— by RON WILKINSON — At first glance, a story about a traumatized and miraculously healed former Eritrean boy soldier. Adopted by near-perfect parents and plunked down in solidly middle class America, Luce has blossomed into the perfect teen. Charismatic, adult beyond his years and prodi[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: The Girl in the Fog
— by RON WILKINSON — A girl leaves her silent house in a silent neighborhood saturated in fog. She leaves for a religion class, but she never arrives there. She has disappeared without a trace, leaving nothing behind her but the wet miasma. Fog outside, fog inside, fog in dreams and fog [...]
Review: [Censored]
— by RON WILKINSON — It is all here. The hidden snippets of obscenity Aussies never got to see. The censors plowed through 26 years of films, redacting scenes that were detrimental to the mental and spiritual health of the citizenry, and the film maker assembled a fantastic sample of the[...]
Review: Honeyland
— by RON WILKINSON — Simplicity and elegance combine to make a powerful statement in this microcosmic visit to a Macedonian Honeyland. A simple documentary about rural bee-keeping morphed into a wild drama of capitalist commercialism and environmental common sense. One of the best docume[...]
Review: Creating Woodstock
— by BEV QUESTAD — The secrets behind the production of the 1969 three-day Woodstock music festival are spilled. How close and in how many ways the event skimmed catastrophe is documented in “Creating Woodstock,” a definitive documentary on the behind-the-scenes machinations of an ev[...]
Review: Earth
— by RON WILKINSON — Each year the forces of nature, wind, erosion, tides and other, move about 60 million tons of surface soil. In that same year, humans move about 156 million tons. Humans have become a force of nature greater than nature itself. This stirring documentary takes the vie[...]
Review: Astronaut
— by BEV QUESTAD — Like many of us baby boomers, Angus’s trip to the doc reveals a series of symptoms predicting a series of impending malfunctions. The doc tells him frankly that he can no longer drive. His son-in-law figures he must move from living with his family to a retirement ho[...]
Review: Wild Rose
— by RON WILKINSON — 2019 BAFTA Rising Star Award nominee Jessie Buckley takes it easy in this prodigal girl ditty set in the gritty streets of Glasgow. Truly a rising star with an impressive track record of formal education, the real Jessie may be straining at the harness as is her fict[...]
Review: Holy Trinity
— by RON WILKINSON — Protagonist Trinity is a sex-positive woman living in Chicago’s well-known(?) Glam world. Her profession as a sexual dominatrix prospers in the City of the Big Shoulders. Propelled by huffing vapors of various aerosol consumer products and supported by a redoubtabl[...]
Review: The Art of Self Defense
— by RON WILKINSON — There is nothing finer than a well-executed flick about going insane. The film medium is well suited to depicting the human psyche walking the fine line between rationality and lunacy. Jesse Eisenberg is developing a niche in this genre. As the protagonist who flies [...]
Review: The Sweet Requiem
— by BEV QUESTAD — This is a deeply moving story, inspired by a true account, shot alternately in the desolate high Ladakh region of the Himalayan Mountains and in the Tibetan exile warren of Delhi. Award-wining Tibetan exile filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, associated with Richa[...]
Review: Give Me Liberty
— by RON WILKINSON — A road trip through the city of Milwaukee turns into a trip to the twilight zone. A van full of Russian immigrants is late for a funeral and a wheelchair-bound black woman has to be somewhere, fast. No time for questions, just run, run, run. Crashes and fights ensue [...]
Review: PHΦL (aka PHIL)
— by BEV QUESTAD — In the dark of night, middle-aged Phil awkwardly climbs over a fence and up onto the base of a Portland Bridge lamppost. To jump or not to jump? Suddenly, we see his gorgeous vertical descent into the cold river below. Bubbles boil around his straight body as if he wer[...]
Review: Paris is Burning
— by RON WILKINSON — Having barely recovered from the 1970s, New York City lurched into the 1980s with restored wealth and confidence, for most of the population. For those outside the nine-to-five club, it was business as usual; eat when and where possible, hustle to make the rent, deal[...]