Even with a shaky conclusion, the swarming warmth of Riegel’s direction and the meditation of her writing results in a film that displays the fleeting, volatile kind of love that forces you to grow

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 14, 2024

Riegel’s actors ignite a convincing spark when sharing the screen. One sees the blistering force of their connection.

| Jul 12, 2024

A sweet, slight, impressionistic character study of a struggling musician with a luminous KiKi Layne at its center.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 12, 2024

'Well-crafted' and 'evocative' applies to Riegel’s visual style as well as the music.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 12, 2024

When the director trusts what’s onscreen enough to let it speak for itself, Dandelion is alive with a persuasive friction.

| Jul 12, 2024

The story, alas, is colorless and flat: a terribly earnest picture of two sad people looking for somebody or something to jump-start their battery.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 11, 2024

Riegel and the cinematographer, Lauren Guiteras, use the camera like a vessel for Dandelion’s sense memories.

| Jul 11, 2024

While it begins on a promising note and intermittently strikes the right chords, this cinematic symphony sours during its crescendo when it should be intensifying, bringing its stirring sentiments together in resounding harmony.

| Original Score: C- | Jul 10, 2024

While “Dandelion” plays out over a few short days, the duo pack plenty into those spare hours, as their passion bleeds into the music and then back out again.

| Original Score: B | Jul 10, 2024

So much of making art is about confidence, and while Nicole Riegel has set aside some of the clattering obviousness of her debut feature, 2020’s Holler, she still doesn’t fully trust her textured images to do the talking.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 7, 2024

“Dandelion” takes its time visually and narratively, respecting how creativity comes with ups and downs.

| Mar 16, 2024

The unguarded authenticity of this film shifts its simple story away from any banality towards being a revealing narrative which celebrates the creative spirit and ponders the invisibility of Blackness.

| Mar 13, 2024