— by RON WILKINSON — “Learning to Drive,” director Isabel Coixet’s meet-cute vehicle for Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson, turns out to be a compact instead of a full-sized car. The screenplay by Sarah Kernochan and Katha Pollitt walks rather than runs through the whirlwind behind the wheel romance. A pleasant surprise, the ending rises […][...]
Review: Goodnight Mommy
— by RON WILKINSON — Co-writers/directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala put together a traditional but high quality horror flick in “Goodnight Mommy,” a tale of lethal mother-son conflict. A mostly silent soundtrack lets the great acting and screenplay tell the story. This puts pressure on the actors, especially the young ones, but they come […][...]
Review: The Visit
— by RON WILKINSON — M. Night Shyamalan unleashes another one on a gleeful public with this psycho-horror movie about a suitably dysfunctional family. In “The Visit,” Becca and Tyler (Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould) traipse off into rural Pennsylvania to visit Nana and Pop Pop (Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie) on their farm. The […][...]
Review: The Fool (aka Durak)
— by RON WILKINSON — A multiple prize-winner at the 2014 Locarno Film Festival, Yury Bykov’s movie is a profound tragedy. Opening with a no-holds-barred look inside a dilapidated Russian state-owned apartment building that houses the poor, the desperate and the despaired in bestial conditions. Everything in the building is failing, the electricity, water, sanitary […][...]
Review: Queen of Earth
— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Alex Ross Perry’s urban pot-boiler “Queen of Earth” falls well short of expectations. A high bar was set by avid Elisabeth Moss fans who came to adore her as she stole the show in the blockbuster “Mad Men” TV series. Toward the end of the series, she capped that […][...]
Review: Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery
— by RON WILKINSON — Arne Birkenstock’s fascinating documentary “Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery” is a skillful and entertaining examination the latest, and what may be the greatest, con game of all time. Starting in the 1970’s, Wolfgang Beltracchi painted works of art falsely attributed to some of the most sought after artists of the […][...]
The Walk to open Tokyo film festival
— by SEAN GERSKI — “The Walk” — directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt — will be the opening film of this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF). And closing the 28th TIFF will be Tetsuo Shinohara’s “Terminal,” which stars Koichi Sato. Serving as head of jury during this year’s TIFF will be […][...]
Review: Meru
— by RON WILKINSON — “Meru” may be one of the best mountain climbing movies ever made. The insights provided through personal interviews with climbers Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk, and the narrative by Jon Krakauer, make this film a tightly-woven tale competing with the best fiction there is. The location is Mount […][...]
Review: Phoenix
— by RON WILKINSON — Director Christian Petzold re-unites with leads Nina Hoss and Ronald Zehrfeld in the multiple award-winning mystery neo-noir “Phoenix.” Petzold and Hoss enjoyed multiple awards for their previous efforts in “Wolfsburg,” “Toter Mann,” “Yella” and “Barbara” and this film is no exception. Zehrfeld was also the supporting actor with Hoss in […][...]
Review: The Overnight
— by RON WILKINSON — Patrick Brice is not going to sugar coat it. We are messed up and we better figure why and learn to get on with our lives before it is too late. This is a heavy message for a film maker to project in his second feature film. But he really […][...]