Unhealed Wound – Page 5 – Unhealed Wound

“The Dressmaker”–Quirky Down-Under Drama

Written by Diana Paul on January 17, 2022. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 2 Comments on “The Dressmaker”–Quirky Down-Under Drama

Based upon Rosalie Ham’s novel by the same name, The Dressmaker (2015) gives us an opening scene in which 10-year-old Tilly Dunnage is being bullied by classmate Stewart Pettyman, the mayor’s son, and a group of boys in Dungatar, a town in the Australian outback. With little investigation she is sent away by police Sergeant Farrat (Hugo Weaving) for the boy’s murder. Twenty-five years later (1951) Tilly (Kate Winslet) returns to Dungatar after a highly successful career as a couturier working in Paris. Presumably returning to care...

My Top 30 Movies and TV Series for 2021

Written by Diana Paul on January 3, 2022. Posted in Unhealed Wound. No Comments on My Top 30 Movies and TV Series for 2021

While we all continue to shelter-in-place during this lockdown, many of us craved new content to watch, some less well-known and under-the-radar. Well, this year I watched more movies and television than ever before, so I have thirty to recommend, instead of the usual 15-20. Here are the reviews I wrote this past year with the criteria that they were available online since movie theaters were either shut down or offered very limited screenings. Of the 52 reviews I reviewed this year, here are my favorites. Yet another difficult year to make my...

“Dopesick” (2021)–Lies Upon Lies

Written by Diana Paul on December 13, 2021. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews, Unhealed Wound. 2 Comments on “Dopesick” (2021)–Lies Upon Lies

Based on journalist Beth Macy’s book Dopesick, this Hulu eight-episode miniseries focuses on the early epicenter of the US’s struggle with the opioid addiction. Purdue Pharma, the Sackler mega-company that manufactured the deadly painkiller OxyContin, is the catalyst for an epic tragedy involving the duplicitous collusion with drug distributors, doctors, university researchers, and government agencies (Department of Justice, DEA, and FDA). Dopesick involves a series of characters impacted by OxyContin:. Finnix (Michael Keaton) a family physician in a small...

“Squid Game”–Hunger Games Meets Snowpiercer: Gangnam Style

Written by Diana Paul on October 13, 2021. Posted in Unhealed Wound. 1 Comment on “Squid Game”–Hunger Games Meets Snowpiercer: Gangnam Style

This #1 Netflix mega-hit, streaming in nine episodes, is a Korean dystopian story of survival. A mastermind known as the Front Man, in a mask like Darth Vader, stages a series of deadly childhood games (tug of war, red-light-green-light, and the Korean-specific squid game). The debt-ridden players, trapped on a remote island, are forced to compete in deadly versions of the gladiator-style games: gunned down if they lose. Guards with triangles, circles, or squares marked on their masks are anonymous. Squid Game’s sometimes shocking–always...

“Sandra Day O’Connor–The First”

Written by Diana Paul on September 20, 2021. Posted in Television reviews, Unhealed Wound. 3 Comments on “Sandra Day O’Connor–The First”

For almost 200 years, the United States Supreme Court was a male bastion. In PBS’s American Experience: “Sandra Day O’Connor: The First” we see Sandra Day O’Connor become the first woman Supreme Court Justice. She is remembered for being the critical swing vote on cases involving this country’s most controversial issues, including race, gender and reproductive rights — and for casting the decisive vote in Bush v. Gore. Her riveting–often unexpected– family and career trajectory are explored in this timely biographical portrait. ...

“The Morning Show”–Wake Up America

Written by Diana Paul on June 7, 2021. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 1 Comment on “The Morning Show”–Wake Up America

The Morning Show, an award-winning AppleTV+ mini-series, is inspired by Brian Stelter’s book about Matt Lauer and the Today Show. Dominant themes and subplots focus on the vile, abject humiliation involved in corporate politics, gender roles, and sexual predation. In the opening scene, co-anchor Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) has just been fired for sexual harassment and possible assault, leaving his co-host Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) without her onscreen partner of the past fifteen years. Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon), a West Virginian small-town reporter, is...