Hello everyone! I’m so behind on reviews because I also had to catch up on all the screeners I received during TCFF. As I said in my last post, I have my work cut out for me the next few weeks, ahah. To make things manageable, I’ll keep my film festival reviews shorter than usual.
MORELIFE
A young man’s plan to jump into an icy river at night is interrupted by a half-man, half-fish there for the same reason. These two strike a bargain to find a rare Morel mushroom, hoping it will provide something worth living for.
CJ Renner is truly one of the most innovative MN filmmakers working today. Back in 2017, I got to sit down with him in person and chat about his gangster drama GUNN, plus I interviewed 4 of the cast members too. The next year, I caught up with him again to talk about his action romance American Tender. After eight years away from directing, Renner came back with a new film he wrote himself, and it actually took home the Bill Cooper Best Minnesota Feature Award.
All of Renner’s movies have this beautiful visual style, and Morelife is no exception. The cinematography by DP Ben Enke (whom I had the pleasure of working with in my short Hearts Want) is really impressive, especially in the pool scene. Morelife deals with respective suicide attempts on a bridge. The scenes are done thoughtfully, but they might be upsetting for people struggling with mental health.
The movie is largely a two-hander with heavy dialog between Clayne Crawford as Kermit and Jackson Whitman as Shawn. Crawford wears a fish mask the whole time, but he makes this half-man, half-fish character work through his unique accent, comedic timing, and the way he moves.
Shot entirely in Minneapolis, it took me a while to get into what was happening, and the constant swearing in the dialogue got pretty grating. Even though the two actors have good chemistry, I just couldn’t really connect with either character. That said, I applaud Renner for crafting an original story about the struggle of human connection and the search for existential meaning.
NOT DEAD YET
Ousted from his agency by a youth-obsessed culture, a veteran ad man teams up with a rebellious Hamptons senior breakfast club to launch a bold new venture—proving it’s never too late to rewrite your story and start a second act.
This indie comedy’s biggest strength is its excellent cast, led by veteran character actor Richard Kind. It’s great to see him finally get a lead role, playing a veteran award-winning ad man facing ageism in the ad world. The film was written and directed by Eric and Nick Weber, a father-and-son team, and I found it really easy to connect with their story.
I studied advertising in college, so I’ve always admired legendary ad professionals like Lee Clow, the creative director at TBWA\Chiat\Day who created Apple’s famous “Think Different” campaign, and Pat Fallon from Fallon McElligott in Minneapolis, who produced the groundbreaking BMW film series.
Kind’s character, Elliot Kelman, is a decorated creative director with many awards who works at an advertising agency in New York City. But as Bob Dylan would say, the times they’re a changin.’ The agency is now led by the original owner’s 30-something daughter. Because of today’s youth-focused culture, he is seen as outdated and not trendy anymore. Elliot quits before the firm fires him, which becomes a catalyst to start something new: The Blueberry Café.
Elliot reaches out to his friends from the Hamptons senior breakfast club: Paul Raci, Polly Draper, Bill Smitrovich, Claudia Bicalho, Ed German, and Tovah Feldshuhl. All of them are dealing with ageism in their careers. Though they are uncertain at first, they choose to combine their shared knowledge and collective wisdom as they start this new phase of their lives.
Raci plays Cy, an artist and surfer, and Feldshuhl plays Paulette, a longtime actress. Both stand out in their roles, and the whole group deservedly earned the 2026 TCFF’s Indie Vision—Best Ensemble award. My main quibble is that the young creative team members feel like exaggerated characters, and the young ad guy is especially annoying. The pitch for a special sock line with Cy’s art designs also feels a bit awkward.
Still, the cast are so likable that the movie remains fun to watch. Kind comes across as a genuinely nice guy who, rather than feeling bitter about losing his ad job, chooses to support the young creatives with his out-of-the-box ideas. The film shows that creativity, knowledge, and smart thinking never get old.