— by RON WILKINSON — The best thing about internet social networking is the mutable nature of its reality. The truth as far as it goes, the user is ultimately in command of their profile. If this film is a cautionary tale it is to remind that mutability goes both ways. It is one thing […][...]
Review: The Mauritanian
— by RON WILKINSON — Two thought patterns run through the minds of USA security personnel at Guantanamo as they interrogate a suspected key player in the World Trace Center attacks. The first is that if he did not do the crime of which he is accused, he would have done it if he had […][...]
Review: The Perfect Candidate
— by BEV QUESTAD — The US wide-release of “The Perfect Candidate” has me worried. How can a drama about female repression in Saudi Arabia, filmed and produced in Saudi Arabia, notorious for said repression, pass a Saudi script censor and be submitted as the country’s Academy Award submission for best foreign film? Will there […][...]
Review: Francesco
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Go into the world and preach the gospel … and if necessary, use words.” — St. Francis Assisi.” This is the quote, on a black background, that begins and reverberates throughout “Francesco.” Despite Pope Francis’s announcement that he was naming himself after Assisi because of his embrace of the poor, […][...]
Review: My Octopus Teacher
— by BEV QUESTAD — Unlikely. It’s simply unlikely that anything about a skin diver in temperatures as cold as 46 degrees Fahrenheit and his obsessive compulsive disorder with a wild common octopus are going to either inspire or move me. And yet, several days and innumerable Google searches later, I am still transfixed by […][...]
Review: My Wonderful Wanda
— by RON WILKINSON — In a story rich in family dynamics with a substantial kicker of gender, class and nationality discrimination, Wanda comes to a luxurious villa in Switzerland, the manse of an industrial magnate. Although she has no wealth, her riches lie in her family. On one level, she has come to trade […][...]
Review: Percy vs. Goliath
— by BEV QUESTAD — We’re in a protestant church, maybe Lutheran, in Saskatchewan, Canada, during the Sunday morning singing of a hymn when a skinny old man with odd hair notices darkness out the window. He quietly gets up, taps a man on the shoulder in the front row, and they leave down the […][...]
Review: The Virtuoso
— by RON WILKINSON — The thread of samurai tradition runs through this noir thriller. An assassin is exceptionally good at what he does thanks to a godfather figure, the soldier comrade of the assassin’s deceased father. Taking the young man under his wing and teaching him a trade that the mentor has come to […][...]
Review: Kiss the Ground
— by BEV QUESTAD — Woody Harrelson announces he’s given up on fixing the environment. It’s simply too vast a problem with each solution seemingly causing more problems. But then he asks, “What if there is another path?” What does he mean? This past week, churches celebrated Earth Day on April 22, culminating in grand […][...]
Review: Voyagers
— by RON WILKINSON — Thirty brainwashed kids and one semi-coherent adult launch in a spaceship on an 86-year mission that few of them will survive. What could go wrong? Well, anyone who watched “2001: A Space Odyssey” knows plenty can go wrong. If they also read “Lord of the Flies” nothing remains but to […][...]