— by RON WILKINSON — From the opening scene of the strikingly beautiful Marina Fois leading a sunny summer class of vibrant teens, we know there is going to be trouble. The trouble is the barely concealed sexual chemistry between her character, the teacher Olivia Dejazet, and her brillia[...]
Author Archive
Review: Number One (aka Numéro une)
— by RON WILKINSON — Emmanuelle Devos may be the one suffering the slings and arrows of powerful and spiteful male colleagues, but there is never any doubt as to who is in control. Her exotic and beautiful exterior masks a deliciously devious mind that is every bit as capable of mayhem a[...]
Review: Petit Paysan (aka Bloody Milk)
— by RON WILKINSON — If you are in doubt about the nastiness of dorsal hemorrhagic fever, look no further than this flick. If you think it is bad when it infects the cows, just wait. Director Hubert Charuel’s bovine version of “The Cabin in the Woods” is brought to you by the 23rd [...]
Review: The Lion Sleeps Tonight
— by RON WILKINSON — The 23rd Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, co-presented by Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance, brings you the 60th year of Jean-Pierre Leaud’s acting life. As the actor Jean, he finds it hard to play his own death. Understandably so, since, as one of the cr[...]
Review: Montparnasse Bienvenüe
— by RON WILKINSON — The 31-year-old woman screaming at the top of her lungs in front of the apartment door would not be remarkable. Especially in the context of cutting (or bleeding) edge French cinema as presented by the 23rd Rendez-Vous with French Cinema (co-presented by Film Society[...]
Review: The Death of Stalin
— by RON WILKINSON — From the moment the opening scenes flash to Adrian McLoughlin playing Josef Stalin you know this movie is going to be nuts. Like the rest of the actors, Mc Loughlin does not even try for an accent. He blurts out his lines as if he was calling his dog and […][...]
Review: The Sower (aka Le semeur)
— by RON WILKINSON — A luscious celebration of 19th century bucolic fertility splashes across the screen at the 23rd Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. Co-presented by Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance, this cautionary tale is directed by Marine Francen and based on the book by V[...]
Review: The Young Karl Marx
— by RON WILKINSON — They were the best of times and, well, you know the rest. Raoul Peck follows up his vibrant Oscar-nominated “I Am Not Your Negro” with this yeasty diatribe on the eve of socialism. “Das Kapital” is brewing in a pot of larger than life characters who live for [...]
Review: Western
— by RON WILKINSON — Lanky lead Meinhard Neumann plays a different kind of cowboy in “Western,” a low-key pondering of war and peace. Meinhard works on a German construction crew that must build a dam in remote Bulgaria. A self-described former “Legionnaire,” its seems he has bee[...]
Review: The Post
— by RON WILKINSON — Director Steven Spielberg missed the boat with “The Post,” a mundane re-enactment of the Washington Post’s history-making role in the Pentagon Papers. Part of the problem is the work of first-time feature screenwriter Liz Hannah and emerging co-writer Josh Sing[...]
Review: Phantom Thread
— by RON WILKINSON — Announced by Daniel Day-Lewis as his last film, the three-time Oscar-winner has opted to go out with dignity and grace. Nominated for a Golden Globe, and backed up by a Globe-nominated score by Jonny Greenwood, watching “Phantom Thread” is like walking through an[...]
Review: Molly’s Game
— by RON WILKINSON — Jessica Chastain has never looked better than playing high stakes poker mastermind Molly Bloom. Raised by a psychotically demanding father (Kevin Costner), Molly fails as a world class downhill skier but succeeds in organizing one of the highest-stakes poker rings in[...]
Review: Darkest Hour
— by RON WILKINSON — Gary Oldman comes out swinging as Winston Churchill in this period piece set during four weeks at the outset of World War II. A hard-drinking, cigar-smoking curmudgeon who bullies everyone in sight, he appears to have been put in a position nobody else wanted, that o[...]