Category: Reviews

Movie of the Week: ‘Toni Erdmann’

Jeff Mitchell

Sandra Huller stars in “Anatomy of a Fall” (2023), director Justine Triet’s crime drama that won the 2023 Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or.  So, AHFW wishes to recognize Huller’s outstanding work in the Oscar-nominated, “Toni Erdmann” (2016).  Who is Toni Erdmann?  Well, no character in the movie is officially named Toni Erdmann, but Winfried (Peter Simonischek) – a father desperately seeking attention from his daughter Ines (Sandra Huller) – actually creates an alter-ego with the said moniker.  AHFW not only thinks that Huller deserved the 2016 Best Actress Oscar, but…

Our heroes need to catch a plane in ‘Kandahar’, but this pedestrian action flick never takes off

Jeff Mitchell

“Kandahar” (2023) – These days, if you look up the latest releases arriving at the local cineplex and see Gerard Butler’s name appearing in the credits, you can bet a dollar that the man is tied to an action movie.  Granted, this critic hasn’t seen most of his films.  Still, Gerard has developed a Liam Neeson-like reputation for consistently stepping – or running – into the genre.  Director Ric Roman Waugh – who worked with Mr. Butler on “Angel Has Fallen” (2019) and “Greenland” (2020) – helms “Kandahar”, a film…

‘Sisu’: Run, don’t walk, to 1944 Finland and this fabulous and bloody midnight-madness flick

Jeff Mitchell

“Sisu” (2022) – “My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it.” – The Dragon says to Grendel in author John Gardner’s “Grendel” (1971)  In director/writer Jalmari Helander’s fabulous, entertaining midnight-madness flick, “Sisu”, the year is 1944 and nearly the close of WWII.  He sets this story in Finland.  The Moscow Armistice is signed, and Finland must remove the German military presence from their land. For Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila), a Finn, he’s done with the war.  This 60-something, gray-bearded loner now roams…