By John H. Foote (*) Place your brain on pause for this one, put your suspension of disbelief on high, (for as long as you can), be willing to go along with every goofy plot device, especially the narrative, and just go along for the ride. Start picking at the plot, you might never stop,…
By John H. Foote (****) We were in New York City in the summer of 2010 for a week, my wife and daughters. Sherri was doing very well after chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and though filled with energy, she would be gone in less than two years. As our cab weaved through the busy streets…
By John H. Foote (**) This gritty, tough love look at a relationship between a father and son who are strangers to each other has some strong acting within, but the truth is I screened it this morning and not given it a thought until I had to write this. Normally, if I have seen…
By John H. Foote (****) What is she like, this grave, serious, often stern 16-year old who was TIME Magazine’s Newsmaker of the Year in 2019, and brought piercing attention to climate change? Who was this girl, this Greta Thunberg? In this extraordinary documentary we are given remarkable access into her life, her home, see…
By John H. Foote (***) Based on the true stories of Jaden Bell and his father Joe, portrayed with infinite sadness by Mark Wahlberg, this deeply heartbreaking film, so aching with profound honesty and loss, is a powerful experience. Jaden Bell was a gay teenager who was bullied relentlessly by the students at his high…
By John H. Foote (**) Sold to Netflix on day three of TIFF, I found this a tough watch which begins with a visceral, uncompromising home birth with a midwife that goes horribly wrong which is a hyper realistic sequence. The film is acted with blistering power by the astonishing Vanessa Kirby and the ever…
By John H. Foote (***) Three-time Academy Award nominated actor Viggo Mortensen both acts and directs in this strong film, his directorial debut. The actor is among the greatest of his generation, nominated for Academy Awards as Best Actor for Eastern Promises (2007), Captain Fantastic (2016) and most recently in Green Book (2018). Mortensen was deserving of further nominations…
By John H. Foote (****) There is a striking familiarity between this film and Sean Penn’s magnificent Into the Wild (2007), in that both characters drop out of society for a life in the wild. In Penn’s film the character does so because he needs too, he wishes too, and his arrogance tells him he can.…
By John H. Foote (***) I apologize in advance for the use of a single word in this review. I detest the word, but to make my point, needed to use it. Truly, I am sorry for its inclusion. Though it is fact Cassius Clay (before he was Ali), Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim…
By John H. Foote Do film buffs truly understand just what a ground-breaking film Alfred Hitchcock’s terrifying Psycho was? This was a monumental film, breaking fresh ground for a tried and true genre, and influencing dozens of films in the future. To this day I still encounter film students who discuss the massacre in the shower…