Thirteen Lives Is A Gripping Real-Life Thriller

Thirteen Lives is a gripping thriller about the incredible 2018 Thailand cave rescue of a soccer team trapped in Tham Luang cave network. Ron Howard is no stranger to making films about incredibly true rescues. He did it years ago with Apollo 13 and now he’s back again. Last year saw the premiere of The Rescue during the fall festival season. Where that film is a documentary, the narrative feature goes full thriller, capturing all…

"Thirteen Lives Is A Gripping Real-Life Thriller"

Death on the Nile: A Murder Is Afoot

Kenneth Branagh reprises his role as Detective Hercule Poirot in long-delayed adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. I went back and forth over whether or not I was going to watch this movie. It isn’t so much the film itself but because it’s based on a book by Agatha Christie. The thing about Christie is that she had a history of writing Jewish characters in an antisemitic way. Following World War II, Christie’s…

"Death on the Nile: A Murder Is Afoot"

Murder on the Orient Express: Was This Remake Necessary?

Murder on the Orient Express makes for some great set pieces and period costumes but the whodunnit mystery doesn’t really need another adaptation. Director Kenneth Branagh, working from a screenplay written by Michael Green, has gathered an all-star cast but with so many suspects, there’s a major fight for screen time. A Rabbi, a Priest, and an Imam walk up to the Western Wall in Jerusalem and despite the making of a classic joke, there’s…

"Murder on the Orient Express: Was This Remake Necessary?"