— by RON WILKINSON — Coming of age in a disenfranchised Maghreb community in Paris, Ibrahim (Abdel Bendaher) lives a spartan life with his underemployed father. The story of class distinction and changing family roles presents a challenge not unlike that faced by many families, only this[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: Mafia Inc
— by RON WILKINSON — Is this a Canadian Godfather or is Godfather an Americanized Mafia? Against the original, this remake offers few surprises, just a further variation that crime does not pay. OK, it does for a while, but the geese come home to roost and the gangster realizes he has ma[...]
Review: The Trial of the Chicago 7
— by BEV QUESTAD — The 1968 chaotic August Democratic Convention was covered for CBS by famed journalist, Dan Rather, who was punched in the gut and assaulted by guards as he was trying to interview a convention delegate. The Vietnam War was raging, President Johnson had declined to run [...]
Review: Dead Air
— by RON WILKINSON — Sometimes radio waves do what they are told and sometimes they have a mind of their own. Sometimes they tell stories in a movie, stories that should have told by the camera and not by the voice on the radio. When one is talking over a two-way radio, there is [&hellip[...]
Review: My Darling Supermarket
— by RON WILKINSON — The stories those cans could tell. Everybody has a story and this microcosm runs the gamut. Employees are interviewed in their workplace as they live the better part of their lives with their assigned companions. Some flirt, some have serious conversations, some work[...]
Review: Wrong Turn
— 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[...]
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 […][...]