Don’t be fooled. This dysfunctional family gives the appearance of happiness and love, but Flesh and Blood disguises a murder. This mystery-thriller set in the sunshine and warm beaches of West Sussex is a multigenerational psychodrama. The gentle surf and sunny skies can lull the residents into a false sense of comfort and security. Flesh and Blood immediately goes to the darkly secretive interior family drama that throws shade on the murdered. Wisely keeping the identity of the victim hidden,–although the obscured...
“Ratched”–Ratcheting Up the Tension
This Netflix quasi-horror thriller creates a backstory for Nurse Ratched, the heartless villain in the 1975 Academy-Award winning classic “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”. “What made Ratched so vile and so unimaginably cruel and unempathetic?” The answer, of course, has roots in Nurse Ratched’s tragic early years, unhealed wounds that continue to fester. Ratched is a female-villain origin story.
Ratched opens in 1947 as Mildred Ratched arrives in Big Sur to seek employment...
“Van der Valk”– Going Dutch
This quirky three-episode police procedural on Masterpiece Theater follows a sullen, street-smart Dutch detective, Piet Van der Valk (Marc Warner), who navigates the seedier side of lively Amsterdam. Each two-hour episode of Van der Valk involves a distinct crime that can be watched on its own.
Solving convoluted crimes using astute human observation and inspired detection, Van der Valk is successful, in part, due to the support of Inspector Lucienne Hassell (Maimie McCoy) and rookie Officer Job Cloovers...
“Them That Follow”–Faith, Interrupted
Them That Follow (2019) is an odd American indie thriller about an Appalachian, Pentecostal, Charismatic snake-handling Christian cult. A close-knit community with extremely strong beliefs, it exists on the far-fringe of mainstream society. This is the backdrop for a love story between the Pentecostal pastor’s daughter and a boy in the community who no longer is fervent in his faith.
Mara Childs (newcomer Alice Englert) is a dutiful daughter, raised to believe that her faith unites the community in a holy...
“The Hater”–Social Media Run Amok
The Hater, a Polish thriller, captivates with its young nerd culture gone awry on social media. The movie is intelligent, never simplifying the internecine competition between the elite college professional and those who yearn for that life. The Hater reveals a cold, ruthless world of postmodern haves and have-nots. The online emotional vengeance and despair are palpable as the young computer hacker,Tomasz, wreaks havoc on those he most wants to replace. Channeling his sociopathic, obsessive behavior into a place designed to enhance...
“The Goldfinch”–Art and Loss
Goldfinch (2020), based upon Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, tells the story of a young boy, Theo ( the astonishing Oakes Fegley), who is walking through galleries with his beloved mother at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They gaze at a Dutch Master painting of a chained bird, the Goldfinch, when a terrorist bomb goes off. Theo’s mother dies and he escapes the rubble, clutching the 17th-century masterpiece and a dying man’s insistence that he take his ring. The little boy’s life...