— by RON WILKINSON — More psychological thriller than war movie, “The Wall” is a tense, atmospheric cat-and-mouse story that carries broad undercurrents of the cultural and religious war in the Middle East. American snipers Isaac (Aaron Taylor Johnson of “Nocturnal Animals”) and Matthews (John Cena of “Trainwreck”) are dispatched to stake out the scene […][...]
Review: Take Me
— by RON WILKINSON — New director Pat Healy comes out swinging, or whining, in this very funny take on the genre of the kidnapping gone terribly wrong. Having had its world premiere April 25 at NYC’s Tribeca Film Festival, Healy co-stars with the redoubtable Taylor Schilling from the smash hit “Orange is the New […][...]
Review: Harold and Lillian
— by BEV QUESTAD — Considered a secret weapon by movie industry professionals, Lillian Michelson explains that she and her husband worked as a team for 60 years on films like “The Ten Commandments,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Spartacus,” “The Graduate,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Rocky,” “West Side Story” and […][...]
Review: The Student
— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Kirill Serebrennikov dives headfirst into the adolescent mind in an entreaty for understanding, and, well, common sense. Student Veniamin Yuzhin (Pyotr Skvortsov) is having a bad day and it is up to his science teacher, Elena (Viktoriya Isakova), to stop it. Or, as she says, to stop the minor […][...]
Review: Graduation
— by RON WILKINSON — “Graduation,” Cristian Mungiu’s latest exploration into the murky folds of conscience and personal responsibility, features the father-daughter pair of Romeo and Eliza. Romeo is a successful, if underpaid, doctor practicing in a small town in Romania. His daughter, Eliza, is taking college entrance exams while completing high school, running the […][...]
Review: The Lost City of Z
— by RON WILKINSON — Hardly the swashbuckling story on might expect, “Z” focuses on the life and motivations of British explorer Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam). Like many others, he explores the Amazon jungle in the early 20th century looking for a legend. However, his motivation is not riches, but the elevation of the aboriginal […][...]
Review: A Quiet Passion
— by BEV QUESTAD — At the end of the second semester at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, circa 1850, the students were asked, “Do you wish to come to God and be saved? Those who wish to be Christian and be saved will move to my right. To those who remain and hope to be […][...]
Review: The Zookeeper’s Wife
— by BEV QUESTAD — Their son sleeps with two blond cubs cuddled gently around him. A long-nosed black and white furry badger clutches like a baby to a human. A dromedary, aka a one-humped camel, scurries humorously around the zoo grounds in free abandon. This seemingly innocent film opens with a party that the […][...]
Review: Raw
— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Julia Ducournau’s debut feature “Raw” took home the FIPRESCI international critics’ award at Cannes this year and the it was well-deserved. Building on a small and well-used horror trope, the movie expands the envelope of in-your-face splatter film making while still leaving room for a darkly comic “what’s a […][...]