— by BEV QUESTAD — Alice is a bio-engineer who has created a plant with a scent that makes people happy. She wears a mask at all times while she is tending her creation that has been mass-propagated in a sterile, warm, locked, glass-enclosed test room. Why the high tech containment? This[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: Three Christs
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Three Christs” is as entertaining as it is soul-searching. A brilliant cast, headed by Richard Gere, and a poignant study of mental health make this the new “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” of 2020. Based on the psychiatric case study titled “The [...]
Review: Midnight Family
— by RON WILKINSON — Never have so few done so much for so little. In Mexico City, the Ochoa family operates a private ambulance service that survives, barely, by virtually begging critically injured patients to pay. Sometimes they do pay, and then local police bust the family for operat[...]
Review: Invisible Life
— by RON WILKINSON — Born in Rio de Janeiro, Guida and Euridice grow up sharing their most intimate secrets. Through the brilliant direction of Karim Ainouz, we are part of that intimacy. There is no film in recent history that takes the viewer into the hearts of the characters as well. [...]
Review: 1917
— by RON WILKINSON — Edited to simulate a continuous take, a plot that might otherwise be mundane and trite becomes a tense, power-packed race for life. The lethal terror of World War I is turned on its head by the realistic scenes of boredom, fear and rats in the trenches, making filth [...]
Review: Clemency
— by BEV QUESTAD — Not a hair out of place, demurely dressed in a tailored suit, calm and in control, the warden supervises a prison each day meticulously confirming that all rules and regulations are followed, especially the ones for executions. After four years of research, Chinonye Ch[...]
Review: Dark Waters
— by BEV QUESTAD — If you’ve still got some Teflon pans, dump them immediately at a toxic waste site. That advice is inferred from an exposé on one of the world’s largest and most dangerous chemical companies and their production of perfluorooctanoic acid, aka PFOA, a deadly carcino[...]
Review: Bombshell
— by BEV QUESTAD — The leering male staff made comments and others made demands. The pseudo-strong females were demeaned and coerced. Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman), a prior Miss America and a Stanford grad, was the first to rise up. This is her story and it is a good one. Young girls [...]
Review: The Aeronauts
— by RON WILKINSON — A bit beyond the usual road trip, two balloon adventurers find themselves trapped in a spinning coffin thousands of feet up. Starting off like Natalie Wood and Tony Curtis in “The Great Race,” their gas balloon an idyllic boat on a heavenly pond, they end up in t[...]
Review: A Hidden Life
— by RON WILKINSON — Stunning cinematography and a powerful message anchor this melancholy tale of super-human courage in the face of overwhelming opposition. There are countless stories of courage during war, but all too few about the courage of those who do not fight. It is one thing t[...]
Review: Little Joe
— by RON WILKINSON — There is something about the way that Alice (Emily Beecham) is so heavily made-up that suggests the ethereal. This will be a dreamlike movie, so drop the niggling techie criticisms and get your unconscious in gear. The modern corporation has created a team of super-b[...]
Review: Saving Atlantis
— by BEV QUESTAD — Plato mentioned that Atlantis was the unfortunate, great kingdom that fought and lost to mighty Athens. Also losing favor from the gods, Atlantis was so totally destroyed that it was overcome by the sea. While subsequent writers have found evidence that Atlantis was ov[...]
Review: American Muslim
— by BEV QUESTAD — Two rabbis organize a supportive, protective chain outside a Brooklyn mosque where Muslims come to pray each Friday. Touched by their connection to a heritage of suffering, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and Rabbi Marisa Elana James, along with congregants from Congregation Be[...]
Review: Joker
A new release from the DC comics movie universe, “Joker” tells the story of Arthur Fleck, a bullied and isolated man who suffers a mental breakdown. Played by Joaquin Phoenix, the actor takes the audience into a moral dilemma, asking them to have compassion for a clearly disenfranchised man who [...]