Raja (Mariya Belkin) and Victor Frankel (Vladimir Friedman), a couple in their 60s, were the unsung heroes of Russian cinema. For several decades they had dubbed Hollywood epics into Russian for cinema audiences. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, the couple left Russia and migrated to Israel. But like thousands of…
After a somewhat bizarre and hardly convincing opening, set in the dark past, we get the back-story of how five troubled teens from the small US town in California became Power Rangers. Although hardly ground breaking, that component was quite involving as, arguably, were the moments they respectively found out they had super powers. Beyond…
Twenty-five years ago Kazunori Yamauchi created the world’s most accurate car racing simulation game: Gran Turismo. He and his team had spent five years perfecting it. Video gamers quickly became obsessed. Then UK marketing executive for Nissan, Danny Moore had a crazy, but revolutionary idea. In Neill Blomkamp’s movie Gran Turismo, Moore (Orlando Bloom), convinces…
Based on a true story, Till is a film full of pain, grief, anger. It’s a powerful howl of outrage against a blatant miscarriage of justice that has never been rectified. In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall) was holidaying with his cousins in Mississippi. A native of Chicago, Emmett was an outgoing, high spirited,…
Angel of Mine is a slow-moving thriller about intuition and obsession. Inspired by real events, it follows divorced mother Lizzie Manning (Noomi Rapace). She’s emotionally fraught, as she battles for custody of her son and juggles a job as a sales rep for a cosmetics line. An encounter with Lola (Annika Whiteley) turns Lizzie’s life…
For a while there, they were the most popular double act in the world. Laurel & Hardy were superstars of slapstick during the 1930s and ’40s. But all good things have to come to an end sometime; and director Jon S. Baird takes a warm-hearted look at the twilight of their careers in Stan &…
Mad. In a good way. That’s how I’d describe Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It All by Jonas Jonasson, author of The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden. Here’s the blurb: It’s never too late to start again. And again. It’s always awkward…
A quirky romantic comedy, Maggie’s Plan concerns a vibrant and practical thirty-something year old professional, totally comfortable in her own skin. Maggie Hardin (Greta Gerwig) is at a crossroads. She is charming and optimistic, with success in her career in education and wonderful friends, but something is missing. Her sensible nature has led her to…
Stephen Chbosky’s Dear Evan Hansen is a film adaptation of the Tony and Grammy Award winning musical of the same name. And it features the original Broadway lead actor in the pivotal role. Teenager Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) struggles with anxiety and depression, and is seeing a therapist. He is being brought up by his…
Unlike boxing, NFL football, horse racing, car racing, or even surfing, golf is not the most cinematic of sports and holds little appeal for adrenaline junkies. However, we have had a few films set against the backdrop of the sport, including the Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore, Tin Cup starring Kevin Costner, and Robert Redford’s…
