Unhealed Wound – Page 45 – Passion for Art, Movies, and Culture

“The Wife”–The Invisible Woman, or…Stand by My Man

Written by diana on October 6, 2018. Posted in movie reviews. 2 Comments on “The Wife”–The Invisible Woman, or…Stand by My Man

The Wife, based upon Meg Wolitzer’s bestselling novel by the same name, opens with a sixty-something affluent couple, Joan Castleman (Glenn Close) and her husband, Joe (Jonathan Pryce), waiting for the phone to ring in the middle of the night. A perhaps futile hope that the Nobel Prize committee will grant Joe his dream of a lifetime–the Nobel Prize in literature. Like two kids, Joan and Joe jump on the bed, ecstatically holding hands, singing “I won the Nobel.” Or was that a “we?” It is 1992 and Joe and Joan Castleman’s lives are about to be changed irrevocably. A raw unfolding...

“Jack Ryan”– New Version of “Homeland”

Written by diana on September 28, 2018. Posted in Television reviews. No Comments on “Jack Ryan”– New Version of “Homeland”

This new undertaking (by Amazon Prime) of Tom Clancy’s blockbuster Jack Ryan series pays off big-time. John Krasinski as a boyish Jack Ryan adds unexpected dimension to this eight-episode series focused on a terrorist plot in Syria. If this is your genre, you will inevitably make a comparison with Clancy’s books and the older cinematic depictions of Jack Ryan. However, standing on its own, the new Jack Ryan series is riveting, albeit with some graphic violence and cultural stereotyping. Reluctantly drafted into being a CIA operative instead of a number-crunching budget...

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Written by diana on September 17, 2018. Posted in movie reviews. 1 Comment on The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a Netflix historical drama based on the 2008 historical best-selling novel of the same name by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Set on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel, a year after the end of the Second World War, we see Julie Ashton (the talented Lily James –Lady Rose in “Downton Abbey”), a London author writing under a male pen name. She yearns for a writing project in her own voice. Ashton gets a letter from Dawsey Adams, a Guernsey pig farmer, who has a used book with her name and address. Exchanging...

Mr. Mercedes — “Bates Motel” meets “Mr. Robot”

Written by diana on September 11, 2018. Posted in Television reviews. No Comments on Mr. Mercedes — “Bates Motel” meets “Mr. Robot”

Mr. Mercedes, an Audience (DirecTV) mystery-thriller original series, is based on the Stephen King trilogy “Mr. Mercedes”, “Finders Keepers” and “End of Watch”. The macabre master again conjures alarming boundary-breaking drama, this time in economically depressed Bridgton, Ohio. The opening scene is horrific: a Mercedes sedan mows down a crowd of job-seekers waiting late at night for the next morning’s job fair to open. A few of those waiting in line have babies. A massacre occurs, but the viewer does not know who the driver is or what motivates...

“BlacKkKlansman”: Part of the American Fabric?

Written by diana on September 3, 2018. Posted in movie reviews. 2 Comments on “BlacKkKlansman”: Part of the American Fabric?

A Spike Lee film about white supremacy, BlacKkKlansman is based on Ron Stallworth’s 2006 memoir, which eviscerates the hideous social structures of racism in the US. In 1979 Stallworth (played by newcomer, John David Washington, son of Denzel Washington) becomes the first black detective in Colorado Springs’s police department. The police chief warns Stallworth: “We’ve never had a black police officer. So you’ll be the Jackie Robinson of the Colorado Springs police department.” Assigned to be an undercover cop at a black power student rally, Stallworth is to gather intelligence...

The Devil’s Backbone–Peter Pan meets “The Shape of Water”

Written by diana on August 26, 2018. Posted in movie reviews. 1 Comment on The Devil’s Backbone–Peter Pan meets “The Shape of Water”

The Devil’s Backbone (2001) (Spanish: El espinazo del diablo), directed and co-written by Guillermo del Toro, was independently produced by Pedro Almodóvar and foreshadows his Academy Award winning “The Shape of Water” (see my March 19, 2018 review). Set in 1939 during the final year of the Spanish Civil War, we see in the opening scene an orphanage in the middle of a solitary dessert. A deactivated bomb is standing in the courtyard. An unexpecting twelve- year-old, Carlos, is left by his guardian and almost immediately bullied by two other orphan boys. On a dare to sneak...