Directed by: Benjamin Ree
Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes
Release date: May 22, 2020 on VOD platforms
Genre: Documentary in English and Norwegian with English subtitles
Distributor: NEON
The setting is Oslo, 2015. Two paintings by Barbara Kysilkova are stolen from a gallery. The thieves are caught fairly quickly, but there is no trace of the artworks. Hoping to find her creations, Barbara visits one of the thieves at his court trial and ask for the return of the artworks.
This documentary is structured in a double-portrait narrative of the marvelous friendship formed between a Czech painter, Barbara, living in Oslo, and a Norwegian felon, Karl-Bertil Nordland, convicted of stealing her paintings from a gallery. As Barbara approaches Karl, she is aspired to if he would sit for a portrait. When Karl agrees, the two protagonists in this story get to know each other better. What follows over a series of portraits and many years is an extraordinary story of human bonding and connection resulting in friendship.
In this mutual bonding and using a structure that cleverly shifts perspectives, Norwegian filmmaker Benjamin Ree unfolds the fraught lives and vulnerabilities of two souls who come to recognize themselves in the other - the darkness, wounds, compulsions, and self-destructive behavior. Filmmaker Ree captures the revelatory moment when Karl, a drug addict junkie and petty crook who has done jail time, first sees his portrait and completely breaks down. Throughout the film, the understanding of both people and even the stolen paintings, entirely changes.
The film focuses on the artistic cooperation brings the two main characters together in a special way. They give each other an insight into the shadowy corners of their past. The film alternately depicts events from a dual perspective, sometimes returning to tell the story through the other person's eyes. It shows the two protagonists from each other's perspective, so that the resulting paintings conveys a dark atmosphere in places but also moving look at two seemingly disparate fates. In life, certain aspects of human nature defy comprehension, and yet filmmaker Benjamin Ree materializes Barbara Kysilkova and Karl-Bertil Nordland in a way that is accessible and transcendent.
FILM RATING (A)
Friday, May 22, 2020
Friday, February 28, 2020
WENDY review by Gerald Wright
Directed by: Benh Zeitlin
Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes
Release date: February 28, 2020 Streaming Online Video
Genre: Drama and Fantasy
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13
The classic story of Peter Pan is wildly reimagined in this fascinating epic from Benh Zeitlin, director of Beasts of the Southern Wild. This is a story of children lost on a mysterious island where aging and time have come unglued, and Wendy must fight to save her family, her freedom, and the joyous spirit of youth from the deadly peril of growing up.
Starting with a backstory, the plot begins as Angela Darling (Shay Walker) works as a waitress as Darling's Diner near a railroad in the rural South, with her young children - twins James and Douglas (Gavin and Gage Naquin), and youngest daughter Wendy (baby Tommie Lynn Milazzo, child Devin France, and adult Stephanie Lynn Wilson) - hanging around there. Oldest sibing youngster Thomas (Krzysztof Meyn), having his birthday one day, is jokingly told by his grandmother that he and Angela's children that they'll be working at the diner when they grow up. Insisting that he'll be a pirate, Thomas goes outside at the thought of having to get older and work. A train passes by, and a small figure runs on the roof and gets Thomas to climb onto the train as Wendy watches as he runs away.
Years later, Wendy is nine years old and has a thirst for adventure, coming up with bedtime stories to read to herself, despite assisting he mother with the diner along with her brothers. One night, Angela tells them about her life, indicating that she gave up her dreams to raise a family, making Wendy wonder whether she will have to give up her own dreams as a grown-up. After school, Wendy contemplates boarding the train, but does not. However, another night she notices a boy at her window - it's Peter Pan (Yashua Mack), a rambunctious boy who influences Wendy and her brothers to jump on the train and go on an adventure.
The children travel to a lost island. This takes the audience to a dark netherworld (another dimension) with mythical creatures, where events are unlikely to occur in real life. It all transcends the bounds of human possibility and physical laws. As the film takes on the form of the Peter Pan fairy tale with elements of magic, myth, wonder, and the extraordinary, it offers obstacles of a quest. Yet, the mood and tone is very dark, lending a murky texture on screen. The theme is often ghostly, depicting spirits, apparitions, and miracles, all for the delight of audience escapism.
Wendy is a uniquely structure narrative that gives praise to a fine mostly child ensemble, and they will captivate the viewers.
FILM RATING (B-)
Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes
Release date: February 28, 2020 Streaming Online Video
Genre: Drama and Fantasy
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13
The classic story of Peter Pan is wildly reimagined in this fascinating epic from Benh Zeitlin, director of Beasts of the Southern Wild. This is a story of children lost on a mysterious island where aging and time have come unglued, and Wendy must fight to save her family, her freedom, and the joyous spirit of youth from the deadly peril of growing up.
Starting with a backstory, the plot begins as Angela Darling (Shay Walker) works as a waitress as Darling's Diner near a railroad in the rural South, with her young children - twins James and Douglas (Gavin and Gage Naquin), and youngest daughter Wendy (baby Tommie Lynn Milazzo, child Devin France, and adult Stephanie Lynn Wilson) - hanging around there. Oldest sibing youngster Thomas (Krzysztof Meyn), having his birthday one day, is jokingly told by his grandmother that he and Angela's children that they'll be working at the diner when they grow up. Insisting that he'll be a pirate, Thomas goes outside at the thought of having to get older and work. A train passes by, and a small figure runs on the roof and gets Thomas to climb onto the train as Wendy watches as he runs away.
Years later, Wendy is nine years old and has a thirst for adventure, coming up with bedtime stories to read to herself, despite assisting he mother with the diner along with her brothers. One night, Angela tells them about her life, indicating that she gave up her dreams to raise a family, making Wendy wonder whether she will have to give up her own dreams as a grown-up. After school, Wendy contemplates boarding the train, but does not. However, another night she notices a boy at her window - it's Peter Pan (Yashua Mack), a rambunctious boy who influences Wendy and her brothers to jump on the train and go on an adventure.
The children travel to a lost island. This takes the audience to a dark netherworld (another dimension) with mythical creatures, where events are unlikely to occur in real life. It all transcends the bounds of human possibility and physical laws. As the film takes on the form of the Peter Pan fairy tale with elements of magic, myth, wonder, and the extraordinary, it offers obstacles of a quest. Yet, the mood and tone is very dark, lending a murky texture on screen. The theme is often ghostly, depicting spirits, apparitions, and miracles, all for the delight of audience escapism.
Wendy is a uniquely structure narrative that gives praise to a fine mostly child ensemble, and they will captivate the viewers.
FILM RATING (B-)
Friday, February 21, 2020
EMMA
Directed by: Autumn de Wilde
Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes
Release date: February 21, 2020
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Adaptation, and Remake
Distributor: Focus Features
MPAA Rating: PG
A novel first published in 1815 by Jane Austen, tells a story about youthful hubris and romantic misunderstandings. The setting is a fictional country village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls, and Donwell Abbey and involves the relationships among people from a small number of families.
Emma, is a tale that explores the difficulties and concerns of genteel women living in the Georgian-Regency England. The narrative is focused on Emma Woodhouse, a handsome, clever, and rich nearly 21 year old woman. She lives in a comfortable home with very little to distress her spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfying personality; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.
In this formulated romantic dramedy, with mis-matched lovers and female relationships, the plot is melodramatic and gives a rise to gal-pal scenarios. Yet, it is also a film depicting family crises and emotional carthasis along with empowering female bonding situations.
The all-encompassing cast is led by Emma Wodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy), the protagonist. She is a beautiful, high-spirited, intelligent, and slightly spoiled young woman from the landed gentry. Her mothe died when she was young, which delegates her as mistress of the house of Hartfield since her older sister Isabella got married. Emma is portrayed as compassionate to the poor, but at the same time has a strong sense of class status. Although she has vowed she will never marry, she delights in making matches for others. She has a brief flirtation with Frank Churchill (Callum Turner), an amiable young man liked by almost everyone, although Emma's friend/critic and neighbor Mr. George Knightley (Johnny Flynn) sees him as immature and selfish for failing to visit his once widowed father after his new wedding.
This 1800s period piece film is a sprawling epic and an engaging brilliant romp that covers a large expanse of time set against a vast, panoramic backdrop. The production takes on an extravagant setting and period, lavish costumes, and accompany everything with grandeur and spectacle, dramatic scope, high production values, and a sweeping musical score.
Emma has been the subject of many adaptations for film, TV, radio and the stage. Film adaptations: 1995 Clueless, 1996 Emma, and 2010 Aisha. There are also, 8 TV adaptations and 5 stage productions.
The outstanding supporting cast members, Bill Nighy as patriarch Mr. Woodhouse, Mia Goth, Myra McFadyen, Josh O'Connor, Rupert Graves, Gemma Whelan, Amber Anderson, Miranda Hart, Tanya Reynolds, Suzy Bloom Vanessa M. Owen, and Isis Hainsworth make this modernized narrative a quite moving and enjoyable addition to Jane Austen's legacy.
FILM RATING (B)
Directed by: Autumn de Wilde
Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes
Release date: February 21, 2020
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Adaptation, and Remake
Distributor: Focus Features
MPAA Rating: PG
A novel first published in 1815 by Jane Austen, tells a story about youthful hubris and romantic misunderstandings. The setting is a fictional country village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls, and Donwell Abbey and involves the relationships among people from a small number of families.
Emma, is a tale that explores the difficulties and concerns of genteel women living in the Georgian-Regency England. The narrative is focused on Emma Woodhouse, a handsome, clever, and rich nearly 21 year old woman. She lives in a comfortable home with very little to distress her spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfying personality; she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people's lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.
In this formulated romantic dramedy, with mis-matched lovers and female relationships, the plot is melodramatic and gives a rise to gal-pal scenarios. Yet, it is also a film depicting family crises and emotional carthasis along with empowering female bonding situations.
The all-encompassing cast is led by Emma Wodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy), the protagonist. She is a beautiful, high-spirited, intelligent, and slightly spoiled young woman from the landed gentry. Her mothe died when she was young, which delegates her as mistress of the house of Hartfield since her older sister Isabella got married. Emma is portrayed as compassionate to the poor, but at the same time has a strong sense of class status. Although she has vowed she will never marry, she delights in making matches for others. She has a brief flirtation with Frank Churchill (Callum Turner), an amiable young man liked by almost everyone, although Emma's friend/critic and neighbor Mr. George Knightley (Johnny Flynn) sees him as immature and selfish for failing to visit his once widowed father after his new wedding.
This 1800s period piece film is a sprawling epic and an engaging brilliant romp that covers a large expanse of time set against a vast, panoramic backdrop. The production takes on an extravagant setting and period, lavish costumes, and accompany everything with grandeur and spectacle, dramatic scope, high production values, and a sweeping musical score.
Emma has been the subject of many adaptations for film, TV, radio and the stage. Film adaptations: 1995 Clueless, 1996 Emma, and 2010 Aisha. There are also, 8 TV adaptations and 5 stage productions.
The outstanding supporting cast members, Bill Nighy as patriarch Mr. Woodhouse, Mia Goth, Myra McFadyen, Josh O'Connor, Rupert Graves, Gemma Whelan, Amber Anderson, Miranda Hart, Tanya Reynolds, Suzy Bloom Vanessa M. Owen, and Isis Hainsworth make this modernized narrative a quite moving and enjoyable addition to Jane Austen's legacy.
FILM RATING (B)
PREMATURE review by Gerald Wright
Directed by: Rashaad Ernesto Green
Running time: 86 minutes
Release date: February 21, 2020 Prime Video Streaming
Genre: Drama, Romance, Coming of Age, and Arthouse
Distributor: IFC Films
MPAA Rating: Not rated
In a film co-written by director Green and lead actress Zora Howard comes a story of a young African-American woman finding herself on the precipice of adulthood as she navigates her way through the highs and lows of a life-changing summer romance in Harlem, New York.
Set against the backdrop of a changing Harlem landscape, it all begins on a summer night in the uptown Manhattan community during her last months at home before starting college, a seventeen-year-old poet Ayanna (Zora Howard) meets Isaiah (Joshua Boone), a charming music producer who has just moved to the city. It is not long before these two artistic souls are drawn together in a passionate summer romance. However, this is not to be categorized as a simple romantic young love story, where affairs of the heart that center on just passion, emotion, and the romantic, affectionate involvement of the main characters, and the journey that their love takes through courtship.
This is a serious, plot-driven presentation, portraying realistic African-American characters and life situations. It is a story depicting the natural order of uptown New York City, with its atmosphere and personalities. This is a breakthrough performance by Zora Howard, a Harlem-bred multidisciplinary creator and performer. Her poise and formidable engagement to the camera is sensational. The contemporary stories involving intense character development and interaction of the youth in the uptown community setting is genuine, as the plot evolves around the mysterious outsider and Ayanna. Her entire world is turned upside down on her path towards self-discovery as she travails the rigorous terrain of young love the summer before she leaves for college.
The dialogue is realistic and raw, which gives credibility to each character in the cast. Their performances are sensational and is a great addition to an impeccable script exploring love, Black America, single mothers, and a mother daughter relationship. Using Harlem as a backdrop, naturally ignites the pacing and rhythm, along with a great jazzy music score - it sets a unique tone.
This is a very good romantic coming-of-age dramatic narrative capturing a glimpse of intellectual and artistic black youth searching for eternal truth, with the life journey of confusion along the way.
FILM RATING (A+)
Wednesday, January 01, 2020
JUST MERCY
Directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton
Running time: 136 minutes
Release date: December 23, 2019 (Limited) & January 10, 2020 (Wide)
Genre: Drama, Biopic, and Adaptation
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13
In an American true story of Walter McMillian, a black man who with the help of young black defense attorney Bryan Stevenson, appeals his murder conviction of a white 18 year old Ronda Morrison in 1986 Alabama. Adapted from the novel by Bryan Stevenson by the same title, it is a film focusing on the two African-American men who battle the legally bias court system that has incarcerated countless people.
The film stars Michael B. Jordan as attorney Bryan Stevenson, Jamie Foxx as Walter McMillian, and Brie Larson as Eva Ansley, along with Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, and Rafe Spall.
Attorney Bryan Stevenson takes the case of Walter McMillian, a man wrongfully imprisoned for a murder of a white woman. This is a serious character study, plot-driven presentation portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction. It is an epic period-piece that takes on specific historical intent that plagues the American legal system.
The plot contextually begins with Walter McMillian, a black man who lives and works in a black settlement near Monroeville, a remote "dirt-poor" region of pine trees and bean farms. He is married and has children, without any criminal record other than a misdemeanor charge stemming from a barroom fight. However, he had a well known extra-marital affair with a white woman.
18 year old Ronda Morrison, a white dry-cleaning clerk, was murdered on November 1986. At the time of her murder, Walter McMilian was at a church fish fry with dozen of witnesses, one whom was a police officer. Yet, Walter, who had no prior felony convictions, was arrested by newly elected Sheriff Tom Tate on June 1987, who was under pressure to find a suspect. Walter was apprehended and was immediately sent to Alabama's Death Row facility, which is usually reserved for convicted murderers awaiting execution. He remained there, pre-trial, for 15 months. In a rigged trial on December 1987 Walter was convicted with another duped person.
The other layer of this story is about Bryan Stevenson, an African-American lawyer, social justice activist, and founder/executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at NYU School of Law. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, Stevenson has challenged bias against the poor and minorities in the criminal justice system. His beginnings is of a religious foundation, where as a youth in Delaware and Pennsylvania played piano and sang in church. As a child in the 1960s and 1970s Stevenson dealt with segregation and its legacy. He spent his first classroom years at a "colored" elementary school. By the time he entered his second year the desegregation laws went into effect, but the old rules from segregation still applied. Years later, after high academics through school(s), he earned his full scholarship to attend and graduated at Harvard Law School, and earned a Master's in Public Policy at the JFK School of Government in 1985. He then opened his defense organization in Montgomery, Alabama (funded by Congress), a resource center, Equal Justice Initiative. He guaranteed to provide legal assistance to people on death row in Alabama, the highest per capita rate of death penalty sentencing.
The film itself brilliantly portrays these two men's personal journey with the strain of racial injustice in American life. Against tremendous odds, this film examines and takes its audience into a world of dismay and resolvement of a wrongly convicted man. It is a must see movie.
FILM RATING (A)
Directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton
Running time: 136 minutes
Release date: December 23, 2019 (Limited) & January 10, 2020 (Wide)
Genre: Drama, Biopic, and Adaptation
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13
In an American true story of Walter McMillian, a black man who with the help of young black defense attorney Bryan Stevenson, appeals his murder conviction of a white 18 year old Ronda Morrison in 1986 Alabama. Adapted from the novel by Bryan Stevenson by the same title, it is a film focusing on the two African-American men who battle the legally bias court system that has incarcerated countless people.
The film stars Michael B. Jordan as attorney Bryan Stevenson, Jamie Foxx as Walter McMillian, and Brie Larson as Eva Ansley, along with Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, and Rafe Spall.
Attorney Bryan Stevenson takes the case of Walter McMillian, a man wrongfully imprisoned for a murder of a white woman. This is a serious character study, plot-driven presentation portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories involving intense character development and interaction. It is an epic period-piece that takes on specific historical intent that plagues the American legal system.
The plot contextually begins with Walter McMillian, a black man who lives and works in a black settlement near Monroeville, a remote "dirt-poor" region of pine trees and bean farms. He is married and has children, without any criminal record other than a misdemeanor charge stemming from a barroom fight. However, he had a well known extra-marital affair with a white woman.
18 year old Ronda Morrison, a white dry-cleaning clerk, was murdered on November 1986. At the time of her murder, Walter McMilian was at a church fish fry with dozen of witnesses, one whom was a police officer. Yet, Walter, who had no prior felony convictions, was arrested by newly elected Sheriff Tom Tate on June 1987, who was under pressure to find a suspect. Walter was apprehended and was immediately sent to Alabama's Death Row facility, which is usually reserved for convicted murderers awaiting execution. He remained there, pre-trial, for 15 months. In a rigged trial on December 1987 Walter was convicted with another duped person.
The other layer of this story is about Bryan Stevenson, an African-American lawyer, social justice activist, and founder/executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at NYU School of Law. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, Stevenson has challenged bias against the poor and minorities in the criminal justice system. His beginnings is of a religious foundation, where as a youth in Delaware and Pennsylvania played piano and sang in church. As a child in the 1960s and 1970s Stevenson dealt with segregation and its legacy. He spent his first classroom years at a "colored" elementary school. By the time he entered his second year the desegregation laws went into effect, but the old rules from segregation still applied. Years later, after high academics through school(s), he earned his full scholarship to attend and graduated at Harvard Law School, and earned a Master's in Public Policy at the JFK School of Government in 1985. He then opened his defense organization in Montgomery, Alabama (funded by Congress), a resource center, Equal Justice Initiative. He guaranteed to provide legal assistance to people on death row in Alabama, the highest per capita rate of death penalty sentencing.
The film itself brilliantly portrays these two men's personal journey with the strain of racial injustice in American life. Against tremendous odds, this film examines and takes its audience into a world of dismay and resolvement of a wrongly convicted man. It is a must see movie.
FILM RATING (A)
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