— by RON WILKINSON — Part satire, part sermon, this lightweight caper yarn is by turns youthfully naïve and viscerally violent. The bad guys are well done, with no holds barred regarding the violence. The good guys are meandering and flawed, discussing philosophy beyond their depth (and[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: The Silence of Others
— by BEV QUESTAD — Ironically, “The Silence of Others” is actually about those who are speaking out. A bent-over, raspy-voiced, white-haired woman with a walker whispers, “I was 6 years old when they came for my mother.” A growing list of Spanish nationals testify to an Argentini[...]
Review: Red Joan
— by RON WILKINSON — If asked, most people would confirm they would give their life for their country. But would they give their honor? The decision to betray her country for the good of people of all nations is a step none of us wishes to make. Melita Norwood made that decision towards [...]
Review: Sprinter
— by BEV QUESTAD — Executive produced by Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, “Sprinter” is an exhilarating inspirational story of immigration conflicts, family, perseverance and love. Akeem Sharp (played by Dale Elliott) lives with his father and brother in Jamaica. He achieves somewhat rel[...]
Review: Mine 9
— by BEV QUESTAD — We see a silent coal black screen for 40 seconds and then, in small white print, the Coal Miner’s Prayer by W. Calvert: “Each day as we rise/ Lord we know all too well/ We face only one thing – a pit filled with Hell./To scratch out a living the […][...]
Review: Instant Dreams
— by RON WILKINSON — The movie opens with a real lab, real humans and real weird gadgets. The men act like doctors, only they are healing mysterious forces beyond the comprehension of normal mortals. They have some sorts of infrared goggles, like you would use to view an atomic bomb, or [...]
Review: Leonard Bernstein: Larger Than Life
— by BEV QUESTAD — A documentary on Leonard Bernstein, a passionate musical genius, could cover an examination of his politics, social life, psychology, family and music career. But to do justice to any of these aspects would mean at least a five-hour film. So this one-hour doc focuses o[...]
Review: Dogman
— by RON WILKINSON — Billing this movie as a crime drama is dark comedy. The film itself is even darker than crime, a disturbing look into social connection and the meaning of intimacy in friendship. Specifically, the lack thereof. The protagonist lives a doomed existence, fated to exist[...]
Review: The Kamagasaki Cauldron War
— by BEV QUESTAD — A tour guide tells his group that the big flower planters have been strategically placed in Kamagasaki to make it impossible for indigents to sleep on the sidewalks. Then an indigent, who is also a crack pick-pocket, passes by and steals his money. The pickpocket needs[...]
Review: The Public
— by BEV QUESTAD — The Cincinnati Ohio Library is being sued for $750,000 by a frequent patron who was told he must leave the building because of his smell. He claims discrimination. The humble librarian, Stuart Goodson (Emilio Estevez), who was pressured by annoyed patrons to ask the od[...]
Review: The Brink
— by BEV QUESTAD — Alison Klayman, a progressive Jewish granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, consented to produce/direct a film on a man with whose ideas she does not agree. As a filmmaker and journalist, she has won recognition for her work on the Chinese artist and activist, Ai Weiwei[...]
Review: Amateurs (aka Amatörer)
— by BEV QUESTAD — A younger generation has taken over the 2019 Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) with the theme: Empathy has no Ethnicity. “Amateurs” was their brave choice to open the festival. Filmed liked a documentary about two sets of filmmakers making a marketing fil[...]
Review: The Hummingbird Project
— by RON WILKINSON — A fiber optic data transmission line from Kansas to New York would allow the transmission and execution of millions of securities orders a millisecond faster than everybody else. Not a big time difference, about the time of one cycle of a hummingbird’s wing. But en[...]