Year: 2023

Lupin (2021)–The Gentleman Thief

Written by Diana Paul on November 13, 2023. Posted in Television reviews. No Comments on Lupin (2021)–The Gentleman Thief

Based upon a popular 1905 collection of short stories about a gentleman thief, Arsène Lupin, written by the French mystery writer, Maurice Leblanc, the three-season blockbuster Netflix Lupin series (2021) is a reimagining of the legendary thief in present-day Paris. Lupin is the equivalent of a French Sherlock Holmes with some important differences. In flashbacks the young Assane Diop (Omar Sy of “The Intouchables”, see March 27, 2013 review) endures a travesty of justice that imprisons his beloved Senegalese immigrant father. Growing up in a foster home, Assane...

Fall of the House of Usher–Poe on Steroids

Written by Diana Paul on November 7, 2023. Posted in Television reviews. 3 Comments on Fall of the House of Usher–Poe on Steroids

This Halloween-esque Netflix eight-episode mini-series (released in time for Trick or Treat on October 12) is a not-so-loyal but brilliant riff on Edgar Allan Poe’s 1840 collection of short stories, “The Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque”. Embroidered with many literary references to some of these tales, each episode in Fall of the House of Usher is named after one of Poe’s works. For example, Episode 1: “The Masque of the Red Death”. Literary allusions to even more short story titles throughout this mini-series are playful and witty. (For example,...

The Burial–Reaching Beyond the Grave

Written by Diana Paul on October 30, 2023. Posted in movie reviews. No Comments on The Burial–Reaching Beyond the Grave

The wealthy almost always have an impact on the financial decisions of the poor and on limiting their options to make informed choices. Combine that with the shameful racist history in the US and we have the new Amazon Prime release: The Burial. Based upon a true story, the opening scene features small business proprietor, Jeremiah O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones), celebrating his seventy-fifth birthday. Surrounded by his loving wife and many adult children and grandchildren, all is not well for Jeremiah. His Biloxi, Mississippi funeral home business of eight branches...

Can You See Us?–Before Your Eyes

Written by Diana Paul on October 23, 2023. Posted in movie reviews. No Comments on Can You See Us?–Before Your Eyes

The first full-length Zambian movie released on Netflix (August 27), Can You See Us? is inspired by the life of John Chiti, a popular international singer, who is albino. (The main character is named Joseph in the film, not John.) When Chama gives birth to Joseph, his father rejects him and his mother. Chama is thrown out of her home with nowhere to go. A compassionate taxi driver Martin (Kondwani Elliot Zulu) marries her and adopts Joseph as his son. The young family’s life becomes more and more difficult. As an albino child, Joseph must navigate a childhood of bullying....

The Whole Truth–And Nothing But….

Written by Diana Paul on October 16, 2023. Posted in movie reviews. No Comments on The Whole Truth–And Nothing But….

In this 2016 legal thriller The Whole Truth defense attorney Richard Ramsay (Keanu Reeves) comes to the aid of Mike (Gabriel Basso), the seventeen-year-old son of his friends Boone (Jim Belushi) and Loretta Lassiter (Renée Zellweger). Mike has been accused of the murder of his father, a secretively abusive womanizer, who browbeats his son into attending Stanford University. A police officer at the scene of the crime testifies in court that Mike mumbled “I should’ve done it long ago” and asserts that Mike’s fingerprints were found on the murder weapon. Mike has completely...

Fauda–Crisis after Crisis

Written by Diana Paul on October 9, 2023. Posted in Television reviews, Unhealed Wound. No Comments on Fauda–Crisis after Crisis

Based upon their experiences serving in the Israel Defense Force (IDF), Lior Raz (who also stars as Doron) and Avi Issacharoff have developed a Netflix international sensation, Fauda. Produced from 2015 through 2022 as a four season series, each season features a Palestinian terrorist or terrorist cell that IDF sets out to eliminate . Fauda seems to rip from today’s headlines the bloodshed between Israel and Gaza. The main character, Doron, is a rogue: even the IDF cannot control his actions in every battle mission he is ordered to...