movie reviews – Page 13 – Unhealed Wound

“Goliath” Season 4 (Finale)–Addiction

Written by Diana Paul on October 5, 2021. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews. 2 Comments on “Goliath” Season 4 (Finale)–Addiction

In this final season of Goliath we again see the still down-and-out “lemon lawyer” Billy McBride (Billy Bob Thornton) take on a giant corporation. This time it is an opioid mega-corporation, Zax Pharmaceuticals, and its billionaire CEO, George Zax (J.K. Simmons). In a fierce and lurid courtroom battle in San Francisco (eerily conjuring the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma in recent headlines), will McBride prevail? Season 4 opens with a flashback to Billy McBride, narrowly escaping death by gunshot. Billy’s mental...

“Guilt”–A Hit-and-Run

Written by Diana Paul on September 13, 2021. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews. No Comments on “Guilt”–A Hit-and-Run

Guilt is a four-episode Masterpiece Theater mini-series, a darkly sinister and acerbic Scottish thriller about two Edinburgh brothers who leave a wedding drunk and eager to get home. We see the elegant lawyer Max (Mark Bonnar of “Shetland”) and his ne’er-do-well younger brother Jake hit an elderly man who steps in front of Max’s car. Jake (Jamie Sives) is driving because Max thinks his brother is less inebriated than he is. Jake wants to report the accident to the police, but Max is concerned about his professional reputation so they agree to cover up...

“Coda”– A Song from the Heart

Written by Diana Paul on September 7, 2021. Posted in movie reviews. No Comments on “Coda”– A Song from the Heart

In this unusual introduction into the Deaf world, Coda features a high school student, Ruby Rossi (British newcomer, Emilia Jones), who is in love with music. Trying out for the choir, she learns that a monumental decision will force her to leave her deaf parents, Frank (Troy Kotsur), and Jackie (Marlee Matlin) and brother Leo (Daniel Durant). As the only hearing member of the family (CODA=Child of Deaf Adults), she is the communicator and interpreter for their struggling fishing business in Gloucester, Massachusetts. How does a hearing child raised by deaf parents acquire...

“The White Lotus”–White Gaze

Written by Diana Paul on August 17, 2021. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews. 1 Comment on “The White Lotus”–White Gaze

In this HBOMax six-episode mini-series (which ended August 15), we watch two uber-wealthy families on vacation in Hawaii (at the upscale Four Seasons) make themselves miserable in a perfectly-seeming tropical paradise. Their privileged existence is the luxury not to be concerned with others. In White Lotus’s opening scene, at the airport, Shane Patton (Jake Lacy), an insufferable, narcissistic scion of a wealthy and powerful family, explains with great disdain to fellow passengers that his wife, Rachel, has died…on their honeymoon. A cardboard coffin marked “human...

“Silent Witness”-or Dead on Arrival

Written by Diana Paul on August 11, 2021. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews. 2 Comments on “Silent Witness”-or Dead on Arrival

Silent Witness, one of the longest running BBC television series (broadcast in more than 235 countries), focuses on a team of brilliant forensic pathologists who investigate a crime every two episodes. First broadcast in 1996, there now have been twenty-three seasons, making Silent Witness the entertainment industry’s longest running crime drama. The title character is a corpse lying on a slab prepared for a post-mortem analysis–a “silent witness” providing evidence of a crime, suicide, or death by natural causes. ...

“Navillera”—Soar Like a Butterfly

Written by Diana Paul on July 25, 2021. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews. 2 Comments on “Navillera”—Soar Like a Butterfly

This quirky and endearing sleeper mini-series from Korea (premiered on Netflix, March 2021) is a definite winner. (Navillera in Korean means “like a butterfly.”) In the opening scene Sim Deok-chul (the renowned Park In-hwan) is celebrating his 70th birthday with his wife, three sons and their wives. Only the youngest son, considered a failure for quitting his hospital position as a doctor, is unmarried. Sim is a retired mailman who always dreamed of performing “Swan Lake” on stage and now, at his advanced age, is determined to...