4 Razors

News of the World

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: News of the World
  • IMDb: link

News of the World movie reviewThe idea of a man travelling from town to town to read newspapers may seem quaint in today’s information age, but the collaboration between Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks offers a classic low-key western that is the dramatic equal to their previous collaboration, Captain Phillips. It may not be The Searchers, but Greengrass offers a wide-open canvas for Hanks to provide one of his better performances in recent years.

Traveling from town to town, reading his collection of recent newspapers, Captain Kidd (Hanks) comes across a lynched soldier and a young girl (Helena Zengel) who, as one character succulently put it, has been orphaned twice. Raised by the Kiowa people who killed her family, only to see the tribe wiped out by Union soldiers, Johanna’s only living relatives live far south towards the home Captain Kidd has avoided since the end of the Civil War.

The set-up is fairly simple, the reluctant Kidd decides to deliver the wild girl no one else seems to be able to control, home. On the road, the pair encounter various obstacles while learning a bit about each other, themselves, and where they belong.

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Action Comics #1028

/ / Comics

Action Comics #1028 comic reviewAction Comics #1028 offers an epilogue to “The House of Kents,” and really Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr.’s entire run on the title. Most notable for some small moments, the issue works to both catch-up readers who may have not read every issue as well as set-up a new status quo within The Daily Planet whose new owner is… Jimmy Olsen?

Aside from Jimmy summarizing the storyline from his Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen series which gave him half of Lex Luthor’s fortune (and provided the capital needed to buy The Daily Planet), the comic also catches readers up on Conner Kent suggesting that the clone’s powers may have a shelf-life. It also takes Connor back to the Kent Farm (which seems a little odd given his reunion with the Kents was already covered in Action Comics #1022) and also reintroduces him to an old friend.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #112

/ / Comics

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #112 comic reviewWhereas several of the previous issues have focused on how well things are going for the reunited Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #112 shifts to examining the cracks in Mutant Town. Picking up on the pain of rejection Mona Lisa felt after revealing her mutation to her parents, this month’s issue continues to feed that theme by introducing the sullen Jay whose mutation into a venomous frog has made it impossible for him to touch another living soul.

All of this leads into a mutant support group for those struggling with their new lives where tempers flare over injustices, the Mutanimals, and even the Turtles. It also provides one of the more humorous panels of the series attempting to sum up the Turtles’ bizarre history.

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Far Sector #9

/ / Comics

Far Sector #9 comic reviewThe focus of Far Sector #9 stays firmly on Green Lantern Sojourner Mullein‘s current assignment in the City Enduring and solving the mysteries of the alien world which she’s still struggling to fully understand. It’s also the first issue in which she’s out of uniform for the entire issue (although she does end up borrowing one from someone else to do a little snooping). Even with as alien as it is, the politics of the City Enduring at times remind her of Earth.

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The Painter and the Thief

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Painter and the Thief
  • IMDb: link

The Painter and the Thief DVD reviewThe Norwegian documentary by Benjamin Ree examines the unlikely friendship that develops between artist Barbora Kysilkova and one of the thieves, Karl Bertil-Nordland, who stole paintings from her exhibit. While Barbora is at first mostly concerned with recovering the missing artwork, she soon becomes drawn to Karl as a subject for her work. Barbora’s curiosity, rather than anger, towards the thief sets the stage for all that is to come.

With the lives of both subjects documented, and their time together, Ree uses some creative editing to decide how and when to provide certain information to the audience giving The Painter and the Thief a more narrative structure than most documentaries. The result gives us an inside look into the human flaws of both characters while beautifully showcasing how such an unlikely friendship could blossom under difficult circumstances. One of the most unexpected films of the year, The Painter and the Thief is a story of friendship, humanity, forgiveness, and struggle. It’s an inspiring tale that I’m not sure could have been made anywhere else.

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