A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Ryan Patch, “Regulation” (2019) Set in the not-too distant future, in perhaps a post-industrial / hyper-cybernetic age, this short film character study is an intimate and…
Bill Condon, “The Good Liar” (2019) Getting two giants of British stage and film proved to be the least of director Bill Condon’s problems; the biggest…
Rian Johnson, “Knives Out” (2019) At times playing like a spoof of the classic whodunnit murder mystery that takes place in a palatial mansion and the…
Nicholas Wenger, “The Kid” (2018) “The Kid” is a six-minute proof-of-concept film made to demonstrate the potential of certain themes and issues that a longer and…
British Films, North American Films
Gavin Hood, “Official Secrets” (2019) As fictional dramatisations of real events go, “Official Secrets” passes muster in its narrative of a translator working for the British…
Arabic-language Films, North American Films
Elan Dassani, Rajeev Dassani, “Seam” (2017) An excellent little film that could serve as a pilot for a television series, “Seam” posits that in the near…
Will Lowell, “Custom Order” (2017) Looks like I hit a dud sci-fi short for once on the DUST channel with Will Lowell’s “Custom Order”. For a…
British Films, North American Films
Rupert Goold, “Judy” (2019) Adapted from Peter Quilter’s musical stage drama “End of the Rainbow”, this bio-pic covers the last twelve months of Hollywood film legend…
Chinese and Chinese-language Films, North American Films
Lulu Wang, “The Farewell” (2019) As a character study of an individual torn between her parents’ Chinese culture and the Western culture she has grown up…
Bill Tytla, “Little Audrey – Tarts and Flowers” (1950) Part of a series of cartoons about a cute kindergarten-aged girl called … well, what else? ……