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“We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” (dir. Jane Schoenbrun, 2021)

Jane Schoenbrun understands the internet. The filmmaker behind such projects as “A Self-Induced Hallucination” (a 2018 doc “about the internet”), the tech-tinged “Eyeslicer” series, and the dreamy “collective: unconscious” had always found the space to explore the worldwide web with respect, reverence, and a hearty dose of fear. For their narrative feature debut, Schoenbrun expanded their obsessions to craft an intimate tale about the impact of modern internet culture — one that’s part coming-of-age story, part horror film, and also the greatest argument yet for the beauty that “Creepypasta” can inspire.

“Tendaberry”

One of the privileges of doing this job is anticipating a promising filmmaker’s next leap. When I first watched Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s evocative queer coming-of-age short “Pillars” at Sundance 2019, I sensed she was someone to keep an eye on. Her later short co-directed social justice documentary “The Sentence Of Michael Thompson” only increased my curiosity. But her debut feature, the arching, handmade “Tendaberry,” which premiered at Sundance 2024, exceeded my wildest hopes. 

Director Tyler Taormina wraps up an unabashedly sincere portrait of a boisterous Italian-American family gathering in twinkling tissue paper, and leaves it under the tree.

Starring Annie Parisse (“Law & Order,” “The Following”) and Gus Birney (“Dickinson”), Theodore Schaefer’s “Giving Birth to a Butterfly,” one of the buzz titles at August’s Fantasia Intl. Film Festival, has released a first clip ahead of the film’s world premiere in Fantasia Underground section on Aug. 9.

No one is who they say that are in Giving Birth to a Butterfly, especially not the women. Beautifully shot on 16mm, Theodore Schaefer‘s directorial debut (available to stream today) follows Diana (Annie Parisse), a frustrated wife and mother, who finds her identity has been stolen by internet fraudsters unknown, in the midst of a crisis of confidence for her entire family. Her husband, Daryl (Paul Sparks) wants to be a chef but finds himself stuck in a dead-end job at a burger place, wearing someone else’s apron as he makes a change.

With compelling characters and an eerie take on suburbia, Theodore Schaefer’s debut film, Giving Birth to a Butterfly, will take you on a melancholic, unsettling road trip to self-discovery that’s well worth the watch.