Mystery

Death on the Nile

DEATH ON THE NILE   The detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is back, traveling with a group of entitled and resentful rich people as he attempts to solve a murder committed during a wedding celebration in the newest installment of the Agatha Christie murder mystery series, Death on the Nile. Hindsight shows that the viewer…

Last Night in Soho

LAST NIGHT IN SOHO Last Night in Soho is a psychological thriller written and directed by the Londoner Edgar Wright. This film is the ninth feature film that Edgar Wright has written and/or directed. He is best known to me for Baby Driver, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and Shaun of the Dead. Last Night…

In the Shadow of the Moon

IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON In the Shadow of the Moon, a sci-fi thriller is one of the thousands of good films hidden deep within Netflix.  I only found it because I wanted to time travel and searched Google for “movies about time travel.” In the Shadow of the Moon is a detective story…

Enola Holmes

ENOLA HOLMES If I were a 16-year old girl, Enola Holmes would be empowering and would become my favorite film.  I am as far from being a 16-year old girl as one can get. However, Enola Holmes, this coming-of-age adventure film on Netflix, is still entertaining, beautifully filmed and acted, and is a surprisingly complex…

Blow the Man Down

BLOW THE MAN DOWN Blow the Man Down perfectly sets the Maine seaport small-town tone in this quirky drama of surviving in a town run for the last 30 years by now elderly women. Mary Margaret Connolly dies, leaving her two daughters, Mary Beth (Morgan Saylor) and Priscilla Connolly (Sophie Lowe), to fend for themselves. …

Oldboy

OLDBOY Y’all tired of these cutesy Netflix or Amazon Original films that deal with teenage coming-of-age, or relationship issues that your girlfriend or wife asks/makes you watch.  It’s time for a change – at least for 2 hours. Watch the original 2003 Oldboy, a South Korean action thriller film written and directed by Park Chan-wook. …

Lost Girls

LOST GIRLS Lost Girls is a Netflix crime/drama about the oldest daughter of three girls going missing.  The working-poor, high-strung mother, Mari Gilbert (Amy Ryan), tries to get the attention of the police.  However, the police are apathetic, inept, and sexist throughout the entire ordeal. Lost Girls is based upon actual events that began unfolding…

Knives Out

KNIVES OUT Knives Out is a surprisingly funny – and a bit quirky – whodunit murder mystery. The dysfunctional Thrombey family meets at the father’s mansion in Massachusetts to celebrate his 85th birthday.  The father, Harlan Thrombey, is a self-made one-percenter obtaining his fortune by writing murder mysteries; the rest of the family are just…

Doom: Annihilation

DOOM: ANNIHILATION Doom: Annihilation (a 2019 film) is the second Doom movie since the 1990s video game. History: The first Doom movie in 2005 was a money-losing $60 million blockbuster. The 2005 Doom movie starred The Rock, Karl Urban, and Rosamund Pike.  id Software, the developer of the Doom video game, supported the original Doom…

Earthquake Bird

EARTHQUAKE BIRD Earthquake Bird is a psychological drama set in Tokyo 1989. Unfortunately, the most interesting part is hearing the birds chirp after an earthquake. Lucy Fly (Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina, The Danish Girl, Tomb Raider) is an American – fluent in Japanese – living and working in Tokyo.  During the open credits, the Police…

The Third Man

THE THIRD MAN The Third Man – a 70 year old movie – has to have more than just a good racketeering story-line to remain viable after so many years. The devastated Eastern Europe city of Vienna helps quite a bit. The European portion of WWII ended in 1945. The Allied-occupied city of Vienna, Austria…

Kahaani

KAHAANI Complexion? “Wheatish.” Would you or any of your friends use wheatish to describe a person – no – which is one of the reasons to watch an International film, so you experience things that are not wholly American. Kahaani was filmed in Kolkata, India, mainly on the streets of Kolkata during the colorful festival…

The Wailing

THE WAILING Not the brightest nor the bravest nor the fittest police office in a mountainous village in South Korea investigates murders performed by people covered with rashes and boils in The Wailing a horror/mystery film. Is it a disease, or is it something else, something more horrific? A two and a half hour movie…