REVIEW: Mary Queen of Scots [2018]

Our swords are not just for show. I know nothing of Scottish history. While this means I can’t attest to the veracity of Mary Queen of Scots, however, it doesn’t stop me from wondering about its lukewarm reception. What’s interesting is how the film as adapted by Beau Willimon from John Guy‘s novel Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart cares little about history at all. Besides explaining the facts surrounding Mary’s heir (James I) acquiring the crown of England without bloodshed (and consequently continuing a lineage that…

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REVIEW: Dough [2016]

“How can you lose trousers?” Think of John Goldschmidt‘s latest film Dough (his first in the director’s chair since 1987) as a cinematic peace pipe for race relations and religious zealots. Rather than tobacco and herbs mixed into kinnikinnick for a clay vessel, however, screenwriters Jonathan Benson and Jez Freedman use marijuana and challah. The concoction sells through the roof, has London’s East End overrun by patrons like never before, and gets its unwitting purveyor remembering what it’s like to live. Just when Jewish baker Nat Dayan (Jonathan Pryce) thought…

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