— by RON WILKINSON — How far would you go to protect your family? What if your family consisted of a brother who was too dumb to chew gum and connected enough to get a hundred grand in hock to vicious criminals? A lot of people would find a new brother and move to a […][...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: The Florida Project
— by LYNETTE CARRINGTON — Every once in awhile a film comes along that haunts you, nags at you and consumes you. That is exactly what “The Florida Project” does, whether it is intentional or not. The 2017 film was directed by Sean Baker and flew under the “popular general audience.[...]
Review: Joan of Arc
— by BEV QUESTAD — Is it possible to run war kindly? What if, through time, soldiers were not allowed to rape or plunder? Would that take the adventure out of signing up for an inconvenient deployment rarely paid? When Lady Joan, inspired by God, tries to push the English out of France i[...]
Review: South Mountain
— by RON WILKINSON — Her character having survived life with uber-rogue hubby Roger Sterling in “Mad Men,” one might think Lila had seen it all. Not even close, as Talia Balsam breathes new life into the fragmenting of a wife and mother. The luscious beauty of the Catskills and the t[...]
An exclusive interview with Tilda Del Toro
— by LYNETTE CARRINGTON — From an early age, Tilda Del Toro has had a fascination with film. She and her siblings were raised by her father and one day, he took Del Toro to see the Stanley Kubrick masterpiece “2001 A Space Odyssey” at an art theater in Chicago. She wound up falling i[...]
Review: The Vast of Night
— by RON WILKINSON — A space invader sci-fi flick has to choose one of two directions: the “E.T.” way or the “Alien” way. The “E.T.” take is extraterrestrials as friendly giants with powerful technology that could accidentally crush us or move us to an unknown dimension but n[...]
Review: Working Man
— by BEV QUESTAD — What to do when life throws curve balls and there’s not much time left to recover? “Working Man” features the most stunning acting in memory. Peter Gerety, aged 80 with a hard beachball belly and 64 films under his belt since 1961, takes the screen away in an und[...]
Review: Requiem for the American Dream
— by BEV QUESTAD — The Vicious Cycle versus the American Dream. Aristotle, James Madison, FDR, and Howard Zinn. An ominous title for an ominous time. Required reading for this year’s graduates. Free link at end. Noam Chomsky, 88 years old at the time of the release of this film, is wid[...]
Review: A Good Woman Is Hard to Find
— by RON WILKINSON — The lengths that people will go to for various causes has become the capsule description for revenge flicks. A quick set-up to get the juices going and the glorious simplistic finish, usually with bloody violence. On the surface this film is that, enough get-even act[...]
Review: Driveways
— by BEV QUESTAD — In one of the last performances before his death on April 15, 2020, Brian Dennehy brought a simple little film to glory. Cast as a retired old fogey named Del, who has lived in the neighborhood since he married about 50 years ago, Dennehy makes this film glow. Driveway[...]
Review: The Wretched
— by RON WILKINSON — His parents engaged in an ugly divorce, Ben does the wrong thing and breaks into a neighbor’s house to steal some opioids. A bad thing, but not bad enough to merit the bloody coming out of the ear treatment by a decidedly evil witch-like monster. At the same time, [...]
Review: Bull
— by BEV QUESTAD — Has the bull ever lost in a bull-riding contest? There is absolutely no record showing a bull-rider out-riding the bucking bull. “Bull,” a double-entendre for this surprising film, is about a 14-year old girl named Kris who is determined to be a professional bull-r[...]
Review: Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind
— by BEV QUESTAD — The film begins with 11-year old Natasha waking up to a radio broadcast that her mother has been picked up off Catalina Island. Not understanding, she rushes downstairs as her father is coming up to tell her the news. She says, “The day my mom died my entire world wa[...]
Review: Planet of the Humans
— by RON WILKINSON — The YouTube title reads “Michael Moore Presents: Planet of the Humans.” Apparently, the film-maker added the Oscar winner’s handle and offered 30 days of free viewing to get this stinker off the dime. It will not work. Whether Moore owed his buddy Jeff Gibbs a [...]