— by RON WILKINSON — Director Stephen Frears has done better things. His visceral 1990 Oscar-winner “The Grifters” was as serious as a heart attack compared to his Oscar-winning “The Queen” in 2006. But both were heavies compared to this flighty flick. Meryl Streep plays the titu[...]
Author Archive
Review: Disorder
— by RON WILKINSON — Matthias Schoenaerts and Diane Kruger are fun to watch in this simmering pot-boiler wannabe, but, as in meditation, one waits and waits and then … nothing. Schoenaerts plays Foreign Legion Afghanistan veteran Vincent Loreau, apparently an elite soldier who has retu[...]
Review: Neither Heaven Nor Earth
— by RON WILKINSON — First-time feature director Clément Cogitore cuts one loose with “Neither Heaven Nor Earth,” and atmospheric allegory about the war in Afghanistan. Written in collaboration with Thomas Bidegain, one feels this movie as much as seeing and watching it. The[...]
Review: Eat That Question
— by RON WILKINSON — As honest as the day is long, this is a film about Frank Zappa, by Frank Zappa, starring Frank Zappa and, yes, it is in his own words. Directed by Thorsten Schütte, the screenplay is a treasure trove of archival interviews with the Boss hisself. A few performance cl[...]
Review: The Childhood of a Leader
— by RON WILKINSON — In “The Childhood of a Leader,” writer/director Brady Corbet (co-written with Mona Fastvold) has created a unique and powerful film that is stripped to bare bones but ripples with undercurrents. The superficial story is that of a troubled child, his paren[...]
Review: Captain Fantastic
— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Matt Ross comes out swinging in “Captain Fantastic,” starring the never-looked-better Viggo Mortensen. Mortensen plays Ben, the father of a family of six kids aged 6 to 18 who have long since left society to live far off the grid. During t[...]
Review: The Infiltrator
— by RON WILKINSON — Emerging director Brad Furman grabbed the gold ring with this bit of fantastic casting starring Bryan Cranston from the smash “Breaking Bad” series. The BB Cranston was a bad guy playing a good guy. In this flick, he is a good guy playing a bad guy. As it turns o[...]
Review: Under the Sun
— by RON WILKINSON — Just when you think you have seen everything, there comes a documentary that is so improbable that it refuses even the label of a doc. As the story goes, writer/director Vitaliy Manskiy was invited by the hyper-secret government of North Korea to make a documentary. [...]
Review: Hunt for the Wilderpeople
— by RON WILKINSON — “Never work with animals or children,” said W.C. Fields, but writer director Taika Waititi gambled on child actor Julian Dennison and won. Based on the book by Barry Crump, “Wilderpeople” is a charming road trip through the spectacularly beautiful New Zealand[...]
Review: Nuts!
— by RON WILKINSON — What is exactly the opposite of impotence in human males? As John Romulus Brinkley tells the story, one of his sadly stricken patients pointed out that the male goat was the obvious answer. “If I could just do what that goat does, I would be a happy man,” pled th[...]
Review: Maggie’s Plan
— by RON WILKINSON — When will Greta Gerwig move out of New York City? No doubt this quirky and totally Greta movie received a lot of support from the Big Apple for showcasing several city tourist attractions, but it did not do the story any good. Despite the overwhelming exposure for th[...]
Review: The Wailing
— by RON WILKINSON — “The Wailing,” South Korean writer/director Hong-jin Na’s labyrinthine tale of possession, follows on the heels of his well-received “The Chaser” and “The Yellow Sea.” Incorporating elements of a number of western films, including th[...]
Review: The Witness
— by RON WILKINSON — There is something beautiful abut a documentary that takes on a life of its own. In 1999, filmmaker James Solomon began researching a scripted film for HBO based on a story that defined the mean streets of New York City. The story is that of the 1964 murder of Kitty [...]
Review: Weiner
— by RON WILKINSON — If you think you have seen all of the most amazing documentaries in the world, you have another think coming. This much everybody knows: Former U.S. representative Anthony Weiner was a rising star. He won seven terms to the US House of Representatives but resigned af[...]