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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.  

6

Critic

St. Vincent Review

Maggie (Melissa McCarthy), a newly single mother, tries to raise her eleven-year-old son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher) in a new neighbourhood, however her job as a CAT Scan technician means she often has to work late. Reluctantly, she turns to her neighbour for help, Vince MacKenna (Bill Murray), a down-at-heel veteran of the Vietnam War. Vince agrees to become the baby sitter strictly for the money a...

8

Critic

Finding Vivian Maier

In 2009, the work of street photographer Vivian Maier began to show up online. The images were scanned from negatives that were in the possession of Chicago collector John Maloof. He came across Maier’s work by chance. He bought some trunks and boxes at a deceased estate sale. When he properly examined what he had bought, he discovered thousands of negatives and hundreds of rolls of undeveloped fi...

8

Critic

Men, Women & Children Review

MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN is set in Austin, Texas, and tells the intersecting stories of a group of parents and their teenage children. The adults feel separated from their kids, the kids mostly ignore their parents and try to make connections with each other on-line or via their ‘phones. The adults feel disconnected from each other, too. Unable to maintain an intimate relationship, some look for ...

8

Critic

Nightcrawler Review

When we first meet Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) we learn quickly that he is a scavenger and a liar. He is also a positive thinker with a level of self-belief that seems ridiculous given his shabby vehicle and lack of employment. Lou lives in Los Angeles; his go-getter personality, his use of business jargon and self-help buzz-words, hardly make him unique in this environment.  A “hustler̶...

8

Critic

The Drop Review

In Brooklyn, there is a series of “drop bars” where the illegal money from criminal jobs can be left. The person running the bar doesn’t know how much money is in these secret hidey-holes. Their job is to look the other way and say nothing while the money comes in. Later, someone from higher up the food chain arrives and clears out the drop-literally a makeshift safe of some kind-and eventually th...

8

Critic

Kill The Messenger

KILL THE MESSENGER is a feature film based on the investigative journalism of the late Gary Webb. The facts, although disputed by some, are on record. This review will mention some of these in the following paragraphs, so if you want to see this film untainted by historical information, then you’d best walk away from your screen now. Take with you the thought that this movie is aimed at an audienc...

6

Critic

Hector and the Search for Happiness Review

Hector (Simon Pegg) is a successful London psychiatrist whose life seems good, until the day he realises that he is deeply unhappy. He feels like a fraud who doesn’t have the life experience to help his patients. So he decides to help them and himself by taking a journey around the world to search for happiness. What makes others happy? he wonders.  Leaving his practice for a while isn’t as diffic...

7

Critic

This Is Where I Leave You Review

There are plenty of movies that tell the story of a funeral bringing together a family. In recent weeks, both THE JUDGE and WISH I WAS HERE have touched upon this common trope. Funerals gather people who in some cases haven’t seen each other for years. In the movies, and possibly in life, this is an opportunity to settle scores and to complete unfinished business. Whether it’s an arthouse flick or...

7

Critic

Fury Review

A young clerk-typist called Norman (Logan Lerman) joins a Sherman tank crew, replacing one of the gunners, recently killed. In fact, Norman’s first task is to wash out the remains of his predecessor from the seat he will occupy on the tank. It is April 1945. The Allied forces have pushed all the way into Germany. Norman is part of the 66th Armor Regiment, 2nd Armored Division. There are five men i...

6

Critic

Son of a Gun Review

A nineteen-year-old boy called JR (Brenton Thwaites) is sent to prison in Western Australia for a minor crime. He keeps to himself at first, but when he tries to intervene to save his cellmate from other prisoners, he becomes the focus of their attentions. Fortunately, notorious armed robber Brendan Lynch (Ewan McGregor) steps in and protects JR. The price for Brendan’s help is that JR is now part...

7

Critic

The Judge Review

Hank Palmer (Downey Jnr) is a high-priced Chicago lawyer prepared to use any legal trick to win a case. His clients are wealthy and most likely ethically dodgy, because as Hank explains, “Innocent people can’t afford me”.  He returns to Carlinville, his hometown in Indiana to attend his mother’s funeral. He finds dealing with his grief complicated by having to see his father for the first time in ...

5

Critic

The Little Death Review

Josh Lawson writes, directs and acts in THE LITTLE DEATH. The title, as if you didn’t know, refers to La petite mort, the term our French cousins use when they need a euphemism for orgasm. Lawson has described his film as a dark comedy and its main subject is sex. Or so it seems at first. The intertwined storylines focus on the sexual experimentation of five middle-class couples, four of whom live...

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