movie reviews – Page 8 – Unhealed Wound

Holdovers–No Home for the Holidays

Written by Diana Paul on August 4, 2024. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound.

Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers is a film in the style of “Dead Poets Society”. Set in a New England prep school, Barton Preparatory, sometime in the 1970s, the predominantly white students dominate what the school administration can do. A curmudgeonly, lonely instructor, Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), draws the...

Gentleman in Moscow –Rules of Civility

Written by Diana Paul on July 14, 2024. Posted in movie reviews.

Based upon the bestseller by Amor Towles, Gentleman in Moscow tells the story of an aristocrat whose status makes him an enemy of the state, namely, Bolshevik Russia in 1918. Count Alexander Rostov (Ewan McGregor) is sentenced to a lifetime as a resident in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow, narrowly escaping execution during Stalin’s...

I Came By (2023)–Don’t Look

Written by Diana Paul on July 8, 2024. Posted in movie reviews.

A dark psychological thriller, I Came By portrays two young working-class graffiti artists who wish to taunt the most privileged and wealthiest by tagging I Came By inside their mansions while they sleep. Toby (George McKay) and Jay (Percelle Ascott) view themselves as activists, not losers, fighting for social justice and a...

Marsh King’s Daughter–A Companion Piece to Where the Crawdads Sing?

Written by Diana Paul on May 14, 2024. Posted in movie reviews.

In this mystery thriller based on Karen Dionne’s novel of the same name, we see a story taking place in a swamp with a young girl and her mother trapped by an abusive father. The Marsh King’s Daughter opens with the ten-year old Helena [Brooklyn Prince of “Florida” (November 7, 2017 review )] in the...

Poor Things–The Lucky Devils

Written by Diana Paul on May 6, 2024. Posted in movie reviews.

Poor Things, starring Emma Stone in her 2024 Academy Award-winning role, is a feminist Frankenstein-like tale based upon Alasdair’s 1992 eponymous novel. Opening with emotionally and physically scarred mad scientist Godwin (“God”) Baxter (Willem Defoe) admiring his creation, Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) on the...

What Happened to Monday?–A Weekly Menace

Written by Diana Paul on April 29, 2024. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound.

The year is 2073,. Overpopulation and limited resources, especially food and fuel, have created a mandatory one-child policy called “The Child Allocation Act”. What Happened to Monday explores what such a world would look like with an autocrat as leader and mandatory enforcement with surveillance required for all...