Month: July 2024

Two Sides of the Abyss–Cat and Mouse

Written by Diana Paul on July 29, 2024. Posted in Television reviews, Unhealed Wound.

A disturbing German psychological crime thriller, Two Sides of the Abyss (2023) opens with an obsessive, grieving police officer, Luise Berg (Anne Ratte-Polle), determined to re-incarcerate the murderer of her teenage daughter. Berg is outraged that Dennis Opitz (Anton Dreger) has been released early from prison. His psychiatric evaluation suggests he is completely rehabilitated. Berg believes otherwise and is obsessively driven to achieve justice. Other murders occur shortly after Dennis Opitz’s release, including a brutal murder in a trailer...

The Sympathizer–Displaced Sympathies

Written by Diana Paul on July 22, 2024. Posted in Television reviews.

Based upon the 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer opens in April 1975, during the fall of Saigon. This American War– or Vietnam War, depending upon perspective,– unflinchingly depicts the ignominious and callous withdrawal of American troops and their Vietnamese aids on helicopters and ships crammed with desperate people fleeing the country, often in the middle of the night. Straddling both countries on different sides of the Pacific, The Sympathizer flashes back and forth rapidly, in sharp cinematic cuts, from 1975 until...

Gentleman in Moscow –Rules of Civility

Written by Diana Paul on July 14, 2024. Posted in movie reviews.

Based upon the bestseller by Amor Towles, Gentleman in Moscow tells the story of an aristocrat whose status makes him an enemy of the state, namely, Bolshevik Russia in 1918. Count Alexander Rostov (Ewan McGregor) is sentenced to a lifetime as a resident in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow, narrowly escaping execution during Stalin’s reign of terror. Confined to the walls of the Metropol, the Count– a single, highly entitled but lonely man,– is relegated to a threadbare attic room, without his sumptuous possessions or his much-cherished status as a member of the elite ruling...

I Came By (2023)Don’t Look

Written by Diana Paul on July 8, 2024. Posted in movie reviews.

A dark psychological thriller, I Came By portrays two young working-class graffiti artists who wish to taunt the most privileged and wealthiest by tagging I Came By inside their mansions while they sleep. Toby (George McKay) and Jay (Percelle Ascott) view themselves as activists, not losers, fighting for social justice and a more equitable pay structure. The highly respected authority of the affluent, they hope, will be questioned and unraveled by their bold trespassing into the purportedly secure, safe, and protected abodes of the elite. One night, while breaking into...

Shōgun (2024)–Game of Thrones meets Last Kingdom

Written by Diana Paul on July 1, 2024. Posted in Television reviews.

In this ten-episode Hulu mini-series, Shōgun, based upon James Clavell’s titular 1975 novel, we are introduced to the feudal society of Japan in the year 1600. When conflicts between ruling aristocratic clans have made the emperor impotent in maintaining control, chaos and coups threaten the very existence of peace and harmony among wealthy and powerful overlords. “Shōgun” means “commander-in-chief”, but more accurately, signifies the true power behind the throne. Becoming shogun is the end-game for a number of powerful warlords (daimyō –comparable to the noble class...