movie reviews – Page 9 – Unhealed Wound

Woman in the Wall–Imprisonment in the Magdalene Laundries

Written by Diana Paul on April 14, 2024. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews, Unhealed Wound.

Set up as a six-episode thriller, Woman in the Wall is based on the horrific exploitation of teenage girls and young women in “the homes for unwed mothers” in Ireland. The scandal of the Magdalene Laundries has damaged the Catholic Church for over a century and a half. This fictionalized account focuses on Lorna Brady...

The Abyss–Going Down a Rabbit Hole

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

The Abyss, while a fictional narrative, is nonetheless based upon a real town, Kiruna, Sweden and the mine located beneath it. First and foremost, The Abyss (2023) is a disaster film about one woman superhero’s mental and physical strength in saving the lives of her friends and her teenage son. Frigga (Tuva Novotny) is in charge...

Saltburn–Class Wounds

Written by Diana Paul on April 1, 2024. Posted in movie reviews.

Saltburn is a 2023 highly original indie psychological thriller written, directed, and co-produced by Emerald Fennell (creator of “A Promising Young Woman”, see my March 25,2021 review). A brilliant middle-class Oxford student with few friends (except for one rather sadistic roommate), Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan from...

Mr. and Mrs. Smith–Trust Issues

Written by Diana Paul on March 26, 2024. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews.

The mini-series, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which premiered in February of this year on Amazon Prime, is much more than a remake of the popular 2005 movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. While still anchored in a main plot of espionage hijinks, now the drama has been embedded within a rom-com infused by the chemistry...

You Hurt My Feelings–Something to Think About

Written by Diana Paul on March 18, 2024. Posted in movie reviews.

You Hurt My Feelings, a psychological family saga with humorous overtones, was released in May 2023. Directed and produced by Nicole Holofcener (Last Duel, Can You Ever Forgive Me, Enough Said), the opening scene is of the mildly successful memoirist, Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus of “Seinfeld” and “Veep“) who is...

Echo–Maya Lopez is Back

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

Guest reviewer: Lora Chilton, author of 1666 : A Novel The character of Maya Lopez was introduced in the Marvel television series, Hawkeye (2021). Now she is back in the spin-off series, Echo. Played by the captivating Alaqua Cox, Maya tells her story in a series of flashbacks involving her childhood and trauma. Maya, of...