— by RON WILKINSON — As honest as the day is long, this is a film about Frank Zappa, by Frank Zappa, starring Frank Zappa and, yes, it is in his own words. Directed by Thorsten Schütte, the screenplay is a treasure trove of archival interviews with the Boss hisself. A few performance cl[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: The Childhood of a Leader
— by RON WILKINSON — In “The Childhood of a Leader,” writer/director Brady Corbet (co-written with Mona Fastvold) has created a unique and powerful film that is stripped to bare bones but ripples with undercurrents. The superficial story is that of a troubled child, his paren[...]
Review: Captain Fantastic
— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Matt Ross comes out swinging in “Captain Fantastic,” starring the never-looked-better Viggo Mortensen. Mortensen plays Ben, the father of a family of six kids aged 6 to 18 who have long since left society to live far off the grid. During t[...]
Review: Open Your Eyes
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Tell me, Mother, would you like to see again?” After 15 years in the dark, the crinkly, barefoot grandmother is stunned by the question. Despite the corrupt, bizarre, dark, despairing days we live in, there are beacons of angelic light blinking out there in the re[...]
Review: The Infiltrator
— by RON WILKINSON — Emerging director Brad Furman grabbed the gold ring with this bit of fantastic casting starring Bryan Cranston from the smash “Breaking Bad” series. The BB Cranston was a bad guy playing a good guy. In this flick, he is a good guy playing a bad guy. As it turns o[...]
Review: Under the Sun
— by RON WILKINSON — Just when you think you have seen everything, there comes a documentary that is so improbable that it refuses even the label of a doc. As the story goes, writer/director Vitaliy Manskiy was invited by the hyper-secret government of North Korea to make a documentary. [...]
Review: Hunt for the Wilderpeople
— by RON WILKINSON — “Never work with animals or children,” said W.C. Fields, but writer director Taika Waititi gambled on child actor Julian Dennison and won. Based on the book by Barry Crump, “Wilderpeople” is a charming road trip through the spectacularly beautiful New Zealand[...]
Review: Nuts!
— by RON WILKINSON — What is exactly the opposite of impotence in human males? As John Romulus Brinkley tells the story, one of his sadly stricken patients pointed out that the male goat was the obvious answer. “If I could just do what that goat does, I would be a happy man,” pled th[...]
Review: The Crossing
— by BEV QUESTAD — George Kurian, a documentary filmmaker and photojournalist based in Istanbul, was covering the war in Syria when he decided to document a group of Syrians on their risky defection to the west. The clandestine sea voyage from Syria to Egypt is illegal because Syria won[...]
Review: Starless Dreams
— by BEV QUESTAD — After seven years of trying, award-winning director Mehrdad Oskouei was given access to an incarceration facility for girls 18 and under in Iran. Gently asking them why they were there and what their hopes for the future were, he discovered a societal crime greater tha[...]
Review: Chapter and Verse
— by BEV QUESTAD — Sir Lancelot Ingram is a magnificently strong, handsome, quiet ex-con. He served eight years. Now, he is out, living in a half-way house back in the same Harlem hood that brought him to trouble. But this time, the bad guys are younger, operating the streets without rul[...]
Review: Maggie’s Plan
— by RON WILKINSON — When will Greta Gerwig move out of New York City? No doubt this quirky and totally Greta movie received a lot of support from the Big Apple for showcasing several city tourist attractions, but it did not do the story any good. Despite the overwhelming exposure for th[...]
Review: Almost Sunrise
— by BEV QUESTAD — We’ve heard that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in incurable. This documentary, featured at this year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival, puts this assumption and the very description of PTSD into question. This outstanding doc follows two US veterans from t[...]
Review: The Wailing
— by RON WILKINSON — “The Wailing,” South Korean writer/director Hong-jin Na’s labyrinthine tale of possession, follows on the heels of his well-received “The Chaser” and “The Yellow Sea.” Incorporating elements of a number of western films, including th[...]