Netflix: Review of DON'T LOOK UP: Apathy to an Apocalypse

December 25, 2021

Michigan State University Astronomy grad student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) discovered an new comet hurtling towards Earth. Her professor, Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo di Caprio), calculated that the mountain-sized comet will hit the Pacific Ocean about six months and cause a catastrophe that would destroy the entire planet. However, when they tried to inform US President Janie Orlean (Meryl Streep), they just got the runaround. 

This film was about a coming apocalyptic disaster to be caused by a comet on a collision course with the Earth, much like the story of "Deep Impact" (1998) and "Armageddon" (1998), and more recently "Greenland" (2020). However, while the previous films went for thrills, suspense and melodrama, this new film written, directed and produced by Adam McKay went for disturbing dark comedy and biting political satire against the US government. 

Adam McKay rose to fame as the head writer of "Saturday Night Live" in the 1990s, and went on to collaborate with Will Ferrell on several hit comedy films like "Anchorman" (2004). In the last decade, Mc Kay gained more serious cred as a filmmaker when "The Big Short" (2015) had 5 Oscar nods including Best Picture, winning one for Adapted Screenplay for McKay. This was followed by "Vice" (2018), which had 8 Oscar nominations, also including Best Picture. 

Aside from Di Caprio, Lawrence and Streep, there were two more Oscar winners, Cate Blanchett (as a slutty TV host) and Mark Rylance (as a smarmy telco CEO), and two Oscar nominees, Jonah Hill (as the annoying Chief of Staff) and Timothy Chalamet (as skater boy Yule). Also notable are include Rob Morgan (as a NASA official), Ron Perlman (as a Boomer general), Tyler Perry (as Blanchett's co-host) and Ariana Grande (as a pop star, of course).

McKay was harsh here in his depiction of the ineptitude of the US government, the pervasive influence of big business and artificiality of mass media. The performance of Di Caprio, as a shy middle-aged scientist thrust into the national celebrity limelight, was the glue that held this piece together. His on-air breakdown scene was a riveting tour-de-force piece of acting, while his dinner table scene brimmed with genuine emotion without the melodrama. 8/10. 

Amazon Prime: Review of BEING THE RICARDOS: Loving and Living Lucy

December 23, 2021

One September night in 1953, radio personality Walter Winchell dropped a not-so-subtle blind item that Lucille Ball was a communist. The next day, the cast and crew of Ball's hit TV show "I Love Lucy" gathered at the studios to film the next episode, uncertain whether they were actually going to go on air that week. Meanwhile, Ball and her husband Cuban-born bandleader Desi Arnaz faced conflicts with co-actors, writers, management and each other.

As a fan of popular culture, I know about "I Love Lucy" but I sad to say what I know was only cursory general knowledge. I had only seen a few of the more famous episodes, notably "Vitameatavegemin" and "Lucy's Italian Movie," both of which were referred to in this biopic. In the few shows that I was able to watch, it was clear how Lucille Ball was a master of physical comedy, unafraid to make a fool out of herself to the delight of her audience.

However in this new film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, we see Lucille Ball in a very different light when she was behind the cameras. We are shown how much of strict stickler she was about the details of her show, demanding logic even for what seemed to be minor scenes. She was arguing with writers and directors, thinking and rethinking about blocking for several days before the actual shoot. Comedy was a serious matter for her.

Another serious matter for Ball was her marriage with Arnaz. She was four years older than him, and he was frequently away from home on his concert tours. Ball always emphasized that even if she was the star of their show, the final approval of all business and artistic decision lay on Arnaz, and she made sure he felt this. She would have rejected the offer to star in this TV show as Lucy if Arnaz had not been cast as her husband, Ricky Ricardo. 

I felt that the main drawback to this film was the casting of the principal characters. Nicole Kidman was good as calculating Lucille Ball, but looked too icy to be quirky Lucy Ricardo. Javier Bardem tried too hard to be lively Arnaz, maybe because he really did not look like him. As the actors playing the Ricardos' neighbors Ethel and Fred Mertz, Nina Arianda was too young to play Vivian Vance, while JK Simmons looked too fit to be William Frawley. Anyhow, you soon get used to these actors because of their commitment to their roles. 

The documentary approach was a practical way for Sorkin to tell his story. The set design, the costumes and hairstyles successfully recreated the atmosphere of the 1940s to the 1950s. Those scenes about the script rehearsals and the filming before a live audience served to immerse the audience into the showbiz lifestyle. People who knew them will find the story about this one extraordinarily stressful week in the the life of Lucy and Desi fascinating stuff, but I'm not sure about those who don't have an idea who they are. 7/10. 

MMFF 2021: Review of KUN MAUPAY MAN IT PANAHON: Deluge of Depression

December 21, 2021

It was November of 2013. The super-typhoon Yolanda and the massive storm surge it triggered had just ravaged the city of Tacloban and left it in absolute state of mass destruction. When the worst had settled down, Miguel (Daniel Padilla) soon got reunited with his girlfriend Andrea (Rans Rifol), and later his mother Norma (Charo Santos). The three planned to catch a coming ship which will take them to Manila before a rumored next typhoon will hit. 

"Kun Maupay Man It Panahon" (Waray for "Whether the Weather is Fine"), had already made the rounds of various film festivals in Europe, Asia and the Americas since its grand premiere at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland this August 2021. It had earned the Cinema e Gioventù Prize in Locarno and the Best Director prize in London. This December, it finally makes its premiere on local soil, and as an entry of the Metro Manila Filmfest. 

While its award-winning, festival-hopping reputation may spark interest among Filipino cinephiles to go see it, this is definitely not the kind of film mainstream MMFF audiences would take to easily. In the past, the box-office of MMFF had been dominated by shallow slapstick comedies by Vice Ganda or Vic Sotto. On the other hand, "Kun Maupay" is an art film which puts value on cinematic artistry rather than popular entertainment.

This is the feature film directorial debut of Carlos Francisco Manatad. He is known as one of the most prolific film editors of the country before he began directing short films which had also been screened festivals abroad. He is from Tacloban City and he began work on this film soon after he went home to locate his family after typhoon Yolanda hit. 11 producers and a worldwide pandemic later, his passion project is finally complete and reaping critical acclaim.

Daniel Padilla as Miguel

(publicity still photo)

Daniel Padilla's Miguel was a passive fellow who mainly reacted to the orders of the two women in his life. By the final third of the film, Padilla shone brightest as an actor in those wordless scenes as Miguel was being swept up by the crowd toward the ship. The excellent blocking and composition of these scenes resulted in eloquent imagery and dramatic impact, with Padilla's expressive face front and center, doing all the work.

Newcomer Rans Rifol played Andrea as an outspoken street-smart young lady who knew what she wanted and made sure she got them. She is quite strong-willed such that she can fill the screen with tension when she was on, like the scene with the butcher and the chickens, or those snide side comments she had for Norma. Her story took a strange turns, one involving a dog with a wound on the beach and another, an extravagant musical number. 

Ms. Charo Santos took a long hiatus from films in 1999 and only made a comeback in 2016 to play the lead in Lav Diaz' "Ang Babaeng Humayo." Since then, she had only done "Eerie" (2019) and now this one. Her Norma was a woman desperate to find her missing husband Luis, even if it meant her own suffering. Her gut-wrenching scene pleading with Miguel to hurt her was her emotional highlight, even as her final scene dancing was ethereally memorable. 

Charo Santos as Norma

(publicity still photo)

Compared to the other 7 films in the festival, this was on a level of its own when it comes to artistic merit. The stark visuals of LA and Singapore-based cinematographer Lim Teck Siang and the monumental work of production designer Whammy Alcazaren and art directors Sam Manacsa and Nimrod Sarmiento, to recreate the death and destruction in Tacloban deserve accolades. The management of the crowd scenes was also remarkable.

Matinee idol Daniel Padilla has hordes of young fans, so his name alone should bring them in to watch this and be exposed to the rich, slow and often bizarre world of art house cinema. Now whether they along with the mainstream MMFF audiences could connect with the film and see it as "a tribute to the resilience, strength and perseverance of Filipinos" as the filmmakers envisioned, that still remains to be seen. It is about time. 8/10. 

MMFF 2021: Review of A HARD DAY: Perplexing Police Problems

December 20, 2021

One night, Detective Edmund Villon (Dingdong Dantes) was rushing to go to his mother's wake. At the same time, his fellow officers at the PNP Intel Dept. were being questioned by Internal Affairs so he needed to be there as well. However, when he was trying to avoid a dog on the road, Villon swerved his car only to hit a man crossing the road, killing him instantly. 

After taking great pains to get rid of the body of the man he accidentally killed, Villon realized that his victim was Apyong, the guy involved in the big drug case they were investigating. Soon after Villon began to receive persistent phone calls from someone who had apparently witnessed what he had done and was threatening to report him to the authorities. 

This story and screenplay of this film was adapted from the South Korean sleeper box-office hit film of the same name which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. That film made the rounds of all the Korean award-giving bodies, winning several awards for its director and writer Kim Seong-hun, as well as for its two main actors Lee Sun-kyun and Cho Jin-woong. There had also been citations for its technical merits as well. 

This bountiful awards pedigree may bode good chances for awards for this Filipino remake also, and that is not an empty prediction. Director Law Fajardo hit this action thriller project out of the park with his energetic and engaging direction and editing. Cinematography by Rodolfo Aves, Jr. and musical score by Peter Legaste and Rephael Catap also deserve recognition. Both Dingdong Dantes and John Arcilla both turn in intense and committed portrayals.

With his corrupt money-making rackets, propensity for getting away with wrongdoing and foul mouth, Villon was certainly no saint. However, Dingdong Dantes and his powerful leading man aura makes Villon a sympathetic character to root for. By now there is no doubt how effective a despicable villain John Arcilla can be. Here as the despicable Lt. Ace Franco, Arcilla gleefully went for it all out with his signature evil slime dripping profusely in his every scene. 

Dantes and Arcilla were supported by a gallery of character actors who made a cohesive ensemble behind them. Villon's teammates at Intel include Al Tantay (as Chief), Janno Gibbs (as Arturo) and Garry Lim (as Elmer). Villon's family include Meg Imperial (as his sister Erica), and Lhiane Key Gimeno (as his daughter Yanni). Notable actors in minor roles include Jelson Bay (as a strict traffic officer) and Lou Veloso (as the funeral parlor manager).  

An intelligent, hard-hitting action film like "A Hard Day" is a very welcome addition to this year's MMFF, as 2021 had been dominated by silly comedy films, LGBT indie films and sexy erotic films. Fajardo's executed the car chases with very impressive driving stunts. Those raw gritty fighting scenes were well-choreographed and looked genuinely painful for Dantes and Arcilla. This surely has mainstream appeal especially for the male audience. 8/10. 

 

Vivamax: Review of CRUSH KONG CURLY: Judging the Judgemental

December 18, 2021

Elle (AJ Raval) was a popular online celebrity who gained notoriety by pleasuring herself online via private live-stream website. Her next door neighbor was architect Peter (Wilbert Ross) whom she met when she accidentally crashed through the wall that separated their bedrooms. At first, ex-seminarian Peter felt that Elle's libertine activities were immoral. However, upon getting to know her more, will he change his initial impression of her? 

Ever since she was introduced in "Paglaki Ko, Gusto Ko Maging Pornstar" in January of this year, AJ Raval had been getting more and more brazen with her onscreen exhibitionism as she got more and more confident with her acting skills. In this latest project of hers, she played an online sex goddess, so she was mostly undressed in majority of her scenes, her enhanced bosom in full display, doing some lascivious acts to herself or with someone else. 

Wilbert Ross had a good onscreen presence in his first Vivamax project as Andrew E.'s sidekick in "Shoot Shoot." Unfortunately here, Ross was awkward throughout, betraying his unpreparedness to pull off a lead role of this type. Ross was also quite prudish in his sex scenes, letting his partner Raval doing all the heavy lifting.  He did not seem comfortable to be there at all, and I don't blame him as the way his character was written was totally off-putting.

The main supporting actors have been in other Vivamax productions this year. Chad Kinis and Loren Marinas played Elle's wacky housemates, with Andrew Muhlach as Peter's sidekick. Maui Taylor and Jao Mapa played Peter's problematic sister and her depraved brother-in-law. Gina Pareno played Elle's grandmother. Actually faring better than Ross in the stud department was Gab Lagman who played Elle's high school tormentor Brian.

Director GB Sampedro attempts his second film in the sexy comedy genre, but I felt his first one "Kaka" was more entertaining than this one. I see the point he and writer Conn Escobar was trying to make about being more accepting and less judgmental when it came to people whose jobs may not sit well with your sense of morality. However, Peter's twisted story was just too contrived to be logical which newbie Ross simply could not pull off. 1/10. 

MMFF 2021: Review of BIG NIGHT!: Urgent Undertaking

December 17, 2021

Dharna (Christian Bables) was a friendly neighborhood beautician. One day, a leaked document showed his real name Panfilo Macaspac Jr. to be among the suspected drug addicts in the watch list of their barangay. He learned that this list will be turned over to the Phil. National Police the next day. So for the rest of that day and night, Dharna went around to various area leaders in an effort to get his name out of the dreaded list.

Their barangay chairman Cynthia (Eugene Domingo) sent Dharna to see school principal Mr. Roja (Soliman Cruz), the president of Area 2 where he now lived. His father Lando (Ricky Davao) recommended Dharna to see midwife Melba (Janice de Belen), the president of Area 5 where he grew up. He was also told to find action star Donato Rapido (John Arcilla), the president of Area 8, the only area which allowed accusations via dropbox. 

Dharna's situation was understandably very desperate. He only had one overnight to alter an unfortunate event which will affect his life forever. There were so many people to see, and so little time. These local politicians all asked him to do them favors for their own little private businesses. On top of all that, Dharna had issues with his boyfriend Zeus (Nico Antonio), an aging macho dancer at 30 who desperately wanted to win a pageant that same night. 

The central character Dharna just had to be an openly gay guy, who just happened to have two similarly gay brothers Vholta (VJ Mendoza) and Ghalema (Awra Briguela), and they all just happened to speak Tagalog with a thick Visayan accent. These elements made sure that there was a healthy dose of humor throughout to keep things light, but not too much as to totally dispel the seriousness of the important political commentary being made. 

Christian Bables has this gay persona pretty much second nature for him, and his dramatic chops for his serious scenes remains excellent. All the big name supporting actors gamely play their wacky characters, with Janice de Belen, John Arcilla and Gina Alajar (as Dharna's sainted mother) giving most memorable turns. Writer-director Jun Lana hits a homerun once again, even if this topic of tokhang may somehow oddly dated now. 8/10. 

 

Netflix: Review of THE HAND OF GOD: A Filmmaker's Formation

December 17, 2021

It was Naples, Italy in the 1980s. Fabietto (Filippo Scotti) was a sensitive young man who lived at home with his parents Saverio (Toni Servillo) and Maria Schisa (Teresa Saponangelo) and his brother Marchino (Marlon Joubert). His extended family was very close as they spent time together gossiping at the beach or watching Diego Maradona play football with home team Napoli. A sudden tragedy forced Fabietto to seek focus in his life, planning to be a filmmaker. 

The film began with a strange episode about Fabietto's aunt Patrizia (Luisa Ranieri). Clearly standing out among a crowd of people in a bus stop with her height, beauty and perky ample bosom straining in her white dress, Patrizia was picked up by a man calling himself San Gennaro (Naples' patron saint) to meet a hooded child called the Little Monk. This whim soon shifted to reality when Patrizia arrived in her house later to face her husband Franco.

This bizarre prologue set the wheels rolling on this sprawling tale of one teenager, his family and his neighborhood. These were little random episodes of home life, family gatherings and meeting new friends, just like how it was in reality. Big Italian families getting together really make for very interesting cinema because of their quirky passionate personalities and the lively stories they exchanged about each other and their friends. 

Some colorful female characters really stood out from the rest -- Fabietto's spirited mother Maria with her juggling skills and very naughty pranks, his gorgeous but mentally-disturbed muse Patrizia with her nonchalance towards nudity, the stern-faced Signora Gentile (Dora Romano) with her ubiquitous fur coat, and the matronly Baronnessa Focale (Betti Pedrazzi) fulfilling her noble mission in Fabietto's life. 

This gorgeously-shot coming-of-age film written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino is said to be based on his own teenage years growing up in Naples. Sorrentino, who came into prominence in 2013, when he won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for "The Great Beauty," was an apprentice under local Napoli film director Antonio Capuano, the name of the brutally frank character (Ciro Capano) who will also initiate Fabietto into filmmaking. 

After winning the Jury Prize in the Venice Film Festival this year, this film had also garnered a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes. It is also the film Italy picked to enter the race for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film. While the title "The Hand of God" was the nickname of a memorable goal by Diego Maradona during the 1986 World Cup, Sorrentino obviously had a more metaphysical meaning for it. 9/10. 

Netflix: Review of BRUISED: Rocky Road to Redemption

December 16, 2021

Jackie Justice (Halle Berry) was once a top tier MMA fighter. 4 years ago, faced with a opponent she was not prepared for, she decided to tap out and forfeit the brutal fight and got publicly ridiculed for it. Since then, she lived a down-and-out life with her incompetent manager/ boyfriend, earning a meager living as a cleaning woman. 

One day, she was offered a chance to get back to professional fighting by promoter Immaculate (Shamier Anderson), introducing her to strict methodical trainer Buddhakhan (Shiela Atim). Meanwhile, Jackie was unexpected reunited with her estranged 6-year old son Manny (Danny Boyd, Jr.) when his father, Jackie's ex-boyfriend, died in a shootout. 

Only 30 minutes into the film, you already get a sense of how the next hour and a half of this film was going to go. Career-wise, Jackie was clearly getting a major opportunity to crawl her way out of the desperate situation she got herself into. On a personal level, she was getting a chance to finally become a mother to a son she never met before. How will she fare?

Ever since she won her Best Actress Oscar for "Monster's Ball" (2002), Halle Berry had been struggling to play another role to prove her worth as a serious actress once again. This role as Jackie Justice ticked all the right boxes to bring her back into awards contention, and Berry at 55 certainly poured everything she had into this -- physically and emotionally. For additional commitment, this film is also her directorial debut. 

The story gave Jackie obstacles she needed to overcome -- lousy partner Desi (Adan Canto), negligent mother Angel (Adriane Lenox), and above all, her own inner demons. There are heartwarming scenes trying to connect with her son, who had been traumatized into silence since his father's death. There was an LGBT angle with her butch philosopher of a trainer. 

Like similar films in the sports genre, there was the requisite training montage and the pain she had to endure. There was even a little reference to "Rocky" when she jogged out of the boxing venue in a training suit with her arms raised up punching the sky. Of course, the culmination of all this was the big fight against Lady Killer (Valentina Shevchenko).

That 5-round championship match went through all the usual dramatic tropes of such grand finales in sports films. There a powerful first round by Lady Killer and underdog Jackie's Herculean efforts to come from behind to even things up. After the announcement of the winner, there was an acknowledgement by the appreciative crowd. Then again, you've probably already seen all this coming from the start.  6/10. 

Review of NO TIME TO DIE: Bond Bids Bye

December 15, 2021

James Bond (Daniel Craig) had parted in bad terms with Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) after an attempt was made on his life by Spectre agents while they were in Italy. Five years later, Bond, now retired from MI6 and working with the CIA, got involved with the case of a kidnapped scientist Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik), who had developed a deadly DNA-based nanobot-technology transdermal poison called Herakles. 

After Herakles was used to commit mass murder at a remote birthday party for imprisoned Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) in Cuba, Obruchev wound up working for Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek), a terrorist with a major axe to grind against Spectre for the death of his parents under the hands of Mr. White, Madeleine Swann's father. Bond had to go against all odds to destroy Project Herakles, save the people he loved, and save the whole world.  

A review of "Spectre" (2015) may be in order to refresh one's memory about the characters involved in this direct sequel. It that film, Bond infiltrated Spectre and located their assassin Mr. White before he shot himself. Bond then met Mr. White's beautiful daughter, accomplished psychotherapist Dr. Madeleine Swann. While fighting Spectre and Blofeld together, Bond and Swann fall in love, and happily rode off into the sunset at the end of the film. 

In this sequel, the romantic relationship of Bond and Swann was further explored after a five-year estrangement. As the main (albeit not so impressive) antagonist of this film, Safin now held the destructive power of Herakles and needed to be stopped at all costs. However, for Bond, this was more of a personal mission because Safin also had Madeleine and her young daughter Mathilde (Lisa-Dorah Sonnet) in his clutches. 

All the hallmarks of a Bond film in terms of high-tech spyware and fancy sports cars are all here, as well as the MI6 personnel, M (Ralph Fiennes), Q (Ben Whishaw) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris). Billie Eilish exquisite title song played over the stylish opening credits. At the closing credits, there was Louie Armstrong's "We Have All the Time in the World" (from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"), strains of which we heard in an early scene.

This is said to be Daniel Craig's final film as Bond, so this is the last time we would see that rough and rugged version of Bond whom Craig rebooted in "Casino Royale" (2005). Despite nailing all the death-defying action sequences, Craig showed more of his vulnerable side here and it was all over his troubled-looking face. That this old 007 was saying goodbye was felt all throughout. A new black female 007 named Nomi (Lashana Lynch) was even introduced. 

Under the direction of Cary Joji Fukunaga, the stunts were all astounding to watch as ever, especially the thrilling motorbike jump and Aston Martin car chase scenes in picturesque Matera, Italy, the stressful chase along the mountain roads of Norway with a child inside Bond's Land Rover, and that awesome Ana de Armas fight sequence as agent Paloma in Cuba. Daniel Craig's sentimental final scene as James Bond amidst a rain of exploding missiles made a most enduring image to remember this film by. 8/10. 

HBO Go: Review of GENSAN PUNCH: Disabled Dreams

December 9, 2021

Nao Tsuyama (Shogen) was an amateur Japanese boxer from Okinawa who wore a prosthesis on his right leg which was lost after a bad car accident. This disability did not deter him from pursuing his dream to be a professional boxer.  However, he had been repeatedly been denied a professional boxing license in Japan because of a perceived safety issue. He thought of going to the Philippines to try his luck of turning pro there. 

He joined the Gensan Punch boxing gym in General Santos City, and got along well with his fellow Filipino trainees despite the language barrier. He  trained under Coach Rudy (Ronnie Lazaro), who was an international champion himself back in his heyday. In order to qualify for a professional license, he needed to win three consecutive matches to qualify. If he lost one match, the count is reset back to zero. 

It was a typical boxing underdog movie in structure, only this one was actually based on the career path of a real-life Japanese boxer who had a prosthetic leg. All the scenes you'd expect to see in a boxing film was here. There were several training montages. There was a part about a young boxer who incurred a very serious injury during a fight which would cost him his life. There was an instance of game fixing to assure a victory. 

Japanese actor Shogen had looks that reflected Tsuyama's half-Caucasian, half-Japanese parentage. He is already 43 years old so he looked older than the boxers he fought, but he made up for this with his lean fit body and youthful energy. The special effects of his amputated leg was done well, even including a full-body shot of his back side, in the nude, without the leg. As Coach Rudy, Ronnie Lazaro was being typical Ronnie Lazaro. The presence of Beauty Gonzales (as gym manager Melissa) was barely felt. 

This is director Brillante Mendoza's first stab at a sports drama movie. Even if the usual tropes of such a film were all there, the trademark social realism expected of a Brillante Mendoza film can still be seen as a side note. The boxing scenes are brutal, with each round practically playing out in real time, but some of them may feel long in the context of a film. Mendoza's "tribute to boxers" had more Japanese zen than Filipino melodrama. 7/10. 

Netflix: Review of THE UNFORGIVABLE: A Sullen and Scowling Sandra

December 12, 2021

Ruth Slater (Sandra Bullock) was convicted of murder following the shooting of a sheriff who came to evict her and her 5-year old sister Katie from their house. Now that she had been released after serving 20 years, she met a kind lawyer John Ingram (Vincent D'Onofrio), who could get her back in touch with Katie (Aisling Franciosi), who is now in college as a piano prodigy, adopted and raised by the Malcolms (Richard Thomas and Linda Emond). 

Sandra Bullock totally shed off all her Hollywood star glamor to portray a stern-faced, prison-hardened Ruth. In the whole film, Bullock never had a smile pass her lips as her character Ruth shuttled between her jobs at the fish processing center and carpentry work at the civic center. As Ruth, Bullock had to be tough as she had to face people who only saw her as a cop-killer and an ex-con, but she still managed to make her sympathetic.

Vincent D'Onofrio played John Ingram the man who now owned the house Ruth lost, who just so happened to be a lawyer who did pro-bono work. Viola Davis was a surprising choice to play Ingram's wife Liz, who did not like the idea of a cop-killer in her home. Jon Bernthal, who has awards buzz for his work in "King Richard" (2021), played Ruth's friendly co-worker Blake. It was also good to see John-Boy Walton Richard Thomas in a film role again. 

Tom Guiry began his career as a child actor as the lead character in "The Sandlot" but now at 40, he played Keith Whelan, the creepy elder son of the sheriff Ruth killed. Will Pullen played the younger Whelan brother Steve, who was having a rough patch with his wife Hannah (Jessica MacLeod). Their characters provided the suspense angle of the film, but I felt the drama of the sisters could have been explored more if they were not there.

Directed by Nora Fingscheidt, this film was written by Peter Craig, Hillary Seitz and Courtenay Miles, adapted from the story of  a 2009 British miniseries "Unforgiven" written by Sally Wainwright. Its twist, revealed in a most uncompelling manner, will make it popular among Netflix fans. The ending happened all too abruptly, ignoring all the psychological build-up that came ahead. Bullock, however, manages to give this grim story ample heart. 5/10.