movie reviews – Page 58 – Unhealed Wound

“Argo”–An Argonaut for Our Time

Written by diana on January 21, 2013. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 2 Comments on “Argo”–An Argonaut for Our Time

Although this movie is nominated for eight Academy Awards and won several Golden Globes (including Best Motion Picture in Drama and Best Director), it has not received the traction or box office success that it so richly deserves. With Ben Affleck’s masterful direction, production and acting in “Argo” the studio and distributor have decided to re-release this film after the Academy Awards. Based on a 1979 historical event at the American embassy in Tehran, six American employees manage to escape and seek protection at the nearby Canadian embassy immediately prior to the...

My Top Ten Movies for 2012–Reviewed, Not Necessarily New

Written by diana on December 31, 2012. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 5 Comments on My Top Ten Movies for 2012–Reviewed, Not Necessarily New

Happy New Year–the Year of the Snake in 2013! Most of all, I want to again thank all of you for your responses and comments, and for continuing to read my blog! With 2012 coming to an end, I wanted to take a look back at the movie reviews I wrote this year. When I counted the reviews I have written this year (=21), I wanted to see what would be my top ten favorites. It wasn’t easy, especially for independent films. This list is not ranked –only my top ten for 2012, grouped by genre. INDIES and FOREIGN CINEMA 1) A Separation (March 23 review)– An Iranian “Rashomon”,...

The Garden–Harvest of Justice?

Written by diana on December 3, 2012. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 6 Comments on The Garden–Harvest of Justice?

A 2009 Academy Award nominee for best documentary, “The Garden” is a powerful cinematic essay focusing in on the political and social battle over the largest community garden in the U.S, a vibrant 14 acre garden, in South Central Los Angeles. The origin of the 14 acres came from a defunct plan to build a municipal incinerator. The city of Los Angeles seized by eminent domain a 14-acre site occupied by warehouses in South Central LA in 1986. The purchase price was $5 million. From the ashes of the 1992 Rodney King riots, arose a lush garden of vegetables, blossoming trees, and...

Fairy Tale Updated

Written by diana on October 22, 2012. Posted in movie reviews. 1 Comment on Fairy Tale Updated

The retelling of Fairy Tales of my childhood has been an interesting journey for me. If you know the children’s books by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (The Stinky Cheeseman and other Fairly Stupid Tales, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and others) you might know where I’m coming from. The real trick in really appreciating the “new” look at fairly tales is that you have to know the original stories. My parents provided me with a large sized Golden Book of Fairy Tales and read these tales to me before I could read and then encouraged me to read them myself when I started to learn to read...

“Arbitrage” —Power is the Best Alibi

Written by diana on September 29, 2012. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 1 Comment on “Arbitrage” —Power is the Best Alibi

The early scenes of Arbitrage have some of the same high-finance vertigo of Margin Call or Bonfire of the Vanities. But here we have an overlay of another crime superimposed on financial fraud and wonder what, if any, consequences will follow. In this implosive thriller Richard Gere plays investment mogul Robert Miller, the suave, arrogant superego, a “master of the universe” in the Gilded Age of arbitrage and hedge funds. He is the icon of the one-percent, a silver fox who charms, cheats, and gloats in his malfeasance. Until he can’t. Wealth creates the...

“Hope Springs”…Eternal: Senior Sex Anyone?

Written by diana on September 16, 2012. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 5 Comments on “Hope Springs”…Eternal: Senior Sex Anyone?

Don’t be fooled by the trailers that depict this as a rom-com. A poignant portrayal of two seniors who have drifted apart, not only as empty nesters, “Hope Springs” reveals a hollowed-out existence between an aging husband and wife. In the opening scenes, we see Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) getting ready to go to bed…in separate rooms. Their sex life has virtually ended. Rapidly growing moribund, their thirty-one year-old marriage needs professional help. Arnold, the clueless accountant who has rigid habits his wife abhors, thinks there isn’t...