— by RON WILKINSON — Golden Globe winner Oscar Isaac plays self-destructive movie star/film-maker Jack in “Mojave,” Oscar winner William Monahan’s pot-boiling tale of murder and survival. This is a great performance by Isaac, coming on the heels of his city slicker flicks â[...]
Author Archive
Review: Bleak Street
— by RON WILKINSON — Now, for the most uncomfortable film of the year award, the winner is “Bleak Street” by Arturo Ripstein. The “master of the Mexican bizarre” sets a high bar in this saga of poverty, crime and depravity and clears it by a mile. Shot in beautiful black-and-whit[...]
Review: Western
— by RON WILKINSON — “Western” is the poignant story of a traditional, peaceful and productive way of life ripped apart by drugs and politicians. Directors Bill and Turner Ross take us into hearts and minds of the people of Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedras Negras, Mexico. Celeb[...]
Review: The Revenant
— by RON WILKINSON — Following up his Oscar powerhouse “Birdman” with this rough and ready thriller seems like a non sequitur for director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu. The film has been in the works for about 15 years and the project had already burned through at least two director[...]
Review: The Forest
— by RON WILKINSON — Natalie Dormer (“Game of Thrones,” “The Tudors” TV series) does most of the heavy lifting as Sara. In the opening scenes Sara’s sister Jess is having a tough time in a remote area of Japan’s forest at the base of Mt. Fuji. This is not hard to believe sinc[...]
Review: Anomalisa
— by RON WILKINSON — Although the medium will surprise many viewers, its use, combined with the presence of only three voices, focuses the viewer on the message. The exaggerated mechanical motion of the stop action accentuates the stultified gear train that Stone goes through during most[...]
Review: Dreams Rewired
— by RON WILKINSON — It is entirely possible that writer/directors Manu Luksch, Martin Reinhart and Thomas Tode (Martin Reinhart is also credited as writer) did not know what they were getting into when they embarked upon this archival journey into the technical advances that have become[...]
Review: The Black Panthers …
— by RON WILKINSON — Directed, written and produced by Stanley Nelson, this riveting documentary takes the viewer inside the closed doors of the Panthers as well as the FBI and local law enforcement agencies. This is important because the message of the film is as much about the misuse o[...]
Review: A Walk in the Woods
— by RON WILKINSON — “A Walk in the Woods,” Ken Kwapis’ peon to growing old gracefully, features Robert Redford and Nick Nolte as the unlikeliest pair ever to walk the Appalachian Trail. Based on the book by travel raconteur Bill Bryson (with a screenplay by Rick Kerb and B[...]
Review: Learning to Drive
— by RON WILKINSON — “Learning to Drive,” director Isabel Coixet’s meet-cute vehicle for Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson, turns out to be a compact instead of a full-sized car. The screenplay by Sarah Kernochan and Katha Pollitt walks rather than runs through the whi[...]
Review: Goodnight Mommy
— by RON WILKINSON — Co-writers/directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala put together a traditional but high quality horror flick in “Goodnight Mommy,” a tale of lethal mother-son conflict. A mostly silent soundtrack lets the great acting and screenplay tell the story. This[...]
Review: The Visit
— by RON WILKINSON — M. Night Shyamalan unleashes another one on a gleeful public with this psycho-horror movie about a suitably dysfunctional family. In “The Visit,” Becca and Tyler (Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould) traipse off into rural Pennsylvania to visit Nana and Pop P[...]
Review: The Fool (aka Durak)
— by RON WILKINSON — A multiple prize-winner at the 2014 Locarno Film Festival, Yury Bykov’s movie is a profound tragedy. Opening with a no-holds-barred look inside a dilapidated Russian state-owned apartment building that houses the poor, the desperate and the despaired in bestial con[...]
Review: Queen of Earth
— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Alex Ross Perry’s urban pot-boiler “Queen of Earth” falls well short of expectations. A high bar was set by avid Elisabeth Moss fans who came to adore her as she stole the show in the blockbuster “Mad Men” TV series. Toward the end o[...]