Phil Jeng Kane
Phil has written for magazines, corporate videos, online ads, and even an app. He writes with one eye on the future, one eye on the past and a third eye on the Lotto numbers. His social bits are here.
Fly Me to the Moon Review
The United States’ Apollo program was established in 1962, when President Kennedy announced that men would walk on the moon by 1970. At the time of that announcement, America was already engaged in what the media termed the Space Race. This had started five years previously, in 1957, when the Soviet Union had launched the world’s first unmanned space vehicle, Sputnik 1 and it became more intense i...
The Holdovers Review
It’s 1970 and at a Barton Academy, a New England prep school, the staff and students are about to break for Christmas. History teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is asked to look after the small number of students who have to stay at the school over the break. The reasons vary, but it boils down to parents not having, and possibly not wanting, their children back home for Christmas. Remaining at...
The Healing Review
This 2022 documentary is made in Australia and focuses on the work of Scott Brodie, who is a former policeman who runs a self-created therapy course. He takes horses that can no longer race and he re-trains and re-homes them. Brodie sees the horses as so highly trained, that they can’t merely be retired when their racing days are over. He believes they need to be taught how to live like a normal h...
Sound of Freedom Review
In Tegucigalpa, Honduras, a young brother and sister, Miguel and Rocío, are kidnapped as part of a child-modelling scam. Their father Roberto discovers the children have been sold to be used as sex slaves. In California, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent, Tim Ballard, is becoming frustrated by the work he does arresting the people who make and distribute child pornography. He kn...
Frank and Frank Review
Author, musician and filmmaker, Adam Morris has followed up his debut feature EDWARD AND ISABELLA (2022). The film won Best Film at the WA Screen Culture Awards, Best Feature Film at the Prague International Film Festival and Best Director at the Tokyo Film Awards. He has completed his second feature FRANK AND FRANK (or The Valley and The Walrus: Ruminations on the Mystery from Soup to Nuts). The ...
Book Club: The Next Chapter Review
The four 70-something women of BOOK CLUB (2018) return in BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER. Vivian (Jane Fonda), Diane (Diane Keaton) Sharon (Candice Bergen) and Carol (Mary Steenburgen) are still in the book club they established 45 years ago. The movie begins with the challenge of Covid-19 forcing the quartet to shelter in place and go through the uncertainty of that process. The book club goes on Zo...
The Fabelmans Review
The official blurb for the movie THE FABELMANS is: “Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth”. This is an accurate description of the story, but movie you will experience has somewhat more going on. The ficti...
McEnroe Review
American John McEnroe Jnr was a major figure in professional tennis from the late 1970s and into the 1980s. He captured international attention as he played the major tournaments because he started as an unknown amateur eighteen-year-old who quickly showed amazing skills up against the champions of the time, like Jimmy Connors. What this new feature-length documentary MCENROE does, is it drops us ...
The Phantom of the Open Review
It is 1976, and Maurice Flitcroft (Mark Rylance), a crane driver in his mid-40s, is being made redundant at the Vickers Armstrong shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness (Cumbria, England). His wife Jean (Sally Hawkins) encourages him to pursue his dreams. When Maurice was a boy he loved books, painting and languages, but was prevented from following these paths. Now, he is a middle-aged man who has a step-...
Elvis Review
Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer whose music and influence made him an icon of the 20th Century. From 1956, when he sold 10 million singles for the RCA company in twelve months, until his untimely death in 1977 at the age of 42, Elvis was a global star. His effect on new music waned in the later 1960s, however his fame and his influence were intact until he died. He was dubbed The King o...
Everything Everywhere All at Once Review
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE is a time-bending ride through multiple universes. Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is a woman in her late fifties. She runs a laundromat business with her husband Waymond (Key Huy Quan). They are currently under pressure because the IRS want a review of the couple’s taxes. Previously, Evelyn attempted to cut corners in this process and this has brought the Wangs to th...
Ambulance Review
Michael Bay first became known as an award-winning director of music videos and advertisements. His initial feature film BAD BOYS (1995) gave audiences a clear idea of the kind of filmmaker he is. Bay is a visual stylist who loves slow motion, close-ups of the human face and a constantly moving camera; all these are in evidence in his latest feature AMBULANCE (2022). The movie is a remake and an a...