movie reviews – Page 4 – Unhealed Wound

Death on the Nile–No Lifesaver Needed

Written by Diana Paul on September 18, 2023. Posted in movie reviews. No Comments on Death on the Nile–No Lifesaver Needed

Death on the Nile, a 2022 remake of Agatha Christie’s 1937 classic novel, is directed by and stars Kenneth Branagh. Cinematic adaptations from books, especially from beloved authors like Agatha Christie are only for the intrepid. And Branagh is on a path to making a series of Christie screen adaptations, starting with his first film, “Murder on the Orient Express (2017).” In the opening scene the young Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, devises a brilliant strategy to defeat the German forces in the trenches of World War One. Seriously wounded, his face scarred, his fiancée...

Trial by Fire–A Personal Ordeal

Written by Diana Paul on July 26, 2023. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews. No Comments on Trial by Fire–A Personal Ordeal

Trial by Fire, based on the memoir written by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, explores the lack of legal accountability and justice following the Uphaar fire in a Delhi movie theater in 1997. Fifty-nine people were killed, mostly families treating themselves to an afternoon at the movies. The Krishnamoorthy couple lose both of their teenage children in the tragic disaster. What follows is a first-hand look at the frustration of the victims investigating the Uphaar theater fire. Neelam organizes other victims’ families to advocate for a fair...

Chloe–A Fatal Attraction

Written by Diana Paul on July 17, 2023. Posted in movie reviews. No Comments on Chloe–A Fatal Attraction

Chloe is a 2009 erotic sleeper of a remake of the 2003 French thriller, “Nathalie,” and directed by Atom Egoyan. A middle-aged affluent couple, Catherine (Julianne Moore) and David (Liam Neeson), seem, on first appearance, to be a happily married professional couple. Catherine is a caring and devoted gynecologist and David is a professor of music. Their teenage son Michael (Max Thieriot from “Bates Motel”) is interested in music and has a closer relationship with his father than his mother who desperately wants to be closer. When David misses a flight back...

The Whale–- Moby Dick Revisited

Written by Diana Paul on June 26, 2023. Posted in movie reviews. No Comments on The Whale–- Moby Dick Revisited

The Whale is an adaptation of Sam Hunter’s play, directed by Darren Aronofsky (“Requiem for a Dream”, “Black Swan”, and “mother!”). The opening scene zooms in on a middle-aged, morbidly obese professor, Charlie (the Academy-Award winning role for Brendan Fraser) sitting in front of a computer in his claustrophobic, dark apartment in a small town in Idaho. He teaches creative writing online to aspiring college students. His face is blocked out by the camera, revealing nothing of his physical condition. Now terminally ill with congestive...

A Man Called Otto–A Warm Kiss for the Soul

Written by Diana Paul on June 11, 2023. Posted in movie reviews. 1 Comment on A Man Called Otto–A Warm Kiss for the Soul

In this Netflix movie we see a retelling of the bestselling Frederick Backman novel, A Man Called Ove, set in Pittsburgh instead of Sweden and with cultural shifts in narrative. Themes of aging, loneliness and depression from the loss of one’s soulmate, isolation and feelings of irrelevance from forced retirement all play front and center […]

Holy Spider—A Web of Horror and Mayhem

Written by Diana Paul on May 8, 2023. Posted in movie reviews. No Comments on Holy Spider—A Web of Horror and Mayhem

Holy Spider, based on a true story and a graphic novel, retells the harrowing battle of a fearless woman journalist, Rahimi (Cannes Film festival award winner for best actress, Zar Amir- Ebrahimi) who investigates a brutal murderer nicknamed “Spider Killer”. Sixteen young prostitutes in the religiously conservative Iranian town of Mashhad City have each been dumped into a field. A fanatical psychopath on a religious mission to “cleanse” the streets of sex workers, middle-aged Saeed, is a construction worker and war veteran. He becomes a vigilante who stalks...