William Peter Blatty the author of The Exorcist, wrote and directed this spiritual sequel, now defined as part of the faith trilogy formed by The Exorcist, The Ninth Configuration, and The Exorcist III. It’s a fascinating film, in parts funny, in parts heartbreaking, and in parts horrifying. In a remote part of the Pacific Northwest…
Tag: truth
Capricorn One (1977) – Peter Hyams
Moon landing conspiracies didn’t really have any traction until Peter Hyams wrote and directed Capricorn One. Citing the fact that the most important event in mankind’s history had taken place, and the only witness was a television camera sparked his imagination about what could and couldn’t be done with that idea. The Apollo missions were…
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022) – Spock Amok, and Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach
Spock Amok, whose title riffs on The Original Series’ Amok Time, was written by Henry Alonso Myers, and Robin Wasserman. It first debuted on 2 June, 2022. Following their encounter with the Gorn, the Enterprise has returned to Starbase One for some shore leave and minor repairs as well as a diplomatic negotiation with a…
Avatar: The Last Airbender – Book 1: Water – The Blue Spirit, The Fortuneteller, and Bato of the Water Tribe
Zhao (Jason Isaacs) gets promoted to admiral in his search for the Avatar, and he recruits several expert archers to help him. Iroh (Mako) is happy for him, but Zuko (Dante Basco) is less than thrilled, in The Blue Spirit. Written by series creators Micheal Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, this episode debuted on 17…
Ad Astra (2019) – James Gray
James Gray delivers one of the most authentic looks at space travel since Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, throw in a little of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and you have the basic groundwork for this science fiction drama that sees astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) travelling to the outer reaches of our solar system, all…
Hill Street Blues (1986) – I Come on My Knees, and Say Uncle
I Come on My Knees first aired on 6 November, 1986 and was written by David Milch. There’s a lot going on in this episode, and once again the silly melodrama has been pushed aside. Sure there are fun character moments, but as a whole the series seems to be determined to finish incredibly strong….
TAD 2023: Restore Point dir. Robert Hloz
Restore Point fro the Czech Republic has a lot of things going for it, and I ended up having lots of nit-picky questions that suggest to me that I really liked the film and wanted to understand all the things behind it, the logistics of the scenario. But most of all, I loved all the…
TAD 2023: UFO Sweden dir. Victor Danell
Do you want to believe? Young Denise (Inez Darl Torhaug) does. She remembers the night her father disappeared chasing down UFOs, and it’s been an obsession ever since. She’s grown to be a young woman, tech savvy in the mid-90s and is determined to find the truth of what happened. As she begins to cross…
Family Ties (1983) – Margin of Error, French Lessons, and I Gotta Be Ming
Alex (Michael J. Fox) gets in all manner of trouble in Margin of Error. Written by Michael Russnow it was first broadcast on 9 February, 1983. Alex is playing the stocks on paper every day for a school project, and he’s been making a theoretical killing. When he asks Steven (Michael Gross) and Elyse (Meredith…
Mexican Gothic (2020) – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Mexican Gothic is a wonderfully lush, and haunting novel, embracing all the familiar tropes of the Gothic genre, romance, the old dark house, family secrets, and the hints of something preter- or supernatural all juxtaposed into Mexico of the 1950s. We’re introduced to Noemi, a vivacious, smart, stubborn, flirtatious young woman who is still looking…
The Mind Reels 