Disc Type

1951 was a year that spawned some major classic films. There was An American In Paris, A Streetcar Named Desire, The African Queen, and A Place In The Sun. Of the four mentioned, the one I hadn’t seen and honestly was oblivious to was A Place In The Sun. While I do appreciate many classic films, I don’t have an answer for my ignorance of the film, and with a stacked cast of Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelly Winters, and Raymond Burr, I was more than happy to check out this film and review it on its 70^th anniversary. I went into this film knowing as little as possible, only knowing about the cast and the director George Stevens, a man with an impressive resume as a director as well as a cinematographer. This only flummoxed me further about how this film had managed to escape me for so long.

“By 2014, hundreds of young women had left Europe to join ISIS. Their journeys began on social media platforms where they found new friends and chose new names.”

Based on the non-fiction novel, In The Skin of a Jihadist, this film tells the story about one reporters journey to create a groundbreaking story and how she nearly lost herself in the process. Valene Kane (The Fall) plays Amy Whittaker, a freelance reporter struggling to make ends meet when she decides to investigate the recruitment of young European women by ISIS. As part of her investigation, Amy creates a fake Facebook profile of a young woman who has recently converted to Islam. Before long, she is contacted by Bilel (Shazad Latif, Star Trek: Discovery), an ISIS fighter from Syria.

"I saw this movie."

When the film Stargate was released in 1994, I had very high hopes for the movie. The concept was rather brilliant, and I anticipated a kind of Star Trek without the ship. Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin hit it out of the park with Independence Day two years later, but I was sadly very disappointed in Stargate. I loved the wonderful mythology that combined ancient history and aliens. The concept had so much promise but was bogged down in awkward pacing and some of the worst storytelling I've seen in a big-budget science fiction film. So when the television series debuted on Showtime in 1997, I didn't even bother to check it out. I didn't pay any attention. If I had, I might have given it a try because of the involvement of Richard Dean Anderson, because I loved him in MacGyver, but I intentionally avoided watching the show.

“How many friends did you have growing up? I just had one.”

A member of the cast has described this film as Mean Girls meets Final Destination. I don’t think I could come up with a better summation of the film if I tried. As I watched, I toyed with the idea that the film evoked Kevin Williamson-like nostalgia, but that was the best I came up with. The film is billed as a horror film, but of course there are elements that cause me to see it as more of a black comedy slasher film, like Happy Death Day. OK, that’s enough comparing it to other films; let’s talk about what Séance is. In a nutshell, Séance was a surprise for me.

“Creeks lead to rivers. Rivers lead to towns.”

With a little more character development, Those Who Wish Me Dead would have been a really intriguing story. The film had a winning recipe: a script written by the man who gave us Hell Or High Water/Sicario (Taylor Sheridan), a cast that include talent like Angelina Jolie, Jon Bernthal, Nicholas Hoult, and Aidan Gillen, as well as a rifle-toting pregnant woman on horseback. What more could you ask for? If only adequate time had been spent fleshing the characters out and answering some of the questions that were posed during the film’s runtime. As it stands, the film never gets past the initial intrigue phase, because despite all the things the film did have, it’s what the film was missing that defines it.

"Finn Wallace. He believed in people. He believed in giving opportunities to the disadvantaged. He gave. He supported. He did so much for all of us. All of you. My father was taken from us on the streets of London. And now London will deliver to us those who took him. Finn Wallace. He's still here. He's in me."

Except that Finn Wallace was a crime lord, and he ruled the other criminal gangs in London with an iron hand. He may indeed be dead, but with Gangs Of London created by Gareth Evans, that's really just the beginning of the story. It's a complex story with only 10 episodes to deliver for a first season. Just how well are those stories told? That's also a complicated question.

"In a very real sense, we are all aliens on a strange planet. We spend most of our lives reaching out and trying to communicate. If during our whole lifetime, we could reach out and really communicate with just two people. We are all indeed very fortunate."

- Gene Roddenberry 

I should confess from the beginning that I am a very dedicated Star Trek fan.