"Jasmine" Review - Macon Film Festival (***)

Jason Tobin stars in "Jasmine."

First-time director Dax Phelan crafts a tense but often meandering mystery in "Jasmine." Phelan is more than capable of setting the tone for the increasingly unsettling thriller but the story lacks complexity.

Jason Tobin plays Leonard To, a grieving widower whose wife was murdered the previous year. Leonard is in pain. Walking the streets of Hong Kong at night, he is very much alone and very much in his own head. With blurred lights in the distance and bustling streets, the city is a character of its own. Hong Kong—and Phelan’s ability to capture it—lends a lot to the film. Tobin is fantastic as the miserable, confused and angry Leonard. His wife’s murder is still unsolved and while the police seem to have given up, the lack of closure haunts him.

"Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong" Review (****)

Brian Greenberg and Jamie Chung star in "Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong."

Last week I attended the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival for the very first time, catching a screening of first-time writer/director Emily Ting’s “Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong” as a part of Access Night. Starring real-life couple Jamie Chung and Bryan Greenberg, Ting’s walk-and-talk romantic comedy shines under the brightly-lit streets of nighttime Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the film occasionally falls victim to Hollywood’s many romantic comedy tropes. The city as the third character? Check. Flirtatious meet-cute? Double check. However, the film is able to differentiate itself from being just another 'rom-com' thanks largely in part to Ting’s unique perspective paired with Chung and Greenberg’s natural flow on screen.