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Review: Luce

— by RON WILKINSON —

At first glance, a story about a traumatized and miraculously healed former Eritrean boy soldier. Adopted by near-perfect parents and plunked down in solidly middle class America, Luce has blossomed into the perfect teen. Charismatic, adult beyond his years and prodigious in his presentation, he wows them time and time again. Seeing something else beyond his poster boy smile, his mother probes, and a movie is born.

Director Julius Onah’s breakout piece, based on the play by J.C. Lee, is shaky at times, rambling through what seems red herrings as well as clues. Even so, the finished product does a remarkable turn of the tables. (CONTINUED)


Review: The Girl in the Fog

— by RON WILKINSON — A girl leaves her silent house in a silent neighborhood saturated in fog. She leaves for a religion class, but she never arrives there. She has disappeared without a trace, leaving nothing behind her but the wet miasma. Fog outside, fog inside, fog in dreams and fog in memories. Whoever […][...]


Review: [Censored]

— by RON WILKINSON — It is all here. The hidden snippets of obscenity Aussies never got to see. The censors plowed through 26 years of films, redacting scenes that were detrimental to the mental and spiritual health of the citizenry, and the film maker assembled a fantastic sample of them here. The good, the […][...]


Veronica Mars (2019) hits DVD on Oct. 22

The wait is over. Television’s favorite super-sleuth is back, and on a mission to save Neptune. Discover more secrets, snooping and seduction like never before as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment releases “Veronica Mars (2019): The Complete First Season” on DVD Oct. 22, 2019. “Veronica Mars (2019): The Complete First Season” contains all eight episodes from […][...]


Review: Honeyland

— by RON WILKINSON — Simplicity and elegance combine to make a powerful statement in this microcosmic visit to a Macedonian Honeyland. A simple documentary about rural bee-keeping morphed into a wild drama of capitalist commercialism and environmental common sense. One of the best documentaries of the year, and perhaps the decade, this tale has […][...]


Review: Creating Woodstock

— by BEV QUESTAD — The secrets behind the production of the 1969 three-day Woodstock music festival are spilled. How close and in how many ways the event skimmed catastrophe is documented in “Creating Woodstock,” a definitive documentary on the behind-the-scenes machinations of an event known across generations throughout the western world. The Planners Mick […][...]


Review: Earth

— by RON WILKINSON — Each year the forces of nature, wind, erosion, tides and other, move about 60 million tons of surface soil. In that same year, humans move about 156 million tons. Humans have become a force of nature greater than nature itself. This stirring documentary takes the viewer to seven locations around […][...]


Review: Astronaut

— by BEV QUESTAD — Like many of us baby boomers, Angus’s trip to the doc reveals a series of symptoms predicting a series of impending malfunctions. The doc tells him frankly that he can no longer drive. His son-in-law figures he must move from living with his family to a retirement home, a last […][...]


Review: Wild Rose

— by RON WILKINSON — 2019 BAFTA Rising Star Award nominee Jessie Buckley takes it easy in this prodigal girl ditty set in the gritty streets of Glasgow. Truly a rising star with an impressive track record of formal education, the real Jessie may be straining at the harness as is her fictional counterpart Rose-Lynn. […][...]



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