4.5 Razors

Far Sector #10

/ / Comics

Far Sector #10 comic reviewSojourner Mullein has been sent to the edge of the known universe to a city built on the forced emotional suppression its people. A side-effect over time has been the creation of a dark underground to exploit emotional scarcity by relying on the slave labor of ordinary citizens. The slaves are addicted to Switchoff which stops the emotional exploit allowing them to feel and create a profitable commodity, but also has created loose canons and secrets desperately needing to be kept leading to disruption like that which brought Sojourner to the City Enduring. Putting the final pieces into place and seeing it in action creates an impressive emotional response in our Green Lantern.

…

Far Sector #10Read More »

Far Sector #10 Read More »

Nomadland

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Nomadland
  • IMDb: link

Nomadland movie reviewNomadland is a quiet, contemplative film not unlike Into the Wild or Wild in which a character leaves behind the conventions of society in search of something their former life can no longer offer. In the case of writer/director Chloé Zhao‘s tale, adapted from the book by Jessica Bruder, our character is an older widow who has lost nearly everything in the Great Recession including the home she made with her late husband when the town completely collapsed.

Taking to the road in a van, we travel along with Fern (Frances McDormand), meeting a number of other people in the same position searching for a way to make due with the little they have and hang on to the last of their independence. We discover a large community of the nomads, helping each other learn the tricks to survive. Bruder’s book took an in-depth look at the real nomad culture of older Americans hitting the road in RVs of all shapes and sizes looking for work and a way to get by. We don’t have to guess about the reality of these characters as many people play themselves in the film making Zhao’s tale an unusual blend of dramatic character study and documentary with Fern acting as the audience’s doorway into this world.

…

NomadlandRead More »

Nomadland Read More »

The Vast of Night

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Vast of Night
  • IMDb: link

The Vast of Night movie reviewPresented as something very similar to an episode from the original Twilight Zone, The Vast of Night offers a glimpse into a non-descript small town on a night when almost all are gathered for a high school basketball game and only a scattered few become aware of odd goings on in the night sky. The small town, set in the 1950s, focused on radio and reel-to-reel recordings, sets just the right mood for story which will slowly unfold. Self-financed, the low-budget film from writer/director Andrew Patterson is something to behold as it slowly builds before earning its final shot.

Our main characters are the night telephone operator Fay Crocker (Sierra McCormick) and her friend and local disc jokey Everett Sloan (Jake Horowitz) who become aware of an odd signal broadcasting across phone and radio lines. Putting the sound on the radio, in hopes others might be able to identify it sends the pair down a rabbit hole starting with the story of a soldier (Bruce Davis) about top secret military projects and including the account of an elderly shut-in (Gail Cronauer) forcing both characters to question what they believe.

…

The Vast of NightRead More »

The Vast of Night Read More »

Remington Steele – Vintage Steele

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Remington Steele – Vintage Steele
  • IMDb: link

Remington Steele - Vintage Steele television review

Throwback Tuesday takes us back to a con man pretending to be the world’s greatest detective in Remington Steele. “Vintage Steele” throws Remington Steele (Pierce Brosnan) and Laura (Stephanie Zimbalist) together on an absurd case involving a dead body which keeps appearing and disappearing. The body is first discovered by Laura’s ex-boyfriend (David Huffman), a banker overseeing a deal with a local winery, who discovers the body floating in a vat of chardonnay. He successfully hides the body, which he fears will blow the deal, only to lose in on the road and later discover it again in the winery. With most of the story centered around either finding the body, which Steele takes to calling Harry, or preventing others from stumbling upon it, the mystery of how the man died (or who he is) remains on the back-burner.

…

Remington Steele – Vintage SteeleRead More »

Remington Steele – Vintage Steele Read More »

One Night in Miami

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: One Night in Miami
  • IMDb: link

One Night in Miami movie reviewRegina King brings Kemp Powers’ award-winning play to the silver screen offering a fictionalized account of the gathering of four prominent Black Americans, – Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) one night in Miami after Clay beat Sonny Liston (Aaron D. Alexander) to become the Heavyweight Champion of the World. The contemplative gathering, coordinated by Malcom X, is far from the raucous celebration the others expected, but it delivers dramatic tension aplenty as tempers flare over disagreements on the role of prominent black men in America.

Kemp Powers is on-hand to adapt his own screenplay, and Regina King adds some nice touches here (including showing us some of the Liston/Clay fight) to help set the stage. The real movie takes place once the four men get in a room together. Despite relying on larger-than-life characters, the film doesn’t caricaturize them in any way, presenting them of men of the time with strong opinions and passions. Four men alone in a room arguing may not sound like the key to crafting a can’t-miss film, but King and Kemp pull it off.

…

One Night in MiamiRead More »

One Night in Miami Read More »