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 citizens.
In the opening scene Terrence Settman (Willem Dafoe) is grieving watching his daughter die in giving birth to septuplets: seven identical baby girls (all of them portrayed by Noomi Rapace best known for “Girl with the Dragon...
Woman in the Wall–Imprisonment in the Magdalene Laundries
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 (Ruth Wilson of “The Affair”, “Luther”, “Saving Mr. Banks”, “Dark Materials” among many others) and her determination to find her now thirty-year old daughter who was taken from her at the Magdalene Laundries....
Year of the Dragon 2024–February 10, 2024, through Jan. 28, 2025
Happy Lunar New Year, everyone! Good luck from dragon fire breathed into your lives with excitement and creativity!
2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon. It is particularly a favorable time for change, growth, and progress. The combination of the dragon’s dynamic energy and the grounding and stabilizing influence of the wood element will inspire imagination, leadership, and the creation of new ideas. In general, the dragon is a harbinger of great fortune, yet unpredictable, regardless of what type of Dragon year we are in. Its mystery is never...
My Top 12 Movies and Series for 2023
While we are all going into our fourth year of Covid, many of us craved new content to watch, and felt like there weren’t as many good movies and series to choose from. Certainly, the screenwriters’ strike contributed to the dearth of content. Well, this year I still have twelve to recommend. Some are less well-known and under-the-radar. Also, there seemed to be more selections from DEI producers and writers, for a welcomed change!
Here are the reviews I wrote this past year with the criteria that they were available online. Of the 48 reviews I posted...
Hunger (2023)–Parasite Anyone?
This Thai thriller features a beautiful young woman, Aoy, and a terrifying megalomaniac celebrity chef Paul. Aoy stir-fries noodles in her family’s noodle shop as a fast-food cook alongside her brother and her parents. In contrast, Chef Paul berates his staff mercilessly. In an upscale restaurant environment, Chef Paul is a culinary darling among the very wealthy.
Invited to join Chef Paul, the perfectionist, Aoy is thrilled at the opportunity. Hunger soon reveals sadism and disturbing egomania in the rarified and unsavory restaurant industry. But the young noodle-fryer refuses...
Fauda–Crisis after Crisis
Based upon their experiences serving in the Israel Defense Force (IDF), Lior Raz (who also stars as Doron) and Avi Issacharoff have developed a Netflix international sensation, Fauda. Produced from 2015 through 2022 as a four season series, each season features a Palestinian terrorist or terrorist cell that IDF sets out to eliminate . Fauda seems to rip from today’s headlines the bloodshed between Israel and Gaza.
The main character, Doron, is a rogue: even the IDF cannot control his actions in every battle mission he is ordered to...