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| Short Redhead Reel Reviews date from 1986 to present. This main page lists the five most recent film reviews. To view a complete list of all films reviewed this month, see Previous Reviews on the right. |
Wednesday, December 11, 2024 |
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Activated Man, The |
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R 2024 |
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[Opens Dec. 13 at numerous theaters.] After a depressed, grieving, unemployed man (Jamie Costa), whose mother (Sean Young) is in a psychiatric ward, and his detective partner (Ivana Rojas) recently lost their beloved dog to cancer in Nicholas Gyeney's compelling, spooky, suspenseful, intense, dark, 114-minute thriller, he begins to see ghosts of his dog and escalating threats from a shadowy, menacing, sinister The Fedora Man (Edward Michael Scott) with terrifying teeth, a black hat, and a trench coat and ends up being helped by a renowned psychic exorcist (Tony Todd) while his detective partner investigates an increasing number of murder-suicides.
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Aloha Also Means Goodbye |
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NR 2024 |
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[Available currently on various digital and VOD platforms, including Prime Video, Vimeo on Demand, and GooglePlay.] Gorgeous scenery and cinematography highlight Bryden Lando's realistic, award-winning, heartfelt, touching, predictable, 90-minute film in which a stressed-out pharmaceutical sales manager (Alice Monrow), who is in a strained marriage with her husband (Ryan Rottman) and has two children (Maximus Lando and Gaia Golden), travels to Maui, Hawaii, for a business meeting where she is promoted to regional manager in Los Angeles and then runs into her free-spirited, charming, former lover (Evan Gamble) where she contemplates the future of her life in paradise.
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Dirty Angels |
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R 2024 |
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[Opens Dec.13 in theaters and available on various VOD platforms.] When a group of fierce, rebellious, Taliban terrorists (Hadi Khanjanpour, et al.) kidnap numerous female students (Alyth Ross, et al.) in Afghanistan in 2021 in Martin Campbell's riveting, gritty, action-packed, fast-paced, violent, 104-minute thriller where double-crosses abound, a commando unit of American soldiers (Eva Green, Maria Bakalova, Ruby Rose, Rona-Lee Shimon, Jojo T. Gibbs, Laëtitia Eïdo, Emily Bruni, Christopher Backus, et al.) head to Afghanistan to save the hostages.
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Fairy Creek |
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NR 2024 |
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[Screened Dec. 7 at 3:45 p.m. at the Village 8 Cinemas as part of the Whistlers Film Festival that ran Dec. 4-8 in Whistler, B.C.] Breathtaking cinematography and scenery dominate Jen Muranetz's captivating, powerful, heartwarming, educational, heartbreaking, 88-minute documentary that describes one of the most intense acts of civil disobedience in recent Canadian history, pitting commercial against environmental interests, indigenous tribal against White establishment interests, and ultimately indigenous protesters against White protesters, all in an effort to protect British Columbia's last stands of old growth forest against a large timber company's intent to clear cut the whole Fairy Creek valley forest and consists of commentary with activists Shawna Bushpig and Sparkplug, Pacheedaht elder William Jones, mill owner Mike McKay, tree sitters (such as Panda, Pony, Hummingbird, and Flying Squirrel), and numerous, unidentified Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers, and ultimately the matter remains unresolved because a judge has placed a two-year restraining order on any lumbering in the Fairy Creek valley to prevent further bloodshed, the lumber company has left the area, and various protesting parties are pursuing other methods to stop further clear cutting.
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Faultline |
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NR 2024 |
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[Available Dec. 10 on various VOD platforms.] Anna Cooley's compelling, top-notch acting, suspenseful, ambition-driven, intense, twist-filled, 92-minute thriller in which a veteran, talented attorney (Stacie Harrison) returns to her hometown in Canada from London to manage a corporate merger and ends up reconnecting with her estranged, bartender sister (Kirsten Lankester) as they work with a cop (Stafford Perry) and a lawyer (Jonathan Hawley Purvis) to uncover clues regarding the death of their mother (Julie Orton) and murders that occurred 20 years earlier involving blackmail to keep knowledge of a fault line a secret.
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| See the Full List of Reviews from December |
©2024 by Wendy Schadewald
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