— by RON WILKINSON — Her character having survived life with uber-rogue hubby Roger Sterling in “Mad Men,” one might think Lila had seen it all. Not even close, as Talia Balsam breathes new life into the fragmenting of a wife and mother. The luscious beauty of the Catskills and the t[...]
Archive for May, 2020
An exclusive interview with Tilda Del Toro
— by LYNETTE CARRINGTON — From an early age, Tilda Del Toro has had a fascination with film. She and her siblings were raised by her father and one day, he took Del Toro to see the Stanley Kubrick masterpiece “2001 A Space Odyssey” at an art theater in Chicago. She wound up falling i[...]
Review: The Vast of Night
— by RON WILKINSON — A space invader sci-fi flick has to choose one of two directions: the “E.T.” way or the “Alien” way. The “E.T.” take is extraterrestrials as friendly giants with powerful technology that could accidentally crush us or move us to an unknown dimension but n[...]
Review: Working Man
— by BEV QUESTAD — What to do when life throws curve balls and there’s not much time left to recover? “Working Man” features the most stunning acting in memory. Peter Gerety, aged 80 with a hard beachball belly and 64 films under his belt since 1961, takes the screen away in an und[...]
Review: Requiem for the American Dream
— by BEV QUESTAD — The Vicious Cycle versus the American Dream. Aristotle, James Madison, FDR, and Howard Zinn. An ominous title for an ominous time. Required reading for this year’s graduates. Free link at end. Noam Chomsky, 88 years old at the time of the release of this film, is wid[...]
Reimagination of the drive-in movie theater
— by LYNETTE CARRINGTON — The movie and entertainment industry has been hit incredibly hard by the fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Movie and television production has been shut down across the globe and, along with it, movie theaters have gone dark. In the wake of the downturn o[...]
Review: A Good Woman Is Hard to Find
— by RON WILKINSON — The lengths that people will go to for various causes has become the capsule description for revenge flicks. A quick set-up to get the juices going and the glorious simplistic finish, usually with bloody violence. On the surface this film is that, enough get-even act[...]
Review: Driveways
— by BEV QUESTAD — In one of the last performances before his death on April 15, 2020, Brian Dennehy brought a simple little film to glory. Cast as a retired old fogey named Del, who has lived in the neighborhood since he married about 50 years ago, Dennehy makes this film glow. Driveway[...]
An exclusive interview with actor Pat Finn
— by LYNETTE CARRINGTON — You know his face and you recognize his voice. Pat Finn is a character actor who has embraced all kinds of role opportunities and crafted his career playing fun, lovable and sometimes quirky characters. In almost every instance, you think, “This is a guy who I[...]
Review: The Wretched
— by RON WILKINSON — His parents engaged in an ugly divorce, Ben does the wrong thing and breaks into a neighbor’s house to steal some opioids. A bad thing, but not bad enough to merit the bloody coming out of the ear treatment by a decidedly evil witch-like monster. At the same time, [...]
Tom Cruise Gets Space-y
— by LYNETTE CARRINGTON — It was revealed this week that Tom Cruise will soon be heading to the International Space Station to shoot a film. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine confirmed Cruise’s upcoming space romp from his official Twitter account on May 5 by tweeting, “NASA is exci[...]
Review: Bull
— by BEV QUESTAD — Has the bull ever lost in a bull-riding contest? There is absolutely no record showing a bull-rider out-riding the bucking bull. “Bull,” a double-entendre for this surprising film, is about a 14-year old girl named Kris who is determined to be a professional bull-r[...]
The Five Best ‘80s Films
From big hair to neon spandex, there are plenty of things best left in the ‘80s. But films are not one of them. The decade proved to be one of the greatest for cinema, producing timeless classics that we can’t stop watching today. It brought us shocking plot twists (“The Empire Strikes Back”[...]
Review: Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind
— by BEV QUESTAD — The film begins with 11-year old Natasha waking up to a radio broadcast that her mother has been picked up off Catalina Island. Not understanding, she rushes downstairs as her father is coming up to tell her the news. She says, “The day my mom died my entire world wa[...]