Woodsrider (2016)

Woodsrider: Directed by Cambria Matlow. With Sadie Ford. Tucked in the trees of Oregon’s Mount Hood, an introspective young snowboarder camps alone, anticipating a winter of adventure and self-renewal. Tenacious, 19-year old Sadie Ford operates within the poetic persona of a searching pioneer. Her footsteps track over the town of Government Camp’s mountain landscape, her dog Scooter her only constant companion. Deep among the Douglas firs Sadie snowshoes to build her nestled tentsite, a place she feels more at ease than anywhere with four walls. Riding sessions and house parties in town provide brief breaths of social interaction and connection, but otherwise she chooses to spend time in solitude. Sadie’s simple quest for joy is tempered by melancholy when increasingly warm temperatures on the mountain cause rain to replace snow, and the winter season grows shorter. Striking a youthful yet elegiac tone, WOODSRIDER is a meditative film about identity, home, and the way that human experience echoes that of the natural world.

“A young successful interracial couple move into a new home in an exclusive California neighborhood. Chris Mattson (Patrick Wilson) and Lisa Mattson (Kerry Washington) are greeted with hostility by their new neighbor, LAPD Sergeant Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson), a widower and single father with a son and daughter. Chris and Lisa attempt to be cordial with Abel, inviting him and his family to their home and attending a barbecue Abel throws for some of his fellow officers. Despite this, Abel keeps becoming more disruptive and aggressive to Chris and Lisa. This eventually leads to retaliation on Chrisu0026#39; part and a confrontation with tragic consequences.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis movie despite its racial overtones doesnu0026#39;t break any new ground as a thriller. Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington are a yuppie couple pushed too far and Sam Jackson as Abel is their disturbed neighbor/antagonist who wishes them harm. Definitely nothing new. The acting and script are okay with Sam Jacksonu0026#39;s performance easily being the best. The ending is something that can be seen coming a mile away. This film is something you would watch on a slow day if it came on cable.”