Darrel Manson

Nona – Dream Trip Turns to Nightmare

Darrel MansonDec 7, 2018

Most of the Michael Polish film Nona seems like a dream. There are new young people who seem to have a wonderful life opening up for them. But for one of them this dream turns into a nightmare. A young Honduran woman (Sulem Calderon) lives in a shanty town. She seems...

Film Reviews

Vox Lux – Losing Innocence, Personal and National

Darrel MansonDec 7, 2018

Vox Lux is a story of the loss of innocence. It is also a reflection on the possibility of losing one?s foundational values along with that innocence. While we see this play out in the life of a girl and the woman she becomes, it may also give us pause to think about...

Invisible Hands – Meeting the Children Who Work for You

Darrel MansonNov 30, 2018

?There are over 200 million children making the things we buy.? If you look around your desk, or your pantry, you will almost certainly see products that come to you because of child labor (which is very often slavery). You may already know this (I did), but think...

Film Reviews

Everybody Knows – Disclosing Open Secrets

Darrel MansonNov 26, 2018

In Everybody Knows, director Asghar Farhadi leaves Iranian stresses behind (cf., A Separation, The Past, and The Salesman) for a more Eurocentric story. His previous films focus on people dealing with the tensions between two cultures. This film is a more conventional...

AFIFest Film Reviews

Shoplifters – A Twisted Family Tale

Darrel MansonNov 23, 2018

Winner of the Palme d?Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year, Shoplifters is a part of Hirokazu Kore-eda?s examination of family?s place within society. This is a topic he has looked at from various angles in other films, notably Like Father, Like Son; Our Little...

AFIFest Film Reviews

The Favourite – Machiavellian Comedy

Darrel MansonNov 23, 2018

?I?m on my side. Always.? It isn?t news that politics can be a cutthroat sport. But in the hands of Yorgos Lanthimos, all that palace intrigue can become the basis of humor. The Favourite is a Machiavellian comedy set 400 years ago that reflects the way power often...

AFIFest Film Reviews

Creed II – Still in Rocky’s Shadow

Darrel MansonNov 20, 2018

The Rocky?saga continues with Creed II. It would be nice for the Creed films to have their own identity. It?s not just that they still have Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in a key role; they both rely heavily on plot from the earlier Rocky films rather than looking...

Film Reviews

Jinn – Coming of Age and Coming to Faith

Darrel MansonNov 20, 2018

Teenage years can be a difficult time as one tries establish an identity. But what happens when religion is suddenly put into the mix? In Jinn, a young woman must learn how to fit Islam into her life and determine how to adapt herself to a new way of seeing things....

AFIFest Film Reviews VOD

Roma – A Loving Memory of Life

Darrel MansonNov 19, 2018

In a taped message before the screening of Roma at AFIFest, director Alfonso Cuar?n noted that it was based on memories from his childhood in Mexico City in 1971, and called it ?a love letter to the women who raised me.? This is a very personal film for Cuar?n. Here,...

AFIFest Film Netflix Reviews

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