— by BEV QUESTAD — This is a documentary about Vivian, the first wife of Johnny Cash, created by her children. “My Darling Vivian” rounds out the nature of Cash, first depicted in “Walk the Line,” as a world-famous singer with regrets over the family he betrayed. A masterful docu[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: Wander
— by RON WILKINSON — Opening with a nicely done highway accident in a colorless prairie, the setting could be Roswell New Mexico. The scenery is so plain and the tarmac so barren there must be something bad just outside of camera range. The shots shift to a huge red sign marking the entr[...]
Review: Born to Be
— by BEV QUESTAD — We hear a sonorous double bass. The deep sounds come in a tremulous, low awe switching to multi-faceted activity and diversity. As the film continues, we learn that the Julliard musician has another practice that parallels his daily music regimen perfecting the Bach su[...]
Review: Neither Confirm Nor Deny
— by RON WILKINSON — The early 1970s were not boring. Continuing the momentum of the riotous 1960s, a five year period saw President Nixon’s resignation, the end of US involvement in Viet Nam and the Hughes Glomar Explorer. OK, the Glomar Explorer may not be at the top of everyone’s [...]
Review: Jacinta
— by RON WILKINSON — Most parents would go to extremes to protect their child. They would sacrifice their life, their wealth, their honor, perhaps even their wife or husband. As it turns out, these sacrifices only scratch the surface. Consider the sacrifice of leaving one’s child. Aban[...]
Review: A La Calle
— by BEV QUESTAD — Filming this documentary was as dangerous as being a subject in what was being filmed. Bullets had to be dodged and raw footage had to be periodically smuggled back to the US. Just to be named in the credits earns exile if not prison and brutal retaliation. This is the[...]
Review: The Jump
— by RON WILKINSON — It is hard to make a genuinely entertaining documentary because genuinely entertaining people are hard to find. Simas Kudirka is genuinely entertaining. When his factory processor fishing boat pulled up next to a US Coast Guard boat off New Bedford, Massachusetts he [...]
Review: Duty Free
— by BEV QUESTAD — It’s Boston and Rebecca is the head housekeeper for an inn facing hard times. Her one-bedroom apartment, where she has raised two boys, is above the inn and part of an employment package arranged around 50 years ago. At 75 years of age, she has spunk, energy and driv[...]
Review: Dave Not Coming Back
— by RON WILKINSON — Scuba diving is not for everyone. The claustrophobia alone is insurmountable for some and the demands on equipment expertise and body chemistry add to that. The subsection of scuba diving known as cave diving presents multiples of danger above that. One can surface i[...]
Review: Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You
— by RON WILKINSON — The Boss is back. Almost 60 years after heading up his high school band, the Castiles, on the Jersey Shore, what stands before you is a rock survivor. As the camera pokes its head into the recording studio to film Bruce and the E-Street Band recording their new album[...]
Review: Nocturne
— by RON WILKINSON — How far would you go to be the best piano player in the world? In the case of Juliet, it turns out she will go quite a ways, including having sex with a surrogate devil and suffering black eyes out of nowhere. And that is before the spontaneous bleeding from [&hellip[...]
Review: Wine and War
— by BEV QUESTAD — I drank my first Lebanese wine, a 1968 Ksara red, in 1970 during the early days of the Lebanese Civil War. I still have the wine labels, pressed and mounted. It was a smooth, hardy wine that was cheaper than beer – maybe $1.50 a bottle. Now, there is a […][...]
Review: The Lie
— by RON WILKINSON — How far would you go to protect your family? Probably not far if your daughter was a jerk like Kayla. But that is not the point. Suspend disbelief for an hour or two and enter the world of Jay and Becca, Kayla’s estranged parents about to be brought back together [[...]