Drama
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S Breakfast at Tiffany’s is an iconic American movie, it is very chic, stylish, and stars the perfect Audrey Hepburn. Maybe 50 years ago it was, but this movie contains blatant racism (in the full cut version, Mickey Rooney plays a goofy Japanese landlord with an awful accent and grossly stereotypic features and…
The Squid and the Whale
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE The Squid and the Whale is Noah Baumbach’s 2005 Indie movie about the breakdown of a marriage and the effects on the children. Main reason I watched was to prepare for Noah’s newest divorce film – Marriage Story – scheduled for release to theaters in November 2019 and streaming through…
Unbelievable
UNBELIEVABLE Unbelievable is an incredibly powerful true story about a multi-state serial rapist in Colorado & Lynnwood, Washington. With great respect and in some detail, this Netflix Original 8-episode series shows the rapist’s methods and the impact on the victims. In addition, Unbelievable shows the botched investigation in Washington State, and the two women who…
- 2019
- True Crime, Drama
Ramen Shop (Ramon Teh)
RAMEN SHOP (RAMEN TEH) Masato (Takumi Saito) is a Chef in his father’s Ramen Shop. His strongest childhood memories are of his Chinese mother Mei Lian (Jeanette Aw) eating Pork Rib Soup. His mother died while Masato was still a boy. After Masato’s Japanese father Kazuo (Tsuyoshi Ihara) dies, he visits Singapore to learn about…
- 2018
- Drama, WAR MEMORIES
Booksmart
BOOKSMART The tagline for Booksmart states “…. cram four years of fun into one chaotic night.” I guess that’s correct but Booksmart is way more than just a stupid party movie. There is some chaotic “fun” on that last night of high school, but Booksmart is about the friendship of the two leading ladies Amy…
Find Me
FIND ME Find Me – the 2018 Indie drama – is more than just a wonderful travelogue movie through a few National Parks (Zion, Death Valley & Yosemite). Written, directed and starring, Joe Huang, Find Me is about expanding your horizons and dealing with hardships. Joe (Joe Huang, Why Am I Doing This?) is an…
- 2018
- Drama
The Farewell
THE FAREWELL I had high expectations for The Farewell, a comedy drama about dying. High expectations sometimes ruin the experience. High expectations lessened my enjoyment of The Farewell. It’s not me – it’s those expectations. Billi (Awkwafina) lives in New York City studying to be a writer. She learns from her parents Jian (Diana Lin)…
The Cranes Are Flying
THE CRANES ARE FLYING The Cranes Are Flying is an obscure but incredible Soviet/Russian film from 1957. This film won the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) which was the highest prize awarded at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival. Stealing a phrase from a YouTube commenter where the trailer for this film can be found, “This is…
Hustlers
HUSTLERS Jennifer Lopez – her first scene in Hustlers – is an amazing scene to behold. J.Lo is the main reason to see this movie. Hustlers is a comedy crime drama movie about strippers; strippers that never strip but make “more money than a brain surgeon.” Dorothy (Constance Wu), aka Destiny, a new dancer, is…
First Man
FIRST MAN With all the craziness in the 1960’s – the Vietnam War & the protests, the Pill, the Cold War, Civil Rights Act & riots, the assassinations, and the music – it is pretty amazing that the US orbits, then walks on the moon flying in analog space capsules filled with buttons, switches and…
A Private War
A PRIVATE WAR A Private War is a dramatization of the American journalist Marie Colvin’s life from 2001 to 2012 while she was working for the British national newspaper, The Sunday Times. Rosamund Pike (Hostiles, Gone Girl, Hector and the Search for Happiness) is superb as the war time journalist Marie Colvin. This film is…
Rocketman
ROCKETMAN Rocketman is an excellent biopic of Elton John’s life during the 1970’s & 80’s – not a linear story – instead, it is a musical. This musical shows the most significant events in Elton’s life during that time – not just what happened – but how he felt and how he survived those crazy…
The Mustang
THE MUSTANG Wild Mustangs are rounded up each year to control the almost 100,000 feral Mustang population in the western United States. A small number of these Mustangs are given to prisons for the inmates to tame, and auction off. Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, French actress, producer, writer, and director, learned about this program – studied…
- 2019
- Drama
Life Itself
LIFE ITSELF If you ever feel like reading a long epic novel but don’t have the right book at hand. Watch this Amazon Studios produced – and a bit sappy drama – Life Itself. Five Chapters tell the story of Life Itself. Each chapter has different characters and a different feel. Chapter 1 is the…
Welcome to Marwen
WELCOME TO MARWEN Welcome to Marwen is the animated/live action dramatization of the 2010 documentary Marwencol. The documentary Marwencol received mostly positive reviews. Welcome to Marwen is not received as well; in fact it is one of the biggest money losers in 2018. Director: Robert Zemeckis directed Welcome to Marwen and it seemed to be…
Mary Queen of Scots
Mary Queen of Scots A beautifully, well crafted, but historically inaccurate drama about the tense relationship between Queen Elizabeth I of England (Margo Robbie, I, Tonya) and Mary Stewart, Queen of Scotland (Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird, The Lovely Bones). Both women vie for the right to rule both England and Scotland. Both women have a…
Cold War
COLD WAR Cold War’s beginning sets an interesting premise for this black & white Polish art-house drama set in the political upheaval period after WWII (1949 to 1964). The interesting part has Wiktor Warski (Tomas Kot), Irena Bielecka (Agata Kulesza), and the Manager Lech Kaczmarek (Borys Szyc) traveling through Poland. Traveling to find young adults…
Alpha
ALPHA I’m a sucker for films set in the Stone Age, and Alpha is a very good coming of age action/adventure movie during the last Ice Age. This film is similar to 10,000 Years BC, Quest for Fire, or The Clan of the Cave Bear all films set in the paleolithic age (500,000 years ago…
Kodachrome
KODACHROME Kodachrome 64, the once ubiquitous 35 mm Kodak film for color slides, is being discontinued in 2009 and the last lab in the world to develop this film is located in Parsons, Kansas. A well-know fictitious photographer Ben Ryder (Ed Harris) finds 4 rolls shot long ago. Ben needs to travel from Boston…
MoWgli: Legend of the Jungle
MOWGLI: LEGEND OF THE JUNGLE The last review I wrote about Mowgli in a movie was in 2016 about the remake of the Rudyard Kipling The Jungle Book, aptly called The Jungle Book. That 2016 remake followed the same story-line as all the previous The Jungle Book remakes. I believe I started the review by…