Film Reviews
Welcome to FilmFestSalon! Read our reviews on domestic films, foreign films and the classics.
An Open Letter to Kristina O’Neill
Dear Kristina, I was just looking through your latest Wall Street Journal magazine – the Men’s style issue with Tom Brady on the cover – and was enjoying it immensely, as I have all of them. It may be your best, or maybe just close, but my reaction was different this time. I see it…
Film: “The Green Knight”
“The Green Knight”, an adaptation of the anonymous Arthurian romance, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, should be characterized in the genre of “interesting failure”, although, giving credit, the “interesting” part didn’t kick in until after the film was over. Watching it, at least for most of the second half, was a snooze. To be…
Film: “Annette”
Directed by Leos Carax, “Annette” is an unusually straightforward story, simple in outline, that relies on its filmmaker’s command of the most advanced techniques to capture, and hold, our attention. And one other thing: all of the characters sing their dialogue. It was conceived as a rock-opera by the British brothers duo Sparks –…
Digression: Andrew Cuomo
Sorry, but this is reality, not film. This is less about Cuomo than it is about what passes for journalism today. After his resignation, the narrative is struggling to evolve into something that reporters and editors can be more…comfortable with. So they are picking up on the “Me-Too” meme, about his sex-mad, discriminatory and abusive…
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…