Year: 2011

My Top Ten Movies for 2011–Reviewed, Not Necessarily New

Written by diana on December 28, 2011. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 3 Comments on My Top Ten Movies for 2011–Reviewed, Not Necessarily New

Happy New Year–the Year of the Dragon in 2012! Most of all, I want to thank all of you for your comments and email! With 2011 coming to an end, I wanted to take a look back at the movie reviews I wrote this year. I am an unabashed cinephile– 500 films (maximum allowed) in my Netflix queue with another 88 in my Instant Queue. So,...

“Becoming Santa”–Home for the Holidays

Written by diana on December 19, 2011. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound.

I saw this delectable morsel of an indie film at the Napa Valley Film Festival last month and had a chance to talk with Jeff Myers, the director, for a few moments afterwards. The backstory is fascinating but the movie stands on its own. “Becoming Santa,” reveals a lot more about the human spirit and generosity towards the tiniest among...

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers–The Most Famous Whistleblower of Our Time?

Written by diana on December 15, 2011. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 5 Comments on The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers–The Most Famous Whistleblower of Our Time?

Nominated for a 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary, this past June marks the fortieth anniversary of the release of the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times, which was forced to stop publishing by a cease-and-desist order mandated by the Nixon administration. “The Most Dangerous Man in America” tells the inside story through...

“Margin Call”–Soulless Capitalism at Its Finest

Written by diana on December 8, 2011. Posted in movie reviews. 4 Comments on “Margin Call”–Soulless Capitalism at Its Finest

An onslaught of “Occupy Wall Street” movies has been released in the last two years–think “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”, “Too Big to Fail”, “Up in the Air”, The Company Men”–in the wake of the financial meltdown of 2008. “Margin Call” deserves to be...

“The Descendants” –Decent But Not Great

Written by diana on November 30, 2011. Posted in movie reviews. 3 Comments on “The Descendants” –Decent But Not Great

I recently saw “The Descendants” at the Napa Valley Film Festival. I had high expectations. What’s not to like about either George Clooney or Alexander Payne? Both of them are very talented entertainment superstars. However, neither George Clooney’s pretty face nor Alexander Payne’s mastery of comedy and...

“J. Edgar”—Investigating the Investigator

Written by diana on November 20, 2011. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 4 Comments on “J. Edgar”—Investigating the Investigator

Based upon a script by “Milk” screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black, and directed by Clint Eastwood, “J. Edgar” is a biopic of the controversial FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover. In this spellbinding movie, Leonardo DiCaprio, who plays Hoover, ages five decades, as he grows from an ambitious young law enforcer to the most...