— 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 the first half of the movie father Ben […][...]
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 real world. This is a […][...]
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 out, […][...]
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. The doc was to feature […][...]
The Next Bond, James Bond
Daniel Craig, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Connery and Roger Moore are just some of the greats who have took on the James Bond role. But who is next in line to take their martini shaken, not stirred? Producers are still hopeful of attracting Daniel Craig back for one more film, however that is thought to be […][...]
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 back country. Although respect for the land and animals […][...]
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 the […][...]
Top 5 most popular Game of Thrones characters
A few days ago, the sixth season of the series “Game of Thrones,” one of the biggest TV hits of recent years was released. Based on the series of novels “A Song of Ice and Fire” by writer and screenwriter George RR Martin, the series has revolutionised the genre of fantasy-fiction worldwide. In it, we […][...]
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’t update passports and destination countries […][...]
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 than the girls’ convictions. I had […][...]