Honestly, I wondered if the COVID-19 pandemic ended my days of getting paid to write movie reviews. Not only are movie theaters closed, but Asheville’s Mountain Xpress, where most of my reviews run, had to pare down due to a lack of ad revenue.

But indie theaters have been showing movies virtually, with part of the rental fees going to those venues, providing publications with films to review. And thankfully, the budget to pay for those reviews is opening up again.

So I was eager to review Lucky Grandma when given the opportunity:

Director Sasie Sealy (who co-wrote the script with Angela Cheng) builds her feature debut around a memorable grouch, Grandma Wong (Tsai Chin), whose fortune changes when a huge amount of money literally falls into her lap.

Lucky Grandma is a clever spin on the crime caper genre, thanks to Chin’s wonderfully cranky performance and Sealy trusting her warped morality tale to play out to its natural end.

I would’ve loved seeing this movie in a theater, preferably with my mother who would surely enjoy this fun film set in Asian culture. But that’s not the world we’re living in right now.

The important thing is that the COVID-19 shutdown hasn’t prevented quality smaller films from reaching an audience and helping to support independent theaters.

Please read the full review at Mountain Xpress.