THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Fun at the Lone Star Film Festival continues! Tonight, I got to attend my first ever premiere, and not only that, I was invited by the director, Reza Ghassemi, himself! This film critic thing is getting wildly out of hand, and I’m loving it. I’m still pretty inexperienced when it comes to indie films, but I did watch Ghassemi’s first film, In Full Bloom, earlier this week. I was anxious to see how and where his latest film, Unwinding, would improve upon its predecessor.

Fortunately, Unwinding took steps forward in just about every facet of the film. In Full Bloom’s two best qualities were the crisp cinematography and the booming sound, and Unwinding possessed those same strengths. The shot composition was varied and creative and the sound and score rang through the auditorium (shoutout to Andrew Kawczynski for another great, dramatic score). The color grading was still a bit too intense (and very blue here), but Ghassemi did say in the Q&A after the film that he is, and I’m quoting him, “severely colorblind”, so I can excuse the decision; I’d want to be able to see it all, too!

Where I observed the biggest jump in quality from In Full Bloom to Unwinding was in the story and performances. In Full Bloom fell into tropes and cliché dialogue more often than I would have liked, but Unwinding felt wholly original and suspenseful. Some of the narrative beats in the first hour felt a bit disconnected—we were introduced to a lot of characters and didn’t quite know how they all fit together yet—but the final act tied it all together in some sad and satisfying ways. I couldn’t believe that a story so reminiscent of current events was created before any of them happened, and the ending was sobering and unfortunate (complimentary). Great clairvoyance, Reza!

Most of the film’s performances were much improved, too, even if I still didn’t know who a lot of the cast was. Peter Facinelli brought his Hollywood A-game to the lead role, but the supporting cast—from Q’orianka Kilcher to James Paxton and Ross McCall—didn’t slack. It was so cool to listen to them talk about the filmmaking process at the Q&A, and yes, I was a little starstruck as the faces I saw on the screen walked down the auditorium stairs to talk to us common folk!

Though it had a couple narrative and technical hiccups, Unwinding was a massive step up from In Full Bloom for Reza Ghassemi and his team, and I hope the very best for the success of this film. It’s so cool to have a legit indie filmmaker whose career I’ll follow so closely now, and judging by the strides his second film made, I’ve picked a good one to follow. My experience at the Lone Star Film Festival has been so great so far, and I can’t wait for it to continue on Tuesday night!