With the 46th edition of the Giffoni Film Festival coming to an end, the complete list of this year’s winners were proclaimed during the closing press conference by Director Claudio Gubitosi, together with artistic managers Manlio Castagna, Luca Apolito, Gianvincenzo Nastasi, Tony Guarino and Anto[...]
Archive for July, 2016
Review: Eat That Question
— by RON WILKINSON — As honest as the day is long, this is a film about Frank Zappa, by Frank Zappa, starring Frank Zappa and, yes, it is in his own words. Directed by Thorsten Schütte, the screenplay is a treasure trove of archival interviews with the Boss hisself. A few performance cl[...]
Review: The Childhood of a Leader
— by RON WILKINSON — In “The Childhood of a Leader,” writer/director Brady Corbet (co-written with Mona Fastvold) has created a unique and powerful film that is stripped to bare bones but ripples with undercurrents. The superficial story is that of a troubled child, his paren[...]
Review: Captain Fantastic
— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Matt Ross comes out swinging in “Captain Fantastic,” starring the never-looked-better Viggo Mortensen. Mortensen plays Ben, the father of a family of six kids aged 6 to 18 who have long since left society to live far off the grid. During t[...]
Review: Open Your Eyes
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Tell me, Mother, would you like to see again?” After 15 years in the dark, the crinkly, barefoot grandmother is stunned by the question. Despite the corrupt, bizarre, dark, despairing days we live in, there are beacons of angelic light blinking out there in the re[...]
Review: The Infiltrator
— by RON WILKINSON — Emerging director Brad Furman grabbed the gold ring with this bit of fantastic casting starring Bryan Cranston from the smash “Breaking Bad” series. The BB Cranston was a bad guy playing a good guy. In this flick, he is a good guy playing a bad guy. As it turns o[...]
Review: Under the Sun
— by RON WILKINSON — Just when you think you have seen everything, there comes a documentary that is so improbable that it refuses even the label of a doc. As the story goes, writer/director Vitaliy Manskiy was invited by the hyper-secret government of North Korea to make a documentary. [...]
The Next Bond, James Bond
Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Connery and Roger Moore are just some of the greats who have took on the James Bond role. But who is next in line to take their martini shaken, not stirred? Producers are still hopeful of attracting Daniel Craig back for one more film, however that is thought to be[...]
Review: Hunt for the Wilderpeople
— by RON WILKINSON — “Never work with animals or children,” said W.C. Fields, but writer director Taika Waititi gambled on child actor Julian Dennison and won. Based on the book by Barry Crump, “Wilderpeople” is a charming road trip through the spectacularly beautiful New Zealand[...]
Review: Nuts!
— by RON WILKINSON — What is exactly the opposite of impotence in human males? As John Romulus Brinkley tells the story, one of his sadly stricken patients pointed out that the male goat was the obvious answer. “If I could just do what that goat does, I would be a happy man,” pled th[...]