Shameless Self Expression

A bunch of elite, overly PC liberals (led by Hilary Swank) have apparently drugged a bunch of perceived Conservatives they refer to as ‘Deplorables’ and dumped them out in the middle of a field whereby they will be hunted down by the Elites. One such ‘Deplorable’ is played by Betty Gilpin, a rather resourceful woman who keeps hearing word of a possible conspiracy theory that might turn things entirely on their head. Amy Madigan and Reed Birney play two of the liberals, whilst amongst the ‘Deplorables’ we have Ike Barinholtz, Justin Hartley, Ethan Suplee, and Emma Roberts as (and I shit you not) a character credited as ‘Yoga Pants’.   Eventually earning a release in 2020, this supposed satire from director Craig Zobel (who directed an episode of TV’s “Westworld” ) and writers Nick Cuse & Damon Lindelof (TV’s occasionally brilliant, more frequently maddening “Lost” ) got itself into a lot of hot water with the President of the United States at the time Donald Trump, and pisse...

Police detective David Oyelowo has become a kind of second father to his teenage niece Storm Reid, though when she calls him at work one day, he’s too distracted on a case to properly listen to her call. Unfortunately, that night Reid again tries to contact her uncle, but Oyelowo can barely make out what she’s saying. Nonetheless he makes the journey to her house, only to find Reid and her rather troubled parents (Brian Tyree Henry and Shinelle Azoroh) brutally murdered. In the midst of his grief, Oyelowo once again gets a phone call…from his dead niece. How? What? Why?...No, seriously How? Alfred Molina and Mykelti Williamson play respectively, Oyelowo’s concerned boss and partner on the force.   Every review of “Don’t Let Go” seems to cite “Frequency” , but as much as I can see the connection with that film, my mind was thinking something else. This slightly predictable yet highly watchable 2019 film from writer-director Jacob Estes (the very average “Mean Creek” , co-writer...

Average Joe blue collar worker Robert Forster doesn’t think too much about the vigilante talk of his co-workers Fred Williamson and former cop Richard Bright. They think the police and criminal justice system are completely useless as crime rates escalate in NYC. Then Forster’s wife (Rutanya Alda)   and son are attacked by street thugs (led by Willie Colon, with Don Blakely second-in-command), and the criminal justice system proves highly ineffective in dealing with said thugs. After the chief thug gets off, Forster lays into the corrupt judge (Vincent Beck) and gets sent to prison for his troubles. So tell us more about this vigilante justice thing, Mr. Williamson. Forster is all ears now. Carol Lynley plays a well-meaning but ineffectual assistant DA, Joe Spinell is the sleazy lawyer defending crims, Woody Strode a tough old prison inmate, Steve James an ineffectual cop who knows about the vigilante group and wants them to stop, and Frank Pesce plays a small-time crook who unwise...

A lost 9 year-old boy (Ivan Jandl) in post-WWII Berlin looks to be reunited with his mother, after surviving the horrors of Auschwitz. Montgomery Clift plays Steve, an American army engineer who takes the boy in and tries to find out more about him, though neither speaks the other’s language. Wendell Corey is Steve’s Army buddy.   Seemingly forgotten, but highly effective 1948 Fred Zinnemann ( “From Here to Eternity” , “High Noon” , “The Sundowners” , “A Man for All Seasons” ) story of a little lost boy immediately post-WWII. Shifts in tone and style might throw people off a bit here, and the intermittent narration won’t be to all tastes. Some of it plays rather like a mature, quite harrowing docudrama, whilst at other times it is rather syrupy I suppose. However, for 1948 Hollywood, I’d say this was pretty damn gritty and stark, and overall very mature stuff. I was gripped from beginning to end especially since it was telling a part of the story of WWII that isn’t often covere...