A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Reviews of films made in Canada and United States including all films made by Hollywood.
Ed Schehl, “A Silent Forest: the Growing Threat, Genetically Engineered Trees” (2011) Narrated by Canadian geneticist David Suzuki, this documentary warns of the dangers genetically engineered…
Philip Kaufman, “Quills” (2000) Intended as an inquiry into the extremes of sexual licentiousness and prudishness, with regard to the tolerance of societies and the freedoms…
Nick Alhmark / Vice, “Sisa: Cocaine of the Poor” (2013) Distressing to watch, yes, but this is a story that has to be told. VICE reporter…
Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick, “The Blair Witch Project” (1998) About fifteen years after it was made and the hype surrounding it died down, this hokey…
Richard Rowley, “Dirty Wars” (2013) Part documentary, part personal testimony, this is a searing documentary following investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill across the Middle East and the…
Richard Fleischer, “Fantastic Voyage” (1966) Set during the Cold War in the 1960s – or was it the 1990s? – “Fantastic Voyage” has a wonderful premise…
George Lucas, “Electronic Labyrinth THX1138 4EB” (1967) Precursor to “THX1138”, this short film was made by Lucas while he was a student at the University of…
George Lucas, “THX1138” (1971) Before he became famous for his “Star Wars” series of films, George Lucas was noted chiefly for his dystopian sci-fi flick “THX1138”…
British Films, French and French-language Films
Kurt Engfehr, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, “The Yes Men Fix the World” (2009) Well no, actually they don’t but that was a pretty good little…
Joel Coen, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” (2000) An amusing road film based on Homer’s The Odyssey, “O Brother …?” takes viewers on a quick and…