— by RON WILKINSON — This complicated psychodrama starts with Gabrielle as a very unhappy young woman. She is young and impetuous, to say the least, and sure to have her own way. This promises to be a deep look into the life and mind of a troubled woman. Unfortunately, there is so little[...]
Author Archive
Review: Atomic Blonde
— by RON WILKINSON — What a fantastic cast. Oscar-winner Charlize Theron, Eddie Marsan fresh off his starring success in “Ray Donovan,” John Goodman, one of the greatest actors alive, Toby Jones, spymaster supreme from “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” and Roland Moller, star of indie[...]
Review: Indivisible (aka Indivisibili)
— by RON WILKINSON — Meet 18-year-old siamese twins Daisy and Viola. They have no concept of secrecy between them, their most intimate thoughts and acts have been shared from birth. Born with extraordinary vocal talent, they are barely aware of their oddity even as adulthood begins to cr[...]
Review: The Exception
— by RON WILKINSON — There are love stories set in wartime, and there are war stories with love affairs. It is a rare film that succeeds in combining a nail-biting spy story with one of redemption through self-sacrifice. This movie does it by combining an ambivalent German SS captain wit[...]
Review: The Reagan Show
— by RON WILKINSON — Fluffy and light hearted, as the final credits roll, political aficionados will wonder what it was they just saw. As it turns out, that is what this movie is all about. It is glossy, splashy and at times rib-ticklingly funny, but there is a lack of even the most basi[...]
Review: Baby Driver
— by RON WILKINSON — Ansel Elgort and writer/director Edgar Wright power through this mayhem fest with a quarter mile soundtrack and rocket launch car chases. Not chases, they are more like bike acrobatics with rocket assist engines instead of wheels. The story starts with near catatonic[...]
Review: Moka
— by RON WILKINSON — Frédéric Mermoud’s simmering revenge mystery is less thriller than self-study. Set on the shores of Lake Geneva, the misty miasma wafting across the cold fiord focuses the eye on the mysterious mountains along its shore. Diane (in a powerful performance by Emmanu[...]
Review: Sami Blood
— by RON WILKINSON — In a setting as forbidding as it is beautiful, 14-year-old Elle Marja ropes, tackles and then caresses a reindeer on the frozen ground. She is a young adult member of the Sami people and she is expected to pull her own weight. With the frozen arctic skies as her back[...]
Review: Dawson City: Frozen in Time
— by RON WILKINSON — Imagine walking into a theater in 1910 and watching the newest silent melodrama in town. There are struggles for manly supremacy and vindication, hilarious slapstick, near and actual collisions between people, trains, horses, cars, buildings, dogs and trees and, of c[...]
Review: Berlin Syndrome
— by RON WILKINSON — Emerging director Cate Shortland’s kidnap thriller “Berlin Syndrome” is well done but adds little to the genre. Australian photojournalist Clare (Teresa Palmer) meets college writing professor Andi (Max Riemelt) and the two instantly fall in lust. T[...]
Review: The Beguiled
— by RON WILKINSON — Filled with the simmering sensuality of Nicole Kidman’s “Dogville,” this movie starts out slow and builds to a delicious climax. Based on the 1966 novel by Thomas Cullinan, the story starts with a young girl from the nearby Farnsworth Seminary singing in the Vi[...]
Review: The Mummy
— by RON WILKINSON — Tom Cruise is back, heading a star-studded cast and crew in the kick-off flick of the summer B-movie season. He reprises his Maverick role as Nick, an uber-soldier who must do it his way. Along with nominal buddy Jake Johnson (TV’s “New Girl”) as Chris, Nick wa[...]
Review: Wakefield
— by RON WILKINSON — The superficial story is one of a man who is fed up and not taking it any more. Nobody appreciates him, so he is going to deprive them of that most valuable thing in their lives. Himself. So begins writer/director Robin Swicord’s film adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’[...]