— by RON WILKINSON — Director Nick Murphy claims he chose the Hilbre Islands off England’s West coast as the shooting location for this film because, growing up there, he thought it would be a good place to hide a body. That may or may not be the case, but it turns out to be […][...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: Factory of One
— by BEV QUESTAD — This film’s subject epitomizes a crazy west coast experience that culminates in an annual effigy-burning ritual, a phenomenon of anarchical, free-spirited, innovative San Franciscans who in 1986 were bent on combining psycho-transformation, paganism and freedom theol[...]
Review: The Company You Keep
— by BEV QUESTAD — Robert Redford can have his pick of just about anything he wants to do. At 76 years of age, he chose to produce, direct and star in “The Company You Keep,” which is an investigation into the minds and times of the Weather Underground. This film is the story of [&he[...]
Review: Southwest (aka Sudoeste)
— by BEV QUESTAD — This is the haunting story of the life of a woman. It begins with a witch being carted to the deathbed of the woman’s pregnant mother. The daughter is apparently carved out of her passed mother’s womb and taken to an isolated wooden boxhouse on top of stilts in the[...]
Review: We’re the Millers
— by ADAM DALE — Lately, the comedy genre has been on the decline with generic and unfunny films filling up the screen with unoriginal stories and actors literally doing the least amount possible to get their paycheck. There are always exceptions, of course, and a select few films have b[...]
Review: Charge
— by RON WILKINSON — Screened at the 2013 Cinedigm Docurama series, “Charge” is the story of one of sport’s longest and most treasured institutions rediscovering itself. The International Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) Race is the most treasured and dangerous competition in a spor[...]
Review: Masquerade
— by BEV QUESTAD — Spending time in South Korea this summer I chanced across a sweet film based on 17th Century King Gwanghae who out-maneuvered treacherous court representatives to champion the poor and bring justice through fairer tax, property and military conscription systems. In thi[...]
Review: Every Blessed Day
— by RON WILKINSON — Screened at New York’s Lincoln Center’s Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, “Every Blessed Day” is a madcap comedy, and serious exploration, of values and emotions. Hidden away in the intimate corners of Italy, young couple Antonia and Guido are madly in love. De[...]
Review: When Comedy Went to School
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Women live longer than men. There’s a reason for it. They’re not married to women!” Old marriage jokes, at the expense of women, are part of the history of the evolution of comedy and help propel this doc in its exploration of how the famous stand-up comedians[...]
Review: Romanzo di una strage
— by RON WILKINSON — It is 1969 and conspiracies are everywhere. In America students in every college across the land are protesting the Viet Nam war, racial injustice and political corruption of all kinds. The cold war is heating up to fever pitch as the USA and the USSR rattle sabers a[...]
Review: The First Man
— by RON WILKINSON — Screened at the “Open Roads: New Italian Cinema” program at New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center, this is not a film for the faint of heart. Those who have some knowledge of Albert Camus’ last, unfinished novel know this story bears the fateful ending of[...]
Review: The Time Being
— by RON WILKINSON — In one of the most atmospheric films to come out of California in some time, debut director Nenad Cicin-Sain helms a screenplay by himself and Richard N. Gladstein in the film “The Time Being.” A film ostensibly about painters and painting, the story is more abou[...]
Review: Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp
— by RON WILKINSON — Robert Lee Maupin was born in Chicago in 1918 and grew up in the bowels of some of the worst ghettos in America. Several decades later, he was drinking at a bar when a man pulled a gun in anger and fired a shot. The shot was aimed at the […][...]
Review: RED 2
— by ADAM DALE — Replacing Robert Schwentke (“Flightplan,” “The Time Traveler’s Wife”) whom helmed 2010’s “RED” with Dean Parisot (“Galaxy Quest,” “Fun with Dick and Jane”) as director for the sequel started off the process of making “RED 2” a different type o[...]