Month: May 2021

Movie of the Week: ‘Midnight Run’

Jeff Mitchell

With Charles Grodin’s passing on Tues., May 18, AHFW’s Movie of the Week is our film critic’s – Jeff Mitchell’s – all-time favorite comedy, director Martin Brest’s “Midnight Run” (1988) starring Robert De Niro and Grodin. “Midnight Run”(1988) – Jack Walsh (De Niro), a former Chicago Police detective, works as a bounty hunter these days.  He bags some local jobs here and there, but Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano) asks Jack to pick up a mob accountant Jonathan Mardukas (Grodin) in New York City and fly him back to Los Angeles,…

‘Dream Horse’: Experience every uphill step and thrilling downhill gallop

Jeff Mitchell

“Dream Horse” – “Can’t be that bad.  The pigeons keep coming back.” Jan Vokes (Toni Collette) walks by the aforementioned message – purposely painted on a closed florist shop – when walking home with a couple of plastic grocery bags in hand.  Economic hard times have hit her little Welsh community, as high-dollar corporations haven’t yet discovered this village that charmingly sits like a dollop on the bank of a rolling green knoll assembly, a classic example of the country’s landscape.  It’s not a surprise that director Euros Lyn captured…

‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’ plays it safe and flatlines

Jeff Mitchell

“Those Who Wish Me Dead” – Connor Casserly (Finn Little) lives a comfortable, orderly existence in Jacksonville, Fla.  His attentive dad (Jake Weber) and he enjoy a strong relationship and play by the rules at home, school, and work. Connor’s about 11, an age when boys still listen to the fathers.  If need be, this particular kid will follow his pop to the ends of the earth.  In director/co-writer Taylor Sheridan’s “Those Who Wish Me Dead”, he does.  Owen (Weber) and Connor find themselves in grave danger because two assassins…