Skip to main content

Highlights from 4 reviews of CASEY MAKES A MIXTAPE - new movie available from Amazon and Apple TV now


*

"...an observational coming-of-age tale with some comedic and dramatic beats. But there is a charm to seeing adolescence before the internet and social media took over. Most importantly, though, Calhoun eschews a great number of clichés." - Film Threat

*

"This film from Blake Calhoun, set in the summer of 1981, is a fun film about a 13-year-old girl who learns to adapt to being with her grandparents and finds herself determined to finish the mixtape she has been working on and attempt to get that one song left." - World Of Film Geek

*

"I found the movie to be almost an observational movie - documenting a summer in the life of the main character (played in a low key, somewhat dramatic, and overall an entertaining way by the excellent Presley Richardson). Small challenges and small victories, but with larger problems slowly being worked on in the background. The movie reminded me of Jim Jarmusch's arthouse success Paterson." - DIY Filmmaker (that's the review I wrote about the movie in this blog)

*

"...we find the story centered on a 13-year old girl from a broken home who is made to spend her Summer, very reluctantly at first, with her grandparents in a much smaller East Texas town while her rather cavalier mother chooses to take off to Paris, even as the finishing of a new mixtape provides the backdrop to it all." - One Film Fan

*
Get info on the movie here, including links for renting or buying -

Full Movie - SNEAK PREVIEW - Cosmic Disco Detective Rene And The Mystery Of Immortal Time Travelers

NEW - COSMIC DISCO DETECTIVE RENE (2023) - TRAILER!

Popular Posts

Written notes/review plus live video review of By the Stream (2025) by Hong Sang-soo

By the stream review - from Lincoln Center, NYC viewing - no spoilers The hype is real - By the Stream is very good by Hong movies standards and also normal comedy-drama standards. There were like 30-40 people at Lincoln Center for the 1PM Fri 8/8/25 (opening day) screening of By the Stream.  People in that neighborhood are serious about their foreign films. Cinematography is very simple, from a canon XA small sensor HD cam, I could see familiar details, how those cams film the moon, scenes at night - it’s like a 1980s or 1990s early indie cinematography style that we do not see much these days - works well for Hong’s movies. No color grading, very simple video/cinematography. A more fleshed out movie than some recent Hong movies. In the movie a skit is prepped, and we actually get to see it performed. A couple of serious issues are discussed.  Some unexpected, light things happen. It’s a comedy-drama chill hangout movie w/ creative South Korean people - good times. Probably o...

Canon G60 daytime and nighttime test videos - excellent camcorder for indie filmmakers

 

Cosmic Disco Detective Rene (2023) Full Movie + The Last Days of Joseph Koch Comics Warehouse (2025) feature documentary, full movie

    *  

Reading Material