Tag: Movie

‘All the Wild Horses’ wins by a comfortable margin

Jeff Mitchell

“All the Wild Horses” – The Kentucky Derby began in 1875, and this 1.25-mile race is dubbed the most exciting two minutes in sports. On the other side of the world, Mongolia hosts an altogether different event.  The Mongol Derby is one thousand kilometers long and runs across the country’s prairies.  The contest takes eight days to complete and is known as the longest and toughest horse race in the world. If the Run for the Roses is an ultra-brisk sprint, then the Mongol Derby is a marathon of the…

‘The Booksellers’ is a celluloid page-turner

Jeff Mitchell

“The Booksellers” – According to a 2019 Pew Research Center study, 73 percent of U.S. adults have started at least one book in the past year, but this is down from a 2005 Gallup News Service poll, in which 83 percent did. Why the drop?  Well, one can point to several factors:  longer work hours, shorter attention spans, social media’s rise, instant gratification needs, home streaming services, and the Joe Exotic documentary series.  Actually, Netflix released “Tiger King” in 2020, a year after the 2019 findings, so we can’t blame…

‘Selah and The Spades’ doesn’t deal a winning hand

Jeff Mitchell

“Selah and The Spades” – Selah Summers (Lovie Simone) is cool.  She’s a top student at Haldwell, a prestigious boarding school in the Philadelphia suburbs.  She’s a cheerleader too, but not the peppy, do-gooder, always-sunny type, because Selah has fought on the front lines at home and at Haldwell.  These days, her mother quietly pushes this talented kid to pursue perfection, at least with her grades, but voices aren’t upturned between mother and teen.  They don’t have to reach ugly, combative heights in 2020, because – off-screen – enough verbal…