REVIEW: Lingua Franca [2020]

Always a bridesmaid. There are few things worse in this life than to be refused one’s humanity. Whether the result of bigotry via the lens of race, gender, sexuality, and age or mistrust via a desire to underestimate, reduce people to their biggest regrets, or dismiss sight unseen, our capacity to treat others as “less than” ourselves is growing at an exponential rate. And for what? A laugh? A false sense of superiority deflecting from one’s own shortcomings? So much about how we as Americans act boils down to our…

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REVIEW: Mohawk [2018]

In my experience it’s the white man who does the scalping. War is an interesting concept wherein life is both priceless and worthless depending upon which side you call yours. When it’s a matter of taking something that you want but do not possess, those who currently hold it are expendable. And when they fight back to retain it we call them enemies, savages. Here they are defending themselves from an invading force and yet they are in the wrong. It’s a fine line between justice and greed, survival and…

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REVIEW: Winchester [2018]

I died. You wouldn’t think to use the word timely to describe a horror movie about a place known as the Winchester Mystery House wherein a black lace-veiled woman feels the presence of ghosts and locks them away in specially built rooms with thirteen nails, but here we are. The reason stems from why this woman does what she does. She is Sarah Winchester—the widow of the son of the founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company—and she believes her family is cursed. To hear her say it, every victim…

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