— by RON WILKINSON — Six young hikers head off into one of the most impenetrable wilderness areas in the USA with bookbags and floppy cotton clothing. Although properly dressed for a game of beach volleyball the viewer just knows something is going to go wrong. Giddy with prospects of br[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: Dick Johnson is Dead
— by BEV QUESTAD — The church is crowded enough and some in the pews recount memories. But after filming the service, it’s time to remove the casket. It’s then that the film crew notices that Dick Johnson has fallen asleep inside it. “Dick Johnson is Dead” is a zany, unexpected d[...]
Review: The White Tiger
— by RON WILKINSON — Balram Halwai (Adarsh Gourav) describes India as having hundreds of castes and thousands of gods. He is ambivalent toward the gods and has no choice as to his caste. Simplifying the bewildering complexities of Indian culture he boils it down to two castes – those w[...]
Review: M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity
— by RON WILKINSON — To those of us who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, he was an icon. To him, we were an enigma. “Out of control hippies,” as his diaries read. MC Escher simply could not fathom what we saw in his work. We saw infinity, the joining of earth and […][...]
Review: The Dissident
— by BEV QUESTAD — When a master who-done-it is also a master documentary, a gripping film of uncommon depth is born. Triple genre’d as crime, thriller, and documentary, “The Dissident” is a courageous film that you’d normally predict as an Academy Award Winner. But suspiciously,[...]
Review: Night of the Kings
— by RON WILKINSON — In a prison run by the inmates a newcomer seems destined to hold a special place in the hierarchy. However, there is a catch. Under the red moon he must tell stories until dawn or be hung by a most uninviting meat hook suspended above a concrete staircase. Scheheraza[...]
Review: Tulsa
— by LYNETTE CARRINGTON — “Tulsa” is a unique movie, start to finish. Not only is “Tulsa” heartwarming, but we become truly invested in the journey of its two main characters as much as the characters themselves. Scott Pryor may be an attorney in real life, but in “Tulsa” he [...]
Review: The Night
— by RON WILKINSON — And what a night it was. The Hotel Normandie is said to have seen more death than the WWII beach of the same name. Unlike the Eagles Hotel California one is able to leave any time by the simple act of telling the truth. Death is not a possibility, as […][...]
Review: Time
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Time” starts when Sibil Fox Richardson, aka Fox Rich, and Robert Richardson fall in love, get married, buy a house, and rob a bank. When hardship came, so did this crazy, inexplicable decision to rob a bank to pay for their expenses. On top of it all, at the time [...]
Review: Promising Young Woman
— by BEV QUESTAD — This is a first. I do not recommend the film I voted to receive the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) Award for Best Film shown in 2020. “Promising Young Woman,” shot in a remarkably short 23 days, has award-winning acting and a stunning script. The director has p[...]
Review: Atlantis
— by RON WILKINSON — No, not that Atlantis. This is the Atlantis of the recent future. It is 2025, a year after a devastating war that bombed a nation back to the 19th century. War and capitalist greed have left water poisoned with chemicals, statesmanship poisoned with propaganda and hu[...]
Review: Acasa, My Home
— by RON WILKINSON — Every few months, weeks or days, many working Americans dream of life in the wild. The simplicity of nature offers the ultimate freedom, work we like when we like it, without modern backstabbing urban politics. Then we sober up. There were people here who lived like [...]
Review: My Darling Vivian
— 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[...]