In this mystery thriller based on Karen Dionne’s novel of the same name, we see a story taking place in a swamp with a young girl and her mother trapped by an abusive father. The Marsh King’s Daughter opens with the ten-year old Helena [Brooklyn Prince of “Florida” (November 7, 2017 review )] in the woods with her father (Ben Mendelsohn of “Bloodline”), having a lesson in survival skills. Helena is shown how to hunt and skin wild animals as well as how to interpret animal tracks. All of these skills will prove invaluable...
Poor Things–The Lucky Devils
Poor Things, starring Emma Stone in her 2024 Academy Award-winning role, is a feminist Frankenstein-like tale based upon Alasdair’s 1992 eponymous novel.
Opening with emotionally and physically scarred mad scientist Godwin (“God”) Baxter (Willem Defoe) admiring his creation, Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) on the operating table, we know immediately that God’s sinister surgery has produced a freak. He has given the gift of life back to Bella (ironically, “the beautiful”), now reborn after she jumped off the London Bridge. Pregnant before committing...
What Happened to Monday?–A Weekly Menace
The year is 2073,. Overpopulation and limited resources, especially food and fuel, have created a mandatory one-child policy called “The Child Allocation Act”. What Happened to Monday explores what such a world would look like with an autocrat as leader and mandatory enforcement with surveillance required for all citizens.
In the opening scene Terrence Settman (Willem Dafoe) is grieving watching his daughter die in giving birth to septuplets: seven identical baby girls (all of them portrayed by Noomi Rapace best known for “Girl with the Dragon...
Arctic Circle–Shivering with Fear
Set in the Lapland region of Finland, the Finnish-German three-season thriller, Arctic Circle, Nina Kautsalo (Iina Kuustonen), is determined to solve three multiple murder cases, one in each season. Nina is a single mom with a Down syndrome daughter, Venla, who is cared for by her devoted grandmother. Nina, in turn, is supported by an understanding director and her police colleagues. Besides the inevitable struggles to balance work and family, she also has to deal with Venla’s yearning to know her estranged father and also with Marita (Pihla Vittala of “Deadwind”), Nina’s...
Woman in the Wall–Imprisonment in the Magdalene Laundries
Set up as a six-episode thriller, Woman in the Wall is based on the horrific exploitation of teenage girls and young women in “the homes for unwed mothers” in Ireland. The scandal of the Magdalene Laundries has damaged the Catholic Church for over a century and a half. This fictionalized account focuses on Lorna Brady (Ruth Wilson of “The Affair”, “Luther”, “Saving Mr. Banks”, “Dark Materials” among many others) and her determination to find her now thirty-year old daughter who was taken from her at the Magdalene Laundries....
The Abyss–Going Down a Rabbit Hole
The Abyss, while a fictional narrative, is nonetheless based upon a real town, Kiruna, Sweden and the mine located beneath it. First and foremost, The Abyss (2023) is a disaster film about one woman superhero’s mental and physical strength in saving the lives of her friends and her teenage son.
Frigga (Tuva Novotny) is in charge of safety in the mine, and has learned the skills of her father who died there. Her two teenage children, Simon and Mica) are rather clueless about how important their mother is to the safety of Kiruna. Her ex-husband (David Franzén), and...