Ron Wilkinson There is something beautiful abut a documentary that takes on a life of its own. In 1999 film maker James Solomon began researching a scripted film for HBO based on a story that defined the mean streets of New York City. The story is that of the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese, reported as
If you think you have seen all of the most amazing documentaries in the world, you have another think coming. This much everybody knows. Former U.S. representative Anthony Weiner was a rising star. He won seven terms to the US House of Representatives but resigned after a sexting scandal. He had some undetermined therapy,
It was obvious something was up with the release of the first teasers of this splashy tale. Yes, Linda Woolverton’s screenplay has nothing to do with Lewis Carroll’s 1871 “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There” except about half of the characters. That is not to say it is not a good story, but
Directors Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker (“The War Room”) have covered some strange stories but the one in Unlocking the Cage may be the strangest so far. Steven Wise is described as an animal rights lawyer. That is a significant understatement. He is not only fighting for increased rights for animals, he is making the legal case for
Jeremy Irons is great, as usual, but the rest of the cast seems to be just going through the motions in this story of the nerd underdog who makes good. Irons does a fantastic job playing Cambridge mathematics Fellow G.H. Hardy but it is not enough to save this morass of melodrama. Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar
Jack O’Connell blasts out of screen as Kyle Budwell, a New York truck driver who has lost his life savings in a securities gamble. He sneaks into the TV studio where finance TV show host, talking head and investment clown Lee Gates (George Clooney) is starting his weekly song, dance and spiel. The film starts
Jacques Audiard’s winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival is a masterful tale of survival as well as a harrowing cautionary note about the perseverance of the violence of war. The story centers on Dheepan (Antonythasan Jesuthasan), a Tamal Tiger child soldier grown into leader during the final days before the movement
Director Erez Laufer’s documentary is true to its title. The film tells Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s story through archival footage and descriptions by the man himself. It is a touching movie, a documentary of unusual force and intimacy. One cannot help but listen to the words in the context of his assassination by his
Golden Globe nominated Jonathan Pryce takes the lead in this easy going sit-com about immigrant life in the big city. Nat Dayan (Pryce) owns and operates the kosher bakery Dayan and Son he started with his father in 1947 in London’s East End. Against all odds, he keeps the tiny bakery open, competing against the Cotton
Tom Hiddleston finds himself in the middle of a very bad year in Ben Wheatley’s pot boiler about a social crucible in melt down. This should not be a huge surprise after his high tension “Kill List” and “Sightseers.” If anything, this movie continues the director’s explorations into the psycho-social foundations of violence; how the