YEAR END MUSINGS: WORTHY WATCHING

“MANGROVE”            AMAZON PRIME
Director/writer/ artist Steve McQueen perpetually stuns with his historical films, based on egregious tales of injustice; Mangrove, a restaurant in west London and the trial of nine black activists in 1971 is blatantly honest, radiantly performed with a prescient message more vibrant today than yesteryear. FOUR & ½ STARS!!!!

“NOCTURNAL ANIMALS” (2016)  NETFLIX

Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance is enormous; paired with Amy Adams and stunning contemporary art, acutely satisfying.  FOUR STARS!!!!

“EFFIE GRAY”         NETFLIX

Actors Dakota Fanning, Greg Wise, Emma Thompson (wrote the scenario and married to Wise) and Tom Sturridge make this inflated film about art critic John Ruskin’s (Wise) lack of pneumatic prowess; Effie: Fanning is superb as the unappreciated married muse, determined to annul her unconsummated union. THREE & ½ STARS!!!

“BELOW THE SURFACE” (DANISH: ENGLISH SUBTITLES) HULU

This thrilling series centers on 15 hostages, their captors and negotiators; culprits and prisoners unveiled, defined as the crisis envelops and devastates, without prejudice, every protagonistinvolved. FOUR & ½ STARS!!!!

“ALL THE SINS”  (FINNISH: ENGLISH SUBTITLES) Previously reviewed, May 4^th 2020,  AMAZON PRIME

Second series is as riveting as the first; conservative Laestadian religious sect, creepily harbors the untoward, fanatical; a community of denial, sustains those with appetites for exclusion, fostering rules of dispassionate restraint. THREE &1/2 STARS!!!

“UNDER SUSPICION”   (SPANISH: ENGLISH SUBTITLES)     AMAZON PRIME

Major truth sleuths will be cemented to this FIVE STAR thriller; two detectives travel, undercover, to find a missing nine-year-old girl; astounding script and performances will keep you on tenterhooks until its astonishing, fabulously disturbing, finale. Again, FIVE STARS!!!!!

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