Red Joan (2019) - Movie Review

Communism on film has been around for as long as film itself. The Soviet propaganda machine, in particular the works of Sergei Eisenstein, helped pioneer filmmaking techniques that have become commonplace across the globe. Hell, if we’re talking honestly, Dziga Vertov’s Man With A Movie Camera is one of the most important films in the history of the medium, and it too wielded communist iconography to make its statements about the potential of cinema.

I bring all this up partly so that those with knee jerk reactions to anything regarding socialism can safely skip this and save themselves some self-induced headaches. But also because, knowing the ideology’s connections to the art form, it’s rather disappointing that a modern film could depict that same ideology in quite possibly the dullest fashion possible.

Duck Duck Goose (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: As his flock prepares to migrate for the winter, Peng (Jim Gaffigan) finds himself stranded on his own. He comes across two ducklings, Chi (Zendaya) and Chao (Lance Lim), who have also been separated from their flock, and he begrudgingly agrees to join them as they both make their way back to their respective families. However, with the psychotic cat Banzou (Greg Proops) hot on their trails, it seems that their migration has only begun to get difficult.

Red Sparrow (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: After an injury cuts her career as a ballerina short, Dominika (Jennifer Lawrence) is left with a terrible choice: Submit to her circumstances or work for the Russian government as a Sparrow.

As she learns the ways of the Sparrow, using seduction and psychology to intercept targets, she becomes entangled with CIA agent Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) after accepting an assignment to find a Russian mole that Nate works with. Between the government forcing her hand, her fellow agents showing signs of distrust and the actual warmth shown by Nate, it seems Dominika will have to think fast if she wants to get out of this situation alive.