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Articles by Ron Wilkinson
It's Just Movies
— by RON WILKINSON — Limbo – a fictional town in the hot, arid Australian Outback. Limbo – a place of indeterminate location, whose inhabitants are neither in heaven nor hell. Limbo – a film by aboriginal director/writer Ivan Sen, which explores a forgotten murder case that took place 20 years before. There are many definitions of Limbo. None of them are pleasant.
Review: Offseason
— by RON WILKINSON — A woman, obviously in distress and emotionally fragile, speaks to us. She tells us of her fears, her nightmares, and how she has sought freedom from them. She was told of a place where she could be free, but it was false. Wherever she went, her fears followed. So, she had decided to accept those fears as part of her life, as something to accommodate. “Something to welcome with open arms – just like an old friend.” Then she screams in terror.
Pegasus Publishers - Latest Releases
Taken Alex Stone £25.99 £25.99 Pulmulla is worried her vision of the future will come true. Biligiri just wants to get home. Besides, he's in love for the first time, and will be a father in 22 months. Tant-Meisie is lonely and going around in circles. She meets famous and eccentric people though. Hannibal Solo thought he was retired - until Carroll came along, and she's hard case.
Review: Ascension
Review: Ascension — by RON WILKINSON — If you were going to create a successful capitalist nation from scratch, which would come first, smile training or sex dolls? Such appears to be the choice in China as the productivity behemoth groans and stretches through its growing pains as a developed economy. As told in this fascinating documentary, success as a capitalist economy depends a lot on copying, well, capitalist economies.
Review: Summer of Soul
Review: Summer of Soul — by RON WILKINSON — The most significant memory in this stirring documentary is how it sat on the shelf for nearly five decades due to lack of public interest. Woodstock, located one hundred miles to the north and bursting out at the same time, became legend while the Harlem Cultural Festival sat on the shelf.
Review: Grandpa Was An Emperor
Review: Grandpa Was An Emperor — by RON WILKINSON — Still revered by many to this day, Emperor Haile Selassie ruled Ethiopia for decades. This film examines the coup that unseated him in 1974 through the eyes of his great granddaughter (Yeshi Kassa), and the reverberations of that coup throughout Selassie’s extended family.
Review: The Mole
— by RON WILKINSON — Perhaps it is because his past efforts were more Rabelaisian than revelatory, Mads Brugger’s latest will be taken with a grain of salt – even after he rightfully and correctly declares “Everything is Real.” The story that has Mads on the cusp of buying intermediate range ICBMs tipped with thermobaric warheads is real. It is also entirely his own. The film is being screened at the 2021 DOC NYC film festival, produced and presented by IFC Center, which runs in-person from Nov.
Review: The French Dispatch
— by RON WILKINSON — Wes Anderson fans relish the games he plays with reality. The characters steadfastly do their own thing, despite conflicts with others and half the time this results in snarky, lighthearted humor. As in several of Anderson’s earlier movies, Bill Murray (here playing publisher Arthur Howitzer Jr.) plays quarterback, even as he gets little time on the field. In fact, although an incredible cast makes the film too good to miss, most have little to do with the outcome.
Review: Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Review: Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy — by RON WILKINSON — The Xeron computer has been linked to many mysterious information leaks, some were unconsciously intended by the users and some were not. Escalators travel up and down, opposite directions sliding past each other. Subway trains travel back and forth providing brief meetings between persons who may or may not have known each other.
Review: El Planeta
Review: El Planeta — by RON WILKINSON — We live our lives in two parts, the one we want to live and the one others want us to live. We balance those two to meet practical necessities such as food and shelter. Maria and her daughter Leo did not get the memo on balance. To the extent of their control, their lives are the way they want them. They have an immediacy that is brought into gripping focus in this slow motion horror movie about people and nations in conflict and in crisis.
Review: The Rescue
Review: The Rescue — by RON WILKINSON — There are few documentaries so good they keep you on the edge of your seat even though you, and everybody, already know the ending. Cave diving is like open water diving except there is no surface. A malfunctioning scuba air supply in open water means an emergency surface. A malfunctioning air supply in cave diving means going up to solid rock. There is no light, no bottom, no top and no surface. To panic is to die.
Review: No Time to Die
Review: No Time to Die — by RON WILKINSON — The last Daniel Craig James Bond movie tries to bridge the gap between the old and the new. Among the various filming locations, Jamaica stands out. The home of Ian Fleming’s first twelve Bond novels is revisited, if lacking the sparkling characters that turned the novels into screen legends. The outrageous villains, unapologetic sex objects and quack spy technology we loved have been replaced by video games, nano-bots and DNA labs.
Review: The Village Detective: a song cycle
— by RON WILKINSON — Even legendary Soviet actor Mikhail Zharov probably did not consider it a masterpiece. Like dozens, if not hundreds, of his films, it was watched by adoring thousands, if not millions, and then fell by the wayside. A curiously unfinished copy did more than fall by the wayside. It fell into the chill waters off Iceland and snuggled in the mud amidst the murmuring volcanic cracks and chasms that have formed the volcanic shelf over millions of years.
Review: Wife of a Spy
Review: Wife of a Spy — by RON WILKINSON — A loyal warrior once proclaimed he would give his life for his country. “Yes,” his commander said, “But would you give your honor?” The greatest heroes sometimes are called to do exactly that. Risk disgrace and ostracization as well as imprisonment and possible death for an ideal they hold precious. As risky as this is in the USA, it was probably worse in WWII era Japan.
Review: Small Engine Repair
Review: Small Engine Repair — by RON WILKINSON — One mistake leads to another in America’s rust belt. There is a profound sense of loss in the setting– lost jobs, lost futures and lost lives. This is the setup for the greatest loss of all, the loss of innocence. What could have been a standard issue revenge flick takes a sharp turn when the victims decide to deal with an unspeakable crime in a way none of them would have thought possible.
It's Just Movies
Review: Dogs — by RON WILKINSON — Most of the stories about city people coming back to the country are about conflict. The newcomer does not fit and the locals want him gone. This story is the opposite. The returning city boy only wants to sell his deceased grandfather’s land and return to the city. The locals will have none of it. The land on the Danube at the Romania-Ukraine border within a stone’s throw of the Black Sea is more than real estate to them.
It's Just Movies
Review: Wildland — by RON WILKINSON — Teenagers should never have to make some decisions. They should not have to decide to be loyal to a drug addicted mom or a crime sodden family of cousins that makes Ma Barker’s clan look like The Partridge Family. They should not have to give up part of their lives to protect very stupid people from the consequences of very stupid actions. They should not have to protect their emotions like James Bond protects his secret agent self.
Review: In the Same Breath
Review: In the Same Breath — by RON WILKINSON — The best documentaries are the ones with the best access. This exceptional doc explodes with complete access to hospitals in Wuhan during the first days of Covid. Shooting footage is tense, scary and at times potentially lethal due to government persecution as much as illness. Contrasted to that, the American footage is all the more powerful for taking place in complete freedom in public places.
Review: Battle for Afghanistan
Review: Battle for Afghanistan — by RON WILKINSON — Perhaps it is because of the staggering losses the Soviet Union has suffered in war that it took a Russian production to show the profound cost of military conflict with perfection. It also took profound courage to document the final days of the Soviet route from Afghanistan. Few countries have the courage to document major military defeats, especially those compounded by treachery, corruption and cowardice.
Review: This Is My Desire
— by RON WILKINSON — Mofe’s new name is Sanchez and Rosa’s new name is, well, Rosa. There is nothing else disclosed about their current names because until they leave Nigeria, they are nothing. Two persons smart, focused and dedicated to leaving their home country behind do what they have to do to survive and keep their dreams. Barely paying attention to their sacrifices they give the gifts of life to others while they are struggling to leave theirs behind.
It's Just Movies
Review: Dachra — by RON WILKINSON — An encyclopedia of Western horror film tropes parades across the screen in this Tunisian discovered-film horror comedy. Almost nothing new here and yet things are thrown together in a way that speaks to talent if not good taste. Three naive journalism students are faced with a deadline for their senior project or be cast into slacker purgatory, a place far from unknown to at least two of them.
Review: Mama Weed
Review: Mama Weed — by RON WILKINSON — A cop dabbles on the wrong side of the tracks in a mix of Robin Hood meets “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” threatening everything she has ever worked for. Growing up in a penniless Arabic immigrant household she is as determined as she is haunted by her father’s life as a low level gangster. Her mother survived the prison camps but is now bed-ridden and in need of money the family does not have.
It's Just Movies
Review: Lansky — by RON WILKINSON — Aging tales of mobsters seem to have turned into tales of aging mobsters as the gangster flick goes the way of the western. An easy going attempt to revise history, at least a little, finds its way as a suitable genre follow up to the successful “The Irishman.” A memoir providing a framework, or an excuse, to parade memorable characters across the screen for our entertainment, “Lansky” does not attempt to show anyone as they were.
Review: Sun Children
Review: Sun Children — by RON WILKINSON — A 12-year-old boy and his friends are scurrying around the indoor parking garage in an upscale Iranian shopping center. Three are under the cars and one, far too young for his assignment, is on watch. The mission is to steal expensive wheels for their adult boss. The wheels are stolen to order, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, cars that these boys can never hope to own. Whatever profit is made from the wheels they can never hope to see.
Review: The Amusement Park
— by RON WILKINSON — In 1973, George A. Romero joined an elite club of film makers distinguished by their completing a memorable movie or TV show and then being summarily fired when the original sponsors were confronted with the finished product.
It's Just Movies
Review: The Dry — by RON WILKINSON — Personal crisis in the context of climate crisis is a winning combination these days. There is something about the world burning up that reflects the burning of the soul, a land laid waste and a spirit destroyed in the wake of deception and betrayal. Although this has been done before, the present plague of Australian bush fires makes for a vibrant back drop for murderous history that may be too far gone for redemption.
Review: High Ground
Review: High Ground — by RON WILKINSON — The title brings two scenarios to mind. One is the concept of arguing for a better, higher purpose. The other is to take high ground for a military advantage. It is a nicely chosen title as this powerfully shot movie argues for both sides of the apologetic high ground while exhibiting graphic and unrestrained warlord style murder. On one side the colonial military, WWI veterans, claim to be enforcing and protecting the only law in the land.
Review: Never Gonna Snow Again
Review: Never Gonna Snow Again — by RON WILKINSON — Headlining BAM’s fourth edition of Kino Polska: New Polish Cinema, Malgorzata Szumowska’s movie is a playful and atmospheric essay on human kindness and environmental frailty. Co-directed and written with Michal Englert, the Venice Film Festival hit succeeds without having much of a plot at all. Rather we see one person taking it one step at a time.
Review: The Mauritanian
Review: The Mauritanian — by RON WILKINSON — Two thought patterns run through the minds of USA security personnel at Guantanamo as they interrogate a suspected key player in the World Trace Center attacks. The first is that if he did not do the crime of which he is accused, he would have done it if he had the chance. The second is that even if he did not do it, his friends did and taking revenge on him is better than nothing.
It's Just Movies
Review: Profile — by RON WILKINSON — The best thing about internet social networking is the mutable nature of its reality. The truth as far as it goes, the user is ultimately in command of their profile. If this film is a cautionary tale it is to remind that mutability goes both ways. It is one thing to lie about one’s age and another to pretend to have converted to a radical religion bent on holy war. Still such distinctions are a matter of scale.
Review: My Wonderful Wanda
Review: My Wonderful Wanda — by RON WILKINSON — In a story rich in family dynamics with a substantial kicker of gender, class and nationality discrimination, Wanda comes to a luxurious villa in Switzerland, the manse of an industrial magnate. Although she has no wealth, her riches lie in her family. On one level, she has come to trade care (at times writ large) for money. On another, her presence results in ministrations hilarious, touching and, in the end, amazing.
Review: The Virtuoso
Review: The Virtuoso — by RON WILKINSON — The thread of samurai tradition runs through this noir thriller. An assassin is exceptionally good at what he does thanks to a godfather figure, the soldier comrade of the assassin’s deceased father. Taking the young man under his wing and teaching him a trade that the mentor has come to believe is reality, the older man is, in fact, crazy as a loon. And boy are we glad of it.
It's Just Movies
Review: Voyagers — by RON WILKINSON — Thirty brainwashed kids and one semi-coherent adult launch in a spaceship on an 86-year mission that few of them will survive. What could go wrong? Well, anyone who watched “2001: A Space Odyssey” knows plenty can go wrong. If they also read “Lord of the Flies” nothing remains but to wait for the ending. Animals on an Ark, the eight-year-olds do not have to actually fly the ship, luckily, because there turns out to be so much else for them to do.
Review: Every Breath You Take
Review: Every Breath You Take — by RON WILKINSON — The usual trip to hockey practice turns into a fatal car crash that changes lives forever. Unfortunately it does not do much to change the lives of thousands of people watching this tedious drama cum thriller. The problem is the film makers cannot decide which it is, drama or thriller. As a thriller it treads such time worn paths that the thrill is gone.
Review: The Man Who Sold His Skin
Review: The Man Who Sold His Skin — by RON WILKINSON — A Syrian citizen makes a big mistake by heralding the revolution on a bus. Besotted with love, he proclaims his devotion to his lover and his freedom and promptly loses both. Luckily, there was a solution, a way to be free and be a patron of the arts at the same time. As his artist told him, as a person you can go nowhere but as merchandise you can go anywhere.
It's Just Movies
Review: Nina Wu — by RON WILKINSON — The film medium is made for that marvelous merging of dreams and life. The ultimate dream for some, the dream of fame and fortune, awaits those who reach stardom. The trick is to achieve that pinnacle of success and keep one’s sanity, or one’s soul if you will. On another level, maintaining the dreams and avoiding the nightmares is a measure of success. We all live in a dream, or a nightmare, to some degree.
Review: The Vault
Review: The Vault — by RON WILKINSON — Walter and James had a right to be mad. After risking their lives recovering a priceless treasure stolen fair and square by Sir Francis Drake, Spain steals the treasure, fair and square, right back. There is no justice for gutsy cowboy tomb raiders these days. Get mad or get even, Walter and his plucky gang of thieves choose the latter. All they need is a genius. Steve Jobs would do. No, he is dead. Bill Gates? No, he is busy curing Covid. Elon Musk?
Review: City of Lies
Review: City of Lies — by RON WILKINSON — A gangsta rap artist dies in a hail of bullets after a late night all-out party in L.A. Not so amazing. A few days later, an undercover L.A. cop kills another undercover L.A. cop in an apparent road rage incident. That is a story, and city detective Russell Poole thinks the two are connected. Twenty years later, no one knows for sure but Johnny Depp is going to make sure we all give it some thought. This is the movie that is going start that thought. Maybe.
Review: The Courier
Review: The Courier — by RON WILKINSON — Sixty years after the fact, we are being treated to a raft of real life spy stories. Kept under wraps due to the most sensitive security concerns are true tales of heroism and mistakes that could have been lethal. Greville Wynne was thrown into Lubyanka prison, a destination that proved fatal for most spies. Some might describe it as a fate worse than death. His counterpart, Soviet officer Oleg Penkovsky, was not as lucky.
Review: Red Soil
Review: Red Soil — by RON WILKINSON — Something nasty is afoot at the alumina plant. One of the few chemicals not yet squarely implicated in outright poisonings of local populations, aluminum and its chemical progeny have their dark side. As alumina is freed from Bauxite ore a red sludge is left behind that threatens to become the star of this film. The screenplay puts techno-geek issues in their place and switches back to familial loyalties within immigrant populations.
It's Just Movies
Review: Slalom — by RON WILKINSON — Following on the heels of several years of revelations of sex abuse by coaches and officials in world elite sports this movie puts the facts and figures in a powerful personal perspective. The setting is World Cup skiing and the emotions, betrayals and usuary are universal. They could apply to any vulnerable person anywhere, especially where young and ambitious athletes are forced to comply without recourse to the demands of older adults.
Review: My Donkey, My Lover and I
Review: My Donkey, My Lover and I — by RON WILKINSON — Antoinette was famous after the first day of her gutsy solo trek on the Stevenson Trail in the rugged Cevennes mountains of France. No wonder her fame would spread, as she is so beautiful. That alone would make her presence known even if she were not on the trail to meet a lover. The fact that her lover is married and has a child finds her presence marked with mixed reactions.
It's Just Movies
Review: Ibrahim — by RON WILKINSON — Coming of age in a disenfranchised Maghreb community in Paris, Ibrahim (Abdel Bendaher) lives a spartan life with his underemployed father. The story of class distinction and changing family roles presents a challenge not unlike that faced by many families, only this is much worse. Writer/director Samir Guesmi paints a picture of dread and impending doom from the start.
Review: Mafia Inc
Review: Mafia Inc — by RON WILKINSON — Is this a Canadian Godfather or is Godfather an Americanized Mafia? Against the original, this remake offers few surprises, just a further variation that crime does not pay. OK, it does for a while, but the geese come home to roost and the gangster realizes he has made a big mistake. Too bad, too late, kids die and the family is ruined. Life would have been better back in Sicily, especially with that bridge.
Review: Dead Air
Review: Dead Air — by RON WILKINSON — Sometimes radio waves do what they are told and sometimes they have a mind of their own. Sometimes they tell stories in a movie, stories that should have told by the camera and not by the voice on the radio. When one is talking over a two-way radio, there is no telling who is on the other end. In fact, as Billy finds out, there is no telling if they are even human. By the time the viewer finds out, it is too late for the movie.
Review: My Darling Supermarket
Review: My Darling Supermarket — by RON WILKINSON — The stories those cans could tell. Everybody has a story and this microcosm runs the gamut. Employees are interviewed in their workplace as they live the better part of their lives with their assigned companions. Some flirt, some have serious conversations, some work alone and enjoy it. Some work alone and fight off insanity. There is something notably ordinary about the setting of the supermarket.
Review: Wrong Turn
Review: Wrong Turn — by RON WILKINSON — Six young hikers head off into one of the most impenetrable wilderness areas in the USA with bookbags and floppy cotton clothing. Although properly dressed for a game of beach volleyball the viewer just knows something is going to go wrong. Giddy with prospects of brighter futures and in love with each other, although more so with themselves, they are young and can never lose.
Review: The White Tiger
Review: The White Tiger — by RON WILKINSON — Balram Halwai (Adarsh Gourav) describes India as having hundreds of castes and thousands of gods. He is ambivalent toward the gods and has no choice as to his caste. Simplifying the bewildering complexities of Indian culture he boils it down to two castes – those with the full bellies and those with the empty. Good humored enough and with an unmatched and marginally believable loyalty to duty, Balram is forced to make a decision.
Review: M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity
Review: M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity — by RON WILKINSON — To those of us who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, he was an icon. To him, we were an enigma. “Out of control hippies,” as his diaries read. MC Escher simply could not fathom what we saw in his work. We saw infinity, the joining of earth and man, the something and the nothing, the yin and the yang and the conscious with the subconscious. His original inspiration for this mystical body of woodcuts was more practical.
Review: Identifying Features
Review: Identifying Features — by RON WILKINSON — The trope of wanting to know something that could kill is such a staple of Western crime stories we hardly know it is there. It takes powerful voices and acting to remind us that this kind of knowledge is a real thing. Magdalena hears this kind of information whispered by a terrified unknown woman separated by a toilet stall and from a nearly blind old man. The universal advice is to go home and stop her search. Her son is dead.
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