2018 edition of the emotive battle. If the style of this documentary is a little straightforward, the choices of directors James D. Stern and Fernando Villena are commendable for keeping the focus properly on the teenage thespians who work their way from bedroom rehearsals to the intimidating stage. If nothing else, there’s an inherent power to witnessing young people so intensely engaged with art. The filmmakers choose their subjects wisely; it’s hard not to root for every one of these kids. Of the competitors, Nia Sarfo is the one who really pops as a star in waiting.

River of Grass (Kelly Reichardt, 1994). Even in this early, noticeably unpolished effort, Kelly Reichardt distinguishes herself as an uncommonly insightful and clever filmmaker. Among other strengths, River of Grass takes full advantage of the heat-haze misery of its Florida setting. Cozy (Lisa Donaldson) is a quietly miserable housewife and mom. Fleeing her home, Cozy connects with a sketchy layabout (Larry Fessenden) who just so happens to have gotten his hands on a stray handgun. After an incident in a backyard they wander into convinces them they’ve accidentally murdered a man, the pair goes on the run, albeit it in a version of a getaway that doesn’t travel very far as they have difficulty securing the funds necessary to gas up a tank. The film is loose and funny. It plays a little like one of the Coen brothers’ low-level crime films populated by characters who are so far out of society that they can’t even reach the fringe. The sensibility is less cynical and more amused, meaning Reichardt’s signature tone was there from the jump.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (Scott Cooper, 2025). Writer-director Scott Cooper attempts a biopic of Bruce Springsteen using the conception and recording of the stellar 1982 album Nebraska as the core of the story. The material in the film that is strictly about the album is reasonably solid. Everything else is a leaden bore. Jeremy Allen White give a generally strong performance as Springsteen, mostly because he steers away from impression and toward emotional authenticity. Cooper just gives White so little story based in authenticity to tether the performance to. Springsteen engages in give-and-take with his manager, Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong in an overly fussy performance), over the defiantly uncommercial new music and flirts his way into a sorta-relationship with a waitress (Odessa Young). The waitress character is a composite of several women in Springsteen’s life and consequently comes across as a empty figure with no personality in particular. Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is earnest and completely committed to the myth of the man it depicts. Unlike him, it’s also dull and empty.