Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of September 28, 2020
John Lewis: Good Trouble
Rated PG for thematic material, some racial epithets, smoking and violence
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
Available on Disc and On Demand
This new documentary by CNN Films follows the life and struggles of Congressman and Civil Rights hero John Lewis. From his early days with Martin Luther King, to his final days which ended earlier this year, the film attempts to show his character, his perseverance, his strategies and the legacy he is most obviously leaving behind. There is no doubt of the greatness of this man. While this film doesn’t show him as perfect, they do portray him to be one of the best, which most would agree with. Unfortunately, he deserves a better documentary than this. I’m guessing that the film changed directions with his death in July. But way too much time was spent in the modern day, with him and his colleagues just doing their thing. The meat of his legacy is what he did over the last 60 years and while some of the focus was spent on that, it needed so much more. I’m sure the point was to show that there was important work then and there is still important work now. But here that message is drowned out with a reality TV-style look, following the man around hoping something might happen. Well something did happen in his past and we would have come away with so much more had they shown us more of that. B-
The Silencing
Rated R for language, violence and some disturbing images Rotten Tomatoes Score: 16%
Available on Disc and On Demand
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) plays an alcoholic hermit who has secluded himself on a game preserve after the disappearance of his daughter. But when he becomes aware of a serial killer of teenage girls, he sets out to track down the killer in the hope of either finding his daughter or at minimum the revenge for her death. At least I think that’s what it is about. Honestly, it’s a sloppy film with a horrible script and a mess of a production. The movie ends up with not much of a mystery and the big reveals are completely underwhelming, and worse – unbelievable. The hard part is that Nikolaj is just so likable in any role, even when the material is this bad. He has the look and talent of an A-lister but is filling his resume with B-level projects. I very much hope that he finds material much more worthy of his abilities and potential so we can stop settling for junk like this. D