movie reviews – Page 10 – Unhealed Wound

Anna–A Woman Warrior a la “La Femme Nikita”?

Written by Diana Paul on March 4, 2024. Posted in movie reviews.

This unexpectedly stylish action movie from French filmmaker Luc Besson opens in 1990 at a local Moscow market. Anna, a beautiful young Russian (Sasha Luss), is selling Matryoshka nesting dolls. A talent scout offers her work in a Paris modeling agency, a chance for her to leave a future of poverty in a...

Past Lives (2023)–You Only Remember One

Written by Diana Paul on February 26, 2024. Posted in movie reviews. 1 Comment on Past Lives (2023)–You Only Remember One

In Celine Song’s directorial debut, the Academy-Award nominated Past Lives, we see an exploration of a long-distance friendship between two childhood playmates from South Korea. Nora (Greta Lee) moves with her family to Canada when she is twelve years old. Her friend Hae-sung (Teo Yoo), still yearning for her years afterwards,...

Society of the Snow–The Taste of Friendship

Written by Diana Paul on February 19, 2024. Posted in movie reviews. 1 Comment on Society of the Snow–The Taste of Friendship

Society of the Snow is a riveting Spanish film nominated this year for an Academy Award as best foreign film. The opening scenes feature a team of young rugby players ready to board an Uruguayan flight to compete in an international competition in Chile. All hyped up, testosterone driven to realize their team’s rise to...

American Fiction–Truth or Dare

Written by Diana Paul on February 11, 2024. Posted in movie reviews.

The 2024 Academy-Award nominated indie film, American Fiction, directed by Cord Jefferson, is based upon the 2001 novel, “Erasure”, by Percival Everett. Black novelist and literature professor Thelonious Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), nicknamed “Monk” (perhaps after the famous jazz musician) is incensed that his novels are not...

A Small Light–In a Very Dark World

Written by Diana Paul on January 29, 2024. Posted in movie reviews.

A Small Light, a National Geographic eight-episode miniseries, chronicles the life of a young German woman in her twenties, Miep Gies (Bel Powley). Sent as a little girl by her mother to a more safe environment in Amsterdam, unaware that Amsterdam is on the verge of being overtaken by Fascism. Miep, emotionally abandoned by her...

Hunger (2023)–Parasite Anyone?

Written by Diana Paul on January 1, 2024. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound.

This Thai thriller features a beautiful young woman, Aoy, and a terrifying megalomaniac celebrity chef Paul. Aoy stir-fries noodles in her family’s noodle shop as a fast-food cook alongside her brother and her parents. In contrast, Chef Paul berates his staff mercilessly. In an upscale restaurant environment, Chef Paul is a...