Inspired by a Pulitzer-Prize winning Washington Post article, Four Good Days tackles the almost insurmountable ordeal of drug withdrawal. And also confronts the parent-adult child relationship that fails repeatedly to lead to a successful outcome.
Thirty-year-old Molly (Mila Kunis) is the damaged and severely addicted daughter who knocks on the door of her mother’s house after ten years of drug addiction. Deb (Glenn Close), her mother, has since remarried an extremely empathetic man, Chris (Stephen Root), yet has a deeply disturbed past. Both tormented...
“The Batman” (2022)–Another Dark Knight
In this newest movie in the Batman series, simply called The Batman, we see a completely different Batman from the classic Christopher Nolan trilogy starring Christian Bale.
In “The Batman,” director Matt Reeves has redefined Batman and his alterego Bruce Wayne. In this newest of interpretations, a very young newb, Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson of “The Twilight Saga”), is just in his second year of training under the tutelage of Alfred (Andy Serkis of “Golub” fame in “The Lord of the Rings”), simultaneously manservant,...
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey–The Rise and Fall of Memory
Based on the short story by masterful writer Walter Mosley, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey opens with a 91-year-old man, Ptolemy Grey (the remarkable Samuel L. Jackson) sinking deeper into isolation from dementia. The caregiving of his favorite nephew, Reggie, is one exception to his isolation. Vowing to give Reggie justice, we know three things about Ptolemy: he has a gun, he has a plan, and he has nothing left to lose. That is the triple-threat of a hook.
Similar to the 1990 film, “Awakenings”, there is an ephemeral medical treatment for Ptolemy’s...
The Eyes of Tammy Faye–A New Perspective
In the biopic The Eyes of Tammy Faye, we see Tammy Faye (Jessica Chastain in her Academy Award winning role) and her husband Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) as pioneers of televangelism,”sermons on the screen”.
Opening in the 1950’s with two young, fervent small-town Christians believing in the mission of spreading the gospel, Tammy Faye and her soon-to-be-husband become traveling preachers. They gain a following with their appeal both to children and their parents by entertaining through stories and music. Tammy Faye is pivotal in designing...
Flee–A Flight to Hell and Back
Flee (2021), a Danish adult animated/documentary film, is a highly original amalgam of the flat-graphic style of animation and archival footage of the conflict in Afghanistan from the mid-80’s until the present. Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal” and “The Night Of”) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (“Headhunters” and Jamie Lannister of “Game of Thrones”) are the executive producers.
The true story of Amin Nawabi (an alias), follows his journey from a nine-year old boy through his adulthood. The story is a conversation...
“Pig”–Fatty with Little Meat
Pig (2021) is an odd indie film about a truffle forager, Rob Feld (played by a mostly grunting Nicolas Cage), a former elite restaurateur who has fallen on hard times. In the middle of the night, his beloved truffle-finding pig has been stolen somewhere deep in the woods where he lives in a cabin far from Portland.