hulu – Page 2 – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

CHILD STAR – Review by Susan Granger

September 17, 2024September 22, 2024 Susan Granger Child Star, christina ricci, Demi Lovato, Dianna De la Garza, documentary, drew barrymore, hulu

Internationally famous as children and, perhaps, has-beens as young adults, talented youngsters can earn enormous salaries that shrivel their parents’ egos with much of their money spent as quickly as it was made. That’s all part of Demi Lovato’s new documentary Child Star. In the opening sequence, Lovato reveals that – as a kid – she decided to be “the next child star,” thinking if Shirley Temple could do it, so could she. Encouraged by her mother, Dianna De la Garza, she began as a performer in beauty pageants.

Reviews

THE BEAR Season 3 – Review by Susan Granger

July 18, 2024July 19, 2024 Susan Granger Abby Elliott, ayo edebiri, Christopher Storer, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, hulu, jamie lee curtis, jeremy allen white, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colon-Zayas, Olivia Colman, The Bear: Season 3

During its first two seasons, The Bear captivated fans and critics alike with its endearing rough-around-the-edges cast, led by Jeremy Allen White’s Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto. Following Carmy’s ongoing uphill battle to revive and totally reinvent his Italian family’s failing Chicago beef sandwich shop, Season 3 focuses on the dysfunctional restaurant kitchen crew as they anxiously await a Chicago Tribune review that could determine the restaurant’s future.

News

WEEK IN WOMEN: MASTERMIND: TO THINK LIKE A KILLER, from EPs Dakota and Elle Fanning, debuts on Hulu – Brandy McDonnell reports

July 2, 2024July 4, 2024 Brandy McDonnell A Killer by Design: Murders, Abby Fuller, and My Quest to Decipher Criminal Minds, Anna Torv, docuseries, Dr. Ann Burgess, hulu, Hulu. week in women, Mastermind: To Think Like A Killer, Mindhunters, twiw

Mastermind: To Think Like A Killer is billed as providing a fascinating new perspective on the woman whose crime hunting innovations changed history. To stop serial killers, psychiatric nurse and professor Dr. Ann Burgess must first learn to think like one. With unprecedented access to the mastermind behind the development of modern serial-killer profiling, the series tells Burgess’ tenacious story and her compassion for victims which puts her at the center of solving America’s most infamous true-crime cases.

Reviews

THE VEIL – Review by Susan Granger

June 19, 2024June 19, 2024 Susan Granger elisabeth moss, hulu, series, Steven Knight, The Veil, Yumna Marwan

Having established her versatility in Mad Men and The Handmaid’s Tale, Elisabeth Moss stars in The Veil in which she plays an enigmatic rogue MI6 operative determined to uncover a mysterious enemy agent, the mastermind behind an upcoming ISIS terrorist attack on the United States. Her quest begins in a remote Syrian refugee camp near the border with Turkey, where several women identify and accuse Adilah El Idrissi (Yumna Marwan) of being the ISS agent who tortured them and murdered their families.

Festivals Reviews

MASTERMIND: TO THINK LIKE A KILLER (Tribeca 2024) – Review by Beth Accomando

June 12, 2024June 16, 2024 Beth Accomando A Killer by Design: Murders, Abby Fuller, and My Quest to Decipher Criminal Minds, Anna Torv, docuseries, Dr. Ann Burgess, hulu, Mastermind: To Think Like A Killer, Mindhunters, Tribeca 2024

Abby Fuller’s Mastermind docuseries profiles criminal profiler Dr. Ann Burgess, who was also the inspiration behind David Fincher’s Mindhunter drama series. The two are excellent companions. While Fincher’s series focuses more on the men, Fuller’s docuseries lets us get an in depth look at Burgess’ contribution and her methodology. The docuseries also explores lesser-known cases than Mindhunter and that proves fascinating. Burgess is an amazing woman and we get insights into how she thinks and how her focus on victims provided a very different perspective on crime and behavior. This is an absolutely riveting show and it is about time the softspoken woman got her moment in the spotlight.

Reviews

MASTER GARDENER – Review by Susan Granger

May 20, 2024May 20, 2024 Susan Granger Apple TV+, God’s Lonely Man trilogy, hulu, joel edgerton, Master Gardener, paul schrader, Quintessa Swindell, sigourney weaver

If you’re a Paul Schrader fan, perhaps you missed the dramatic thriller Master Gardener the third in his God’s Lonely Man trilogy that started with First Reformed (2022) and continued with The Card Counter (2021). Using the metaphor of gardening – how it calms the mind and mends the soul -Schrader centers this character-driven film once again on a tormented man in turmoil, writing “The seeds of love grow like the seeds of hate” in his journal, trying in vain not to allow the secreted skulls and swastikas to surface.

Reviews

FARGO Season 5 – Review by Diane Carson

February 19, 2024February 22, 2024 Diane Carson F/X, fargo, hulu, jennifer jason leigh, Jon Hamm, juno temple, Noah Hawley, series

Fans of the 1996 film Fargo and the television series of the same title know that calm, understated, traditional fare will never dominate the narrative. This pattern holds true in Fargo’s fifth season set in 2019 Minnesota and North Dakota, as titles repeatedly remind us. This iteration blissfully delivers the desired off-beat humor and distinctive, inimitable violence. Very serious issues undergird the entire series, most significantly domestic abuse cloaked as the divine-directed dominance of wives by husbands. Creator Noah Hawley manages to entertain and inject humor into the weighty content.

Reviews

DEATH AND OTHER DETAILS – Review by Susan Granger

February 14, 2024February 16, 2024 Susan Granger Death and Other Details, Heidi Cole McAdams, hulu, Mandy Patinkin, Mike Weiss, series, Violett Beane

Hulu’s 10-episode crime series Death and Other Details, created by Mike Weiss and Heidi Cole McAdams, strives to be different, unearthing the generational secrets of internationally powerful families. Set in the Mediterranean Sea on the luxurious S.S. Verona yacht, the plot focuses on Imogene Scott , the prime suspect in a locked-room murder mystery. A prologue explains that – when Imogene was 10 years-old – her mother died suspiciously. Although world-famous British detective Rufus Cotesworthwas summoned, he’s been unable to crack the case. Now 28, Imogene is on-board with the wealthy Collier family who took her in after her mother’s tragic demise. Patriarchal Lawrence Collier is retiring and Imogen’s best-friend, Anna Collier, is ready to become CEO of Collier Mills, a textile company.

Reviews

FARAWAY DOWNS – Review by Susan Granger

January 10, 2024February 1, 2024 Susan Granger Aboriginal, australian films, Baz Luhrmann, Brandon Walters, Bryan Brown, David Gulpilil, David Wenham, disney, Hugh Jackman, hulu, limited series, nicole kidman, Stolen Generations, Torres Strait Islander, Ursula Yovich

Do you recall a 2008 Baz Luhrmann film called Australia? Starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, I found it an exciting, epic adventure but – at the box-office – it went nowhere, perhaps because it touched too superficially on that country’s notorious Aboriginal race issue. So resourceful Luhrmann recently re-edited it into a six-episode limited series called Faraway Downs, telling a compelling tale as viewed through the eyes of Nullah (Brandon Walters), an enchanting half-Aboriginal outcast child – and adding nearly an hour of never-before-seen footage.

Reviews

NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU – Review by Susan Granger

October 10, 2023October 14, 2023 Susan Granger Brian Duffield, halloween, hulu, kaitlyn dever, No One Will Save You

‘Tis the time for horror movies – and the best of 2023, so far, is Brian Duffield’s No One Will Save You. Just three days after its release, novelist Stephen King posted this Twitter endorsement: “NONE ONE WILL SAVE YOU – Brilliant, daring, involving, scary. You have to go back over 60 years to a TWILIGHT ZONE episode called ‘The Invaders’ (1961) to find anything remotely like it.” Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro posted: “I couldn’t think of a more perfect movie for your weekend.”