Unhealed Wound – Passion for Art, Movies, and Culture

Extraordinary Attorney Woo—Palindromes Anyone?

Written by Diana Paul on November 21, 2022. Posted in Television reviews. 2 Comments

In Extraordinary Attorney Woo, a newly minted attorney, Woo Young Woo (the exceptional Park Eun-bin) has just graduated from prestigious Seoul National University School of Law and is hired by one of the two top law firms in Seoul. It is somewhat unusual that the two top law firms are headed by female CEOs. But even more noteworthy is the fact that young attorney Woo has autism. She introduces herself with palindromes: “My name is Woo Young Woo, whether it is read straight or flipped: kayak, deed, rotator, noon, race car, Woo Young Woo.” And...

Inside Man–Incarceration or Cancellation?

Written by Diana Paul on November 15, 2022. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews, Unhealed Wound. Leave a Comment

A dramatic four-episode mini-series by Steven Moffat (Doctor Who creator), Inside Man was released on Netflix October 31. There are two parallel plots: Former law professor Jefferson Grieff (Stanley Tucci) is on death row for strangling and beheading his wife. A brilliant Hannibal Lecter-style genius for solving cold cases, he waits execution. The second plot involves an English vicar Harry Watling (David Tennant who played Doctor Who) and his wife Mary (Lindsey Marshal). The vicar reluctantly accepts a flash drive from the deeply disturbed verger (vicar’s attendant) who wants...

The Watcher–Don’t Bother

Written by Diana Paul on November 7, 2022. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews. Leave a Comment

The Watcher (a seven-episode Netflix mini-series by Ryan Murphy, creator of Stranger Things and American Horror Story) was released on October 13 of this year and is currently rated #1 on that platform. Loosely based on a true story, a creative middle-aged couple Nora (Naomi Watts) and Dean Brannock (Bobby Cannavale), buy a mansion in a wealthy insular country-club enclave: Westfield, in upstate New Jersey. Soon they are haunted by a stalker, and besieged with financial problems from purchasing a home they couldn’t really afford. Their teenage daughter is, at first,...

Money Monster–A Wall Street Trick-or-Treat

Written by Diana Paul on November 1, 2022. Posted in movie reviews. 4 Comments

In this 2016 sleeper directed by Jodie Foster, we see cocksure television financial guru Lee Gates (George Clooney), a television huckster hosting “Money Monster”, (similar to “Mad Money with Jim Cramer”.) Gates specializes in helping the small-time investor by recommending stocks that are a sure winner, “better than your savings account”. Evangelizing stocks for the amateur looking into the action from outside, Gates recommends Ibis Clear Capital, which inexplicably craters, losing an astronomical $800 million in one day’s trading. A distraught...

The Good Fight– A Knock-out

Written by Diana Paul on October 24, 2022. Posted in Television reviews. Leave a Comment

If you loved the multiple award-winning “The Good Wife” (2009-2016) starring Julianna Margulies, you will be enthralled even more so with The Good Fight (2017-present), purportedly continuing the legal drama of “The Good Wife” as a sort of sequel or spin-off. In the first episode, “Inauguration”, it is January 20, 2017. Chicago attorney Diane Lockhart (the riveting Christine Baranski) –the powerhouse head of the legal firm in “The Good Wife”,–is watching Donald Trump take the oath of office. In disgust, she turns off the television, emotionally stunned by...

Bad Sisters—Saving Grace

Written by Diana Paul on October 18, 2022. Posted in Television reviews. 1 Comment

In this Apple+ Irish comedic mini-series, we see four of the five Garvey sisters—Eva (Sharon Hogan who is also the creator and producer), Ursula (Eva Birthistle of “Last Kingdom”), Bibi (Sarah Greene) and Becka (Eve Hewson of “Behind Her Eyes”)—in the difficult position of wanting to save their sister Grace (Anne-Marie Duff) from her emotionally abusive and pathologically narcissistic husband, John Paul (Claes Bang). Each of them attempts to murder him…unsuccessfully. Bad Sisters, in fact, opens with John Paul’s death. We know he dies, but we don’t know who killed...