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Review: Instant Dreams

— by RON WILKINSON —

The movie opens with a real lab, real humans and real weird gadgets. The men act like doctors, only they are healing mysterious forces beyond the comprehension of normal mortals. They have some sorts of infrared goggles, like you would use to view an atomic bomb, or take with you when interviewing glowing aliens for the first time. This will be a cool movie, like a real life Frankenstein.

Edwin Land comes on like Rod Serling (“Twilight Zone”) and delivers a straight faced description of actual real sci-fi stuff. Fantasy described as normal as the sunrise, and just as unavoidable. In post WWII America we had everything, but we wanted more. We wanted everything, only we wanted it now. Waiting was not an option in the brave new world of technology. (CONTINUED)


Review: Leonard Bernstein: Larger Than Life

— by BEV QUESTAD — A documentary on Leonard Bernstein, a passionate musical genius, could cover an examination of his politics, social life, psychology, family and music career. But to do justice to any of these aspects would mean at least a five-hour film. So this one-hour doc focuses on just one aspect, his music […][...]


Battle of the Spies: Who’s the True King?

When it comes to the best movie spies, we immediately think of the main three: James Bond, Ethan Hunt and Jason Bourne. These three have been on our screens for a long time with James Bond’s first debut, “Dr. No” in 1962, which stars Sean Connery. The British government agent has been the heartthrob and […][...]


Review: Dogman

— by RON WILKINSON — Billing this movie as a crime drama is dark comedy. The film itself is even darker than crime, a disturbing look into social connection and the meaning of intimacy in friendship. Specifically, the lack thereof. The protagonist lives a doomed existence, fated to exist without friends. Unlike most cautionary tales, […][...]


Review: The Kamagasaki Cauldron War

— by BEV QUESTAD — A tour guide tells his group that the big flower planters have been strategically placed in Kamagasaki to make it impossible for indigents to sleep on the sidewalks. Then an indigent, who is also a crack pick-pocket, passes by and steals his money. The pickpocket needs this money to afford […][...]


Review: The Public

— by BEV QUESTAD — The Cincinnati Ohio Library is being sued for $750,000 by a frequent patron who was told he must leave the building because of his smell. He claims discrimination. The humble librarian, Stuart Goodson (Emilio Estevez), who was pressured by annoyed patrons to ask the odor-handicapped fellow to leave, is held […][...]


Review: The Brink

— by BEV QUESTAD — Alison Klayman, a progressive Jewish granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, consented to produce/direct a film on a man with whose ideas she does not agree. As a filmmaker and journalist, she has won recognition for her work on the Chinese artist and activist, Ai Weiwei, and on Nobel Prize-winner and human […][...]


Review: Bachman

— by BEV QUESTAD — Like Eric Clapton, Roger Waters and Neil Young, great musicians are obsessive-compulsive about their music from an early age. As time goes on, some branch off into other things, but most of the great ones keep on performing. This “Bachman” bio-doc is about one of these obsessive greats, Randy Bachman […][...]


The best films set in casinos

When it comes to the best films set in a casino, some of the most intense, thought-driven scenes rarely depict them as being in a casino. For example, take “Rain Man,” a comedy-drama directed by Barry Levinson. Towards the middle of the film, we see Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) realise his recently-discovered brother has a […][...]



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