— by RON WILKINSON — Following on the heels of Guy Hibbert’s screenplay for “Eye in the Sky” (directed by Gavin Hood and starring Helen Mirren), this riveting documentary is the best look to date at drone warfare. Many Americans have been led to believe that drone surveillance and [...]
Author Archive
Review: The Innocents
— by RON WILKINSON — Director Anne Fontaine’s narrative fiction bio-pic packs a powerful punch. It is a story of the most unlikely people coming together in the worst of times, and good coming of it. Lou de Laâge plays French medical student Mathilde Beaulieu, serving in a French Red [...]
Review: Fire at Sea
— by RON WILKINSON — Gianfranco Rosi’s genre bending documentary “Fire at Sea” is two stories. The first is the story of 12-year-old Samuele growing up in the Garden of Eden environment of Lampedusa, an island 200 kilometers south of Italy in the heart of the Mediterran[...]
Review: King Cobra
— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Justin Kelly’s (“I Am Michael”) film is based on the true story of a gay porn film star who switches his allegiance mid contract. The bloody violence that ensues is depicted as being caused by childhood pedophilic trauma, but there is so lit[...]
Review: Aquarius
— by RON WILKINSON — Emerging writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho uncorks a simmering thriller with this Brazilian morality tale. Life in Recife 40 years ago is compared to life today and it does not measure up. Everything is about change, growth, speed and, above all, money. Gone are[...]
Review: Among the Believers
— by RON WILKINSON — Directors Mohammed Naqvi and Hemal Trivedi (written by Jonathan Goodman Levitt) somehow obtain amazing access to the extremely powerful, and heavily armed, Muslim cleric and Taliban ally Maulana Aziz. Although one has to wonder how much they dared record, their spont[...]
Review: The Lovers and the Despot
— by RON WILKINSON — “The Lovers and the Despot” is a movie about a fascinating story. It is a story of love, betrayal, hero worship, international politics and film making. Unfortunately, although the story may someday be told, it is not told in this movie. Presumably, write[...]
Review: Complete Unknown
— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Joshua Marston won the Silver Bear at Berlin in 2011 for Best Screenplay for “The Forgiveness of Blood” (shared with Andamion Murataj). You would never know it from “Complete Unknown,” a self-absorbed essay on the foibles of New York[...]
Review: Morgan
— by RON WILKINSON — Not just another android gone bad, Luke Scott’s neo-Frankenstein soft peddles the techno-babble and gets right to the point. Artificial human female Morgan is acting up and something must be done. “Risk Management” specialist Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) is dispatc[...]
Review: Don’t Breathe
— by RON WILKINSON — Breakout writer/director Fede Alvarez unleashes a corker of a teen caper horror flick with “Don’t Breathe.” The movie starts out slow with the usual semi-lame dialogue and pretzel logic, but things pick up quite nicely right to the end. The screenpl[...]
Review: Lo and Behold
— by RON WILKINSON — Werner Herzog has made some great documentaries in his time. This is not one of them. A confused hodge-podge of social criticism, sci-fi prognostics and impending internet doom, the film unfolds like a bad dream. Aimless interviews with academics that are either blit[...]
Review: Don’t Think Twice
— by RON WILKINSON — The great thing about Mike Birbiglia’s tale of six comics is that although set in New York City, it manages to be about the people and not the place. The city certainly has its part, contributing the crushing poverty, the insane stress and the daily humiliation tha[...]
Review: Anthropoid
— by RON WILKINSON — Cillian Murphy plays mission leader Josef Gabcík and Jamie Dornan plays his conflicted second in command, Jan Kubis, in “Anthropoid,” a wartime thriller about the assassination of Nazi chief Reinhard Heydrich. The commander was considered the third most [...]