Darrel Manson

Rojek: Meet ISIS

Darrel MansonDec 18, 2023

ISIS (or Daesh or the Islamic State) often seems like a monstrous evil. I’m not saying it isn’t, but it is made up of people. Rojek, from filmmaker Zaynê Akyol, gives us a chance to meet some of these people. They provide an interesting insight into the mindset that...

Film Reviews

The Taste of Things – Food for the soul

Darrel MansonDec 13, 2023

Films about cooking aren’t usually about cooking. That just serves as the framework to tell a story. Food may serve as a metaphor of love or even grace. In Trân Ang Hùng’s The Taste of Things, cooking is not just coincidental to the film, it is central to...

Shayda – Celebrating strong women

Darrel MansonDec 1, 2023

An Iranian woman and her daughter hope for a new life while in an Australian women’s shelter. Noora Niasari’s Shayda is a story about escaping fear and finding new beginnings. It is also a story about finding strength and confidence to buld that new life. Shayda is...

AFIFest Film Reviews

AFIFest: Perfect Days – Finding bliss

Darrel MansonNov 30, 2023

“Next time is next time. Now is now.” Those who have read many of my reviews will know that I have a special affinity for Ecclesiastes, a wisdom book in the Hebrew Scriptures. That book tells of the Teacher’s (aka Qoheleth) search for meaning in life. Films are never...

AFIFest Film Reviews

Obituary – Making a living from death

Darrel MansonNov 21, 2023

“I found my voice now – a voice with murder as its means.” Something about the Irish experience has melded their idea of comedy with the darker side of life. (Note such films as Waking Ned Devine or last year’s Banshees of Inisherin.) That blend of humor and...

Hulu Reviews Television

A Town Called Victoria – Community of communities

Darrel MansonNov 13, 2023

In 2017, a mosque was destroyed by fire in the South Texas city of Victoria. It became a national news story. There were obvious questions to be raised by those events—questions of racism, immigration, Islamophobia, and what it means to be an American. Lu Li’s A Town...

Reviews Television

AFIFest: Smoke Sauna Sisterhood – True communion

Darrel MansonNov 12, 2023

Anna Hints’s Smoke Sauna Sisterhood provides a glimpse into the lives of a group of Estonian women. Their lives are shared with humor, sorrow, and compassion. The documentary won the World Cinema Documentary Directing Award and is Estonia’s entry for Best...

AFIFest Film Reviews

AFIFest: The Universal Theory – Sci-fi Noir

Darrel MansonNov 10, 2023

Timm Kröger’s The Universal Theory (Die Theorie von Allem) opens with a brief segment of a 1974 TV talk show on which Johannes Leinert, an author of a new book with the same title as this film, is the guest. While the host talks of the book as science fiction, the...

AFIFest Film Reviews

AFIFest: Stamped from the Beginning

Darrel MansonNov 10, 2023

Roger Ross Williams opens (and will close) his adaptation of Ibram X. Kendi’s history of racist thought, Stamped from the Beginning, with the question: What is wrong with black people? The query is addressed to Dr. Kendi, and a group of black women academics and...

AFIFest Film Netflix Reviews

Posts by Darrel Manson: