— by RON WILKINSON — The title brings two scenarios to mind. One is the concept of arguing for a better, higher purpose. The other is to take high ground for a military advantage. It is a nicely chosen title as this powerfully shot movie argues for both sides of the apologetic high groun[...]
Archive for May, 2021
Review: Los Hermanos/The Brothers
— by BEV QUESTAD — Tender playing and soul-inspired composing spear the center of your soul. Music this joyful and knowing is rare. Perhaps the product of extraordinary choices or maybe just DNA, this story of Ilmar and Aldo Gavilán is a tour de force The title music played at the end o[...]
Review: Never Gonna Snow Again
— by RON WILKINSON — Headlining BAM’s fourth edition of Kino Polska: New Polish Cinema, Malgorzata Szumowska’s movie is a playful and atmospheric essay on human kindness and environmental frailty. Co-directed and written with Michal Englert, the Venice Film Festival hit succeeds with[...]
Review: In Our Mothers’ Gardens
— by BEV QUESTAD — Presented as a chapter book, “In Our Mothers’ Gardens” is a look at the maternal history of several accomplished black women. Each woman knows her maternal history calls the name of her mother, who she was a daughter of … until she comes to the end of the t[...]
Review: Profile
— by RON WILKINSON — The best thing about internet social networking is the mutable nature of its reality. The truth as far as it goes, the user is ultimately in command of their profile. If this film is a cautionary tale it is to remind that mutability goes both ways. It is one thing [&[...]
Review: The Mauritanian
— by RON WILKINSON — Two thought patterns run through the minds of USA security personnel at Guantanamo as they interrogate a suspected key player in the World Trace Center attacks. The first is that if he did not do the crime of which he is accused, he would have done it if he had [&hel[...]
Review: The Perfect Candidate
— by BEV QUESTAD — The US wide-release of “The Perfect Candidate” has me worried. How can a drama about female repression in Saudi Arabia, filmed and produced in Saudi Arabia, notorious for said repression, pass a Saudi script censor and be submitted as the country’s Academy Award [...]
Review: Francesco
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Go into the world and preach the gospel … and if necessary, use words.” — St. Francis Assisi.” This is the quote, on a black background, that begins and reverberates throughout “Francesco.” Despite Pope Francis’s announcement that he was naming him[...]
Review: My Octopus Teacher
— by BEV QUESTAD — Unlikely. It’s simply unlikely that anything about a skin diver in temperatures as cold as 46 degrees Fahrenheit and his obsessive compulsive disorder with a wild common octopus are going to either inspire or move me. And yet, several days and innumerable Google sear[...]