— by BEV QUESTAD — A slim man with short dark hair agilely steps off a train in steamy cold Estonia, looking furtively at army officials hobnobbing outside the station. He puts up his collar to shield himself from the cold in a way that lets you know, he prefers not to be seen. He [&hell[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: The Last Dalai Lama?
— by BEV QUESTAD — The real shocker of this film comes from HH Dalai Lama’s response to the question on his own reincarnation and who the next Dalai Lama will be. But the other traditional questions, those we all want to know, are also answered. What is the purpose of life? What does t[...]
Review: Detroit
— by RON WILKINSON — Kathryn Bigelow’s shaky cam takes you right into the streets of Detroit during the 1967 12th Street Riots. Actually, her shaky cam takes you right into a scripted narrative fiction version of the riots, specifically the horrific Algiers Motel murders. The staged ca[...]
Review: From the Land of the Moon
— by RON WILKINSON — This complicated psychodrama starts with Gabrielle as a very unhappy young woman. She is young and impetuous, to say the least, and sure to have her own way. This promises to be a deep look into the life and mind of a troubled woman. Unfortunately, there is so little[...]
Review: Atomic Blonde
— by RON WILKINSON — What a fantastic cast. Oscar-winner Charlize Theron, Eddie Marsan fresh off his starring success in “Ray Donovan,” John Goodman, one of the greatest actors alive, Toby Jones, spymaster supreme from “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” and Roland Moller, star of indie[...]
Review: Indivisible (aka Indivisibili)
— by RON WILKINSON — Meet 18-year-old siamese twins Daisy and Viola. They have no concept of secrecy between them, their most intimate thoughts and acts have been shared from birth. Born with extraordinary vocal talent, they are barely aware of their oddity even as adulthood begins to cr[...]
Review: The Exception
— by RON WILKINSON — There are love stories set in wartime, and there are war stories with love affairs. It is a rare film that succeeds in combining a nail-biting spy story with one of redemption through self-sacrifice. This movie does it by combining an ambivalent German SS captain wit[...]
Review: The Reagan Show
— by RON WILKINSON — Fluffy and light hearted, as the final credits roll, political aficionados will wonder what it was they just saw. As it turns out, that is what this movie is all about. It is glossy, splashy and at times rib-ticklingly funny, but there is a lack of even the most basi[...]
Review: Baby Driver
— by RON WILKINSON — Ansel Elgort and writer/director Edgar Wright power through this mayhem fest with a quarter mile soundtrack and rocket launch car chases. Not chases, they are more like bike acrobatics with rocket assist engines instead of wheels. The story starts with near catatonic[...]
Review: Moka
— by RON WILKINSON — Frédéric Mermoud’s simmering revenge mystery is less thriller than self-study. Set on the shores of Lake Geneva, the misty miasma wafting across the cold fiord focuses the eye on the mysterious mountains along its shore. Diane (in a powerful performance by Emmanu[...]
Review: The Horse’s Mouth
— by BEV QUESTAD — The most important thing an artist must convey, to be truly worthy, is thought. “Straight from the horse’s mouth. You have to know when you succeed and when you fail and why. Know thyself in fact. In short, you have to think,” says Gulley Jimson. “The Horse’s[...]
Review: Sami Blood
— by RON WILKINSON — In a setting as forbidding as it is beautiful, 14-year-old Elle Marja ropes, tackles and then caresses a reindeer on the frozen ground. She is a young adult member of the Sami people and she is expected to pull her own weight. With the frozen arctic skies as her back[...]
Review: Lost in Lebanon
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Lost in Lebanon” is a film dear to my heart because when I went to school there, the same frustrating problem that was happening with the Palestinians in 1969 to 1970 is happening now with the Syrians. I returned to Beirut last year to honor my dearest professor, [...]