Unhealed Wound – Page 28 – Passion for Art, Movies, and Culture

“Bridgerton”–“Downton Abbey” Meets “Pride and Prejudice”

Written by Diana Paul on January 25, 2021. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews. 2 Comments on “Bridgerton”–“Downton Abbey” Meets “Pride and Prejudice”

Produced by Shonda Rhimes as her first Netflix Original debut, Bridgerton is based on a series of best-selling historical romance novels by Julia Quinn. Set in the Regency era, at the height of London’s aristocratic society, Bridgerton tracks the lives and loves of the sprawling Bridgerton clan. Bridgerton is an amalgamation –part Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and part class snobbery (Downton Abbey).– Queen Charlotte (played with astringent haughtiness by Gilda Rosheuvel) is black. So too is the highly sought after Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page)....

“The Reagans”–Truth At Last

Written by Diana Paul on January 18, 2021. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 4 Comments on “The Reagans”–Truth At Last

A four-part Showtime documentary series, The Reagans excoriates the epic failure of journalism to reveal the Reagan White House as it really was, not the fairy tale of near-sainthood of Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan, Jr., the only son of the Reagans, is the primary source for details about his parents’ most private moments and their secrets behind closed doors. One of his more frankly understated comments: “My father was a strange fellow to be president of this country.” How the carefully curated story becomes the reality is the emphatic warning of The Reagans. Beginning...

“Fargo” (Season 4)—Like No Other

Written by Diana Paul on January 11, 2021. Posted in Television reviews. No Comments on “Fargo” (Season 4)—Like No Other

An enticing mob story with the texture of a graphic novel, Fargo (Season 4) is dissimilar from the previous three seasons. As much a commentary on social and political justice as a drama about one gang competing to destroy another, this new season is like no other. Fargo’s entire sweep of 1950’s organized crime in Kansas City is brutal and not for the faint-hearted. With the rise of Jewish, Irish and Italian syndicates — whoever was “next off the boat”— three families (Jewish, Irish and Italian) kill each other off in a constant struggle for dominance....

My Top 30 Movies and TV Series for 2020

Written by Diana Paul on January 4, 2021. Posted in movie reviews, Television reviews, Unhealed Wound. 2 Comments on My Top 30 Movies and TV Series for 2020

Looking for your next movie to watch? While we all hunker down during this sheltering-in-place, many of us crave 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, here are my favorites. Yet another difficult...

“Just Mercy” (2020)–“It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven”

Written by Diana Paul on December 28, 2020. Posted in movie reviews. 1 Comment on “Just Mercy” (2020)–“It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven”

A powerful true story about the 1989 founding of Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), based upon Bryan Stevenson’s 2014 bestseller of the same name, Just Mercy. EJI, located in Montgomery, Alabama –and situated near the Museum of Peace and Justice (a Stevenson project focusing on the US history of lynching and slavery)– is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States. EIJ challenges racial and economic injustice, protects basic human rights for the most vulnerable...

“Run”–Walking Is Not An Option

Written by Diana Paul on December 21, 2020. Posted in movie reviews. 1 Comment on “Run”–Walking Is Not An Option

Run is an intense and suspenseful thriller starring the master at horror and diabolical characters: Sarah Paulson. Portraying Diane, the mother of Chloe, a disabled seventeen-year-old girl (newcomer Kiera Allen, who is also wheelchair-bound in real life), has chosen to raise her daughter at home, in a rural town outside Seattle. Mother and daughter seem to be very close. They begin each day settled into a cozy routine of daily lessons in physics or American lit, relaxing meals around the kitchen table, an occasional movie in town. But...