Film Reviews
Welcome to FilmFestSalon! Read our reviews on domestic films, foreign films and the classics.
Netflix Slides Without Tent Poles
I’ve been having trouble recently finding something I’d like to watch on Netflix. I go on, surf a while, then leave. So the streamer tried something new. It showed a slate of choices that were like something else that I watched on Netflix to completion, over nine episodes. It was a Spanish melodrama called “The…
Awesome Aussie Films to Watch
Get recommendations and reviews on Australian Films and Television Series that are sure to entertain, from period pieces to binge-worthy supernatural Sci-Fi.
Film: “Nomadland”
“Nomadland” might have been the top Oscar winner this year, but that didn’t quite prepare me for the experience of actually seeing it. Looking back, I’m not sure that anyone who had not seen it would have guessed what awaited them. And now, having finally seen it on VOD, I’m still not sure. But that’s…
Film: “Another Round”
“Another Round” is a winner, but be warned, this Danish import has many sharp edges that are meant to prick while it makes you laugh. It was directed and co-written (with Tobias Lindholm) by Thomas Vinterberg, and has received numerous festival awards. The main character is Martin, a high school history teacher in his early…
Film: “Promising Young Woman”
It’s only a few minutes into “Promising Young Woman” that you see how ironic the title is. Carey Mulligan is Cassie, pretty, blond, just 30, who is considered “promising” because she habitually pretends to be drunk in popular pick-up bars so that some scumbag, thinking she’ll be an easy lay, offers to take her home,…
Film: “Minari”
Although I was surprised at the number of Oscar nominations this film received, I think I should n’t have been. Written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, “Minari” is an enjoyable, family drama – what is often called “heartwarming” – about a young family from South Korea who go to Arkansas to start a vegetable…
Film: “One Night in Miami”
My initial skepticism about this film is understandable. “One Night in Miami” purports to be an imagining of the reputed post-fight meeting of four black cultural icons after Cassius Clay’s 1964 defeat of Sonny Liston. Four actors portray them: Eli Goree is Cassius Clay, Kingsley Ben-Adir is Malcolm X, Leslie Odom, Jr. is Sam Cooke…
Film: “I’m No Longer Here”
One of 15 short-listed films for this year’s foreign Oscar, Mexico’s “I’m No Longer Here” shows some originality. First published as a short story in 2013, writer-director Fernando Frias casts a harsh light on the poverty that shapes the lives of so many young Mexicans today, letting the story lead the audience to its own…
Glance at 2020
This is the year from movie hell. There are so many acclaimed films that I haven’t seen, and are unable to see. Because of Covid, they were in theaters only a short time, or not at all. Then streaming took over. I still learn of new titles every day that have Oscar-buzz, many of which…
Film: “Jacob’s Ladder”
“Jacob’s Ladder”, directed by Adrian Lyne from a script by Bruce Joel Rubin, was released in 1990, but I didn’t see it then. I only recently chanced upon it, in progress, on HBO, and was impressed enough to turn it off, so I could see all of it from the beginning. I’m glad I did…