— by RON WILKINSON — With a cast including Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and Peter Sarsgaard, this movie could have been better. Bardem fits the part very well, at least the psychopathic part. Seeing him in the classic “No Country for Old Men” will prove that in spades. As it turns o[...]
Author Archive
Review: The Old Man and the Gun
— by RON WILKINSON — An actor with a career of the monumental success of Robert Redford has a lot of good work on which to expand. The old fashioned flimflammery of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and its companion piece “The Sting” fit tightly with the genre of his latest m[...]
Review: Between Worlds
— by RON WILKINSON — The great thing about Nicolas Cage’s bad movies is that he seems to be having such a good time making them it becomess infectious. Screened at Fantastic Fest 2018 in Austin, the genre non-busting B movie “Between Worlds” is no exception. Even better, this flick[...]
Review: Rodents of Unusual Size
— by RON WILKINSON — It is a thirty-pound rat with gigantic orange buck teeth and it is coming right at you. Could mean trouble, a monstrous attack on you, your house and your loved ones. Or it could mean five dollars. It all depends on your point of view. For hundreds of Louisiana bayou[...]
Review: Museo
— by RON WILKINSON — Dumb and Dumber meet The Joker. Try as you might, these two, in the hands of brilliant director Alonso Ruizpalacios, defy categorization, or explanation. Their outrageous acts are at the same time thoughtless and brilliant. Gael García Bernal does the heavy lifting [...]
Review: An Elephant Sitting Still
— by RON WILKINSON — The film starts with the beginning of another lousy day. The father is drinking heavily at 8 am, bright and early, recovering from a broken leg and cursing life. In the next scenes, the other parents pummel their children with insults as their dreary, poverty stricke[...]
Review: I Am Vengeance
— by RON WILKINSON — Ex-mercenary turned soldier, or soldier turned ex-mercenary, or mercenary turned gangster. There are lots of ways a writer/director can turn the trope. In the end none of them work but because they have all been done far too many times before. In writer/director Ross[...]
Review: Puzzle
— by RON WILKINSON — A middle-aged mom finds herself, sets herself free, and in the process sets her family free as well. In a wonderful twist of plot, the screenplay is set in the context of a world class jigsaw puzzle competition, when the central message has nothing to do with that. T[...]
Review: The Captain
— by RON WILKINSON — If you think war is hell, see what happens when it stops. Like Tammany Hall’s Boss Tweed, Nazi deserter Willi Herold saw his opportunities and took them. Based on a true story, writer/director Robert Schwentke turns his back on the “Saving Private Ryan” firewor[...]
Review: Dynamite Graffiti
— by RON WILKINSON — A woman walks on hesitant feet to a secret appointment at a humble shed in a dark forest. She is lightly dressed, the clothes she wears functional more than cosmetic. She is pretty, and her lover waits for her with great anticipation. When she arrives, several pounds[...]
Review: Liverleaf
— by RON WILKINSON — The trouble with getting even is that once you get started, it can be hard to stop. Haruka has plenty of reasons to get even, being bullied relentlessly by the bad girls at her new school. Appeals to the zombie like teachers go nowhere. After all, the school is closi[...]
Review: Neomanila
— by RON WILKINSON — Teen Toto shuffles to the crowded, seething Manila jail to see his brother. He is met with routine slurs and insults by the police and grudgingly offered a chance to see his Kiko who is imprisoned for criminal gang crimes. Whispering the latest news of disappeared fr[...]
Review: The Blood of Wolves
— by RON WILKINSON — There is hot water in Hiroshima as maverick cop Ogami does it his way. A firm believer in tit for tat, Ogami has seen the “Dirty Harry” movies and knows how to handle punks. Too bad for his young sidekick Hioka, he handles college grad rookies the same way. Set [[...]