Year: 2022

The Watcher–Don’t Bother

Written by Diana Paul on November 7, 2022. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews. No Comments on The Watcher–Don’t Bother

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 on Money Monster–A Wall Street Trick-or-Treat

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. No Comments on The Good Fight– A Knock-out

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 on Bad Sisters—Saving Grace

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...

My Sister’s Keeper—Who Gets to Live?

Written by Diana Paul on October 9, 2022. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. No Comments on My Sister’s Keeper—Who Gets to Live?

My Sister’s Keeper, a 2009 film based on the Jodi Picoult novel of the same name, and directed by Nick Cassavetes, is a family saga. The film explores the harrowing decision involving a minor’s forced organ donation and the right to medical emancipation. My Sister’s Keeper is the painful “Sophie’s Choice” of asking to choose just one of your treasured children’s lives. What is a parent willing to do to save the life of a child with a bleak, painful future, and imminent death around the corner? What about conceiving in vitro a “designer child” with...

The Kite Runner– Broadway Version

Written by Diana Paul on October 4, 2022. Posted in Theater: plays and musicals, Unhealed Wound. No Comments on The Kite Runner– Broadway Version

The Kite Runner (2003) by Khaled Hosseini is a deeply moving, sometimes horrific story of two childhood friends–one a servant, the other the privileged son of the master of the house. Taking place in Kabul, Afghanistan during the 1980’s, The Kite Runner tackles the themes of class, ethnic division, and the price of friendship. The wealthy friend must face up to what he witnesses one day and what betrayal he is guilty of. For both boys–now adults–the event rips apart their friendship and their lives. This Broadway version of The Kite Runner features...