— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Chaitanya Tamhane’s debut feature film is more allegory than story. The characters in the movie almost hover above the meanings developed from scene to scene. On the surface, “Court” is a film about a performing artist who is arrested fo[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: Southpaw
— by RON WILKINSON — This boxing tale splashes the latest hi-tech boxing sequences in front of the audience in no holds barred graphic violence, but the film is saved by one key performance. Twelve-year old-Oona Lawrence punches through the ordinary passive child role to put out some wor[...]
Review: The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed …
— by RON WILKINSON — Felix Herngren’s comedy “The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared” has made a big splash in European markets but is going to have tougher going in the USA. Although the film will probably unseat the reigning champion “The Girl W[...]
Review: A Poem is a Naked Person
— by RON WILKINSON — The naked persons are few, but this is a pretty naked film. The first feature length effort by rock-doc veteran director Les Blank, “A Poem is a Naked Person” is as spontaneous and un-produced a rock star flick ever made. Unfortunately, Leon Russell is to[...]
Review: Terminator Genisys
— by RON WILKINSON — Ignore the time travel science-babble and concentrate on the feeling of a nuclear holocaust that seethes into your theatre and plants flying buses in your lap. 3-D IMAX is the only way to see the latest in the Terminator franchise, a sci-fi cauldron with a, yes, char[...]
Review: Jurassic World
— by RON WILKINSON — Director Colin Trevorrow lands on the audience with both feet and eight claws in this thermo-nuclear explosion of dinosaur interactions that go horribly wrong. This is exactly what one would expect, given that mankind seems intent on finagling chromosomes until Hammo[...]
Review: The Yes Men Are Revolting
— by RON WILKINSON — When Yes Men Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno launched their “Survivaballs” into New York’s East River to protest the lack of an effective United Nations climate change policy, they were not surprised when legal action ensued (“Yes, just stay to the le[...]
Review: A Pigeon Sat on a Branch …
— by RON WILKINSON — If the objective of art is to make one think, Roy Andersson’s latest trip into the dream world is a thought provoker to be reckoned with. Holger Andersson plays Jonathan and Nils Westblom plays Sam, two traveling salesman hawking novelties to make people laugh and [...]
Review: Aloha
— by RON WILKINSON — “Aloha” — Cameron Crowe’s first feature in four years — kicks off the spring movie season in style. Bradley Cooper, playing ne’er-do-well Brian Gilcrest, combines his “American Sniper” elite military role with his government dark ops h[...]
Review: Slow West
— by RON WILKINSON — John Maclean’s directorial debut, “Slow West,” is a slow and steady look at love turned deadly. Of course, there is a lot that turns deadly in this gritty New Zealand western. By the end of the film there are more corpses than in Clint Eastwood’s “H[...]
Review: Iris
— by RON WILKINSON — Most films made in New York City are eclipsed by the city. The film maker hopes to use the energy and glamor to make a mediocre film great. Instead, the city steals the show from the screenplay and usually the actors as well. Perhaps NYC knows this when provide such [...]
Review: The Water Diviner
— by RON WILKINSON — Russell Crowe comes out swinging with his narrative fiction feature directorial debut but fouls out as this war story drops off the deep end into the irretrievably maudlin. Screenwriters Andrew Knight and Andrew Anastasios are partly to blame, but Crowe should have k[...]
Review: About Elly (aka Darbareye Elly)
— by RON WILKINSON — In the midst of a jocular college reunion, the young, beautiful and mysterious guest Elly (Taraneh Alidousti) disappears without a trace. In the wake of her disappearance, her true story emerges to the shame and humiliation of all concerned. The setting is the shore [...]