Year: 2017

The Handmaid’s Tale–In Service of Democracy?

Written by diana on May 14, 2017. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews. 1 Comment on The Handmaid’s Tale–In Service of Democracy?

The Handmaid’s Tale, based upon the psychological award-winning 1985 sci-fi thriller by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, is the Hulu adaptation of the dystopian Republic of Gilead, a fascist autocracy resulting from a religious coup, a war focused mainly on women. Within the borders of what was formerly the United States of America, residents in The Handmaid’s Tale are segregated along strict racial, sexual, and class lines with each social group is confined to a regimented behavioral code. Code infractions are punishable by torture or death. No one in Gilead has any autonomy,...

The Circle– A Cautionary Tale

Written by diana on May 7, 2017. Posted in movie reviews. 2 Comments on The Circle– A Cautionary Tale

[David Spiselman is guest blogger for this review and author of CypherGhost, Book 7 of the Spies Lie series, an Amazon bestseller, under his pen name D.S. Kane]. The Circle, based upon the 2013 bestselling novel by Dave Eggers, is a flawed movie but an important one. The Circle is the first movie to explore the balance between openness and privacy of technology in a way that delivers an indecisive conclusion for its viewers. It’s a polemic against technology and the Silicon Valley lifestyle, startup companies and how easy it is to assume easy answers to difficult questions. You can draw...

“Thirteen Reasons Why”–The Amber of the Moment

Written by diana on April 30, 2017. Posted in Television reviews. 1 Comment on “Thirteen Reasons Why”–The Amber of the Moment

Thirteen Reasons Why: A Netflix Original TV mini-series about teen suicide

13th –Not a Lucky Number

Written by diana on April 23, 2017. Posted in movie reviews. 2 Comments on 13th –Not a Lucky Number

13th The Academy award-nominated documentary by director Ava DuVernay (Selma) opens with the deeply disturbing fact that, even though the U.S. has only 5 percent of the world’s population, it has 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. This is mass incarceration and it is deeply ingrained with race and our judicial system. The beginning of 13th is almost a recap of Slavery by Another Name. (See my review , September 17, 2016). We see the Jim Crow laws up close and personal. Convict leasing and lynchings reached their peak at the turn of the 20th century. This vigilantism had the support...

“Land of Mine” (2015)–Made for You and Me

Written by diana on April 17, 2017. Posted in movie reviews. 4 Comments on “Land of Mine” (2015)–Made for You and Me

"Land of Mine"--a harrowing depiction of what many consider Denmark's worst war crime

“Pure”–A Torn Soul

Written by diana on April 9, 2017. Posted in movie reviews. 2 Comments on “Pure”–A Torn Soul

"Pure" is a portrait of a 20-year-old girl who is determined to flee her dreary grungy life, bullied by tormenters at school and neglected by her alcoholic prostitute mother. Everything changes when she hears a performance of Mozart's Requiem, opening up a new world to a soul aching for an intellectual life.