— by JESSIKA OWENS — When I heard the name of a new movie, “Labor Day,” I immediately envisioned a tame comedy chick flick. Then the trailer was released and I became confused. That initial trailer was short and filled with dramatic crescendos. An image of Josh Brolin with hi[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: Call Me Kuchu
— by BEV QUESTAD — Religion, culture and politics menacingly collide in this documentary over the life of a proposed political bill in Uganda and the life of David Kato. In what turns out to be a more dangerous culture of vigilantes and extremists than they had bargained for, filmmakers [...]
Review: American Hustle
— by RON WILKINSON — “The Fighter” mega-stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams reunite with director David O. Russell in a pot-boiling romp through political and law enforcement corruption in the morally adrift 1980s. Bale plays con man Irving Rosenfeld who, after founding a string of[...]
Review: Nuclear Nation
— by RON WILKINSON — After a sequence of electrical and mechanical failures stemming from the March 11, 2011, earthquake and subsequent tsunami that smashed into the Fukushima prefecture on Japan’s East coast, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant reactor containment vessels explod[...]
Review: Inside Llewyn Davis
— by RON WILKINSON — Strange and whacky, yes, but the Coen Brother’s latest movie falls short of the mark set by their previous pieces, especially the similar “O Brother Where Art Thou.” Attempting to create the strange, offbeat and wonderful aura of the mythological search of “O[...]
Review: S#x Acts (aka Shesh peamim)
— by RON WILKINSON — Director Jonathan Gurfinkel follows 15-year-old Gili (Sivan levy) through a few days of her life as she begins attending a new school. The new school is a new life for Gili, with new surroundings, a new neighborhood, a new social circle and new social demands. The fi[...]
Review: Saving Mr. Banks
— by BEV QUESTAD — We get caught up in our own difficult stories, in patterns of expectation that recycle old troubles, but the trick is to change our mindset. Walt Disney will reveal his difficult childhood story that ironically fueled his happy-ending films and magical kingdoms. He als[...]
Review: Crave
— by RON WILKINSON — Director Charles de Lauzirika’s atmospheric thriller aims to get at what makes us tick; those countless, terrifying moments that we live with all of our life. These are the moments when we should have done something, but did not. These are the lost opportunities th[...]
Review: The Wind Rises (aka Kaze Tachinu)
— by RON WILKINSON — Screened at the 2013 New York Film Festival, Hayao’s first feature length directorial release since “Ponyo” in 2008 starts off as a striking peon to animated steam punk fantasy but ends up as an interminable repeating link of soap opera slush. The opening scene[...]
Review: Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?
— by RON WILKINSON — Yes, it may be impossible to consider the consequences of describing a river that becomes a highway, or of attributing possession of a ship that has been completely reconstructed or of converting the title of this film from a question to statement by moving the first[...]
Review: Narco Cultura
— by RON WILKINSON — This raucous cinema verite’ features rock star Edgar Quintero and Mexican drug cop Riccardo “Richi” Soto, two men caught up in a crime war that has taken on a life of its own. Quintero is the lead singer of wildly rich and popular rock group BuKnas de C[...]
Review: Cut to Black
— by RON WILKINSON — Bill Ivers has had some tough times. But his tough times have only just begun and we are going to be part of the toughest time of his life. A former NYPD detective, Ivers was disgraced as part of the routine of crime in the big city. Out of the […][...]
Review: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
— by JAMES SHAW — We are now in a time when Hollywood seems to be translating every young adult novel to the big screen (everything from “Twilight” to “Mortal Instruments”). The most successful novel series since Harry Potter is The Hunger Games trilogy and despite being only one[...]
Review: The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza)
— by RON WILKINSON — Paolo Sorrentino’s updated “La Dolce Vita” has neither story nor direction by the great Fellini, nor the gravitas and bodies of Mastroianni or Ekberg. But it has everything else. The people are twice as beautiful, the costumes are twice as unabashedly rich, the[...]