Tag: thriller

The spy film ‘Red Sparrow’ flies in some twisty, some meandering directions

Jeff Mitchell

“Red Sparrow” – After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many Western Europeans and Americans – hoped for a less adversarial relationship with their/our former communist foe, Russia.  Sure, Russia technically is a democracy, but a sketchy one, and after recent shenanigans in 2016, this aforementioned “former-enemy” certainly is not behaving like a nation wanting to cozy up as best friends with the West.  Far from it. As Bob Dylan preached in his 1964 song “With God on Our Side”: “I’ve learned to…

‘The Commuter’ takes too many familiar turns

Jeff Mitchell

“The Commuter” – “You have no idea who you are up against.” – Oliver (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), a train passenger Michael MacCauley (Liam Neeson), a New York City insurance agent who just lost his job, finds himself mired in two seemingly impossible situations.   He and his wife, Karen (Elizabeth McGovern), are financially struggling, and now, Michael is out of work.  Cutting back on expenses and eating ramen noodles seven days a week will not save enough money to cover their mortgage and son’s upcoming tuition to Syracuse University. (By the way, according to Google,…

‘Wind River’ hurts throughout its spellbinding murder/mystery

Jeff Mitchell

“Wind River” – The cold hurts. In the middle of winter – whether one shovels heavy powder off a lengthy driveway, lifts a car’s hood to jumpstart a dead battery or trudges through an enormous shopping mall parking lot on a freezing day while searching for a lost vehicle – the cold hurts. These, however, are extremely minor inconveniences compared to the fate that the cold inflicted on Natalie (Kelsey Asbille), a young woman who froze to death in the snow after running, stumbling and crawling in the bitter, wintertime…