Movie Review The Wolf and the Lion

The Wolf and the Lion 

Directed by Giles De Maistre 

Written by Prune De Maistre, Giles De Maistre

Starring Molly Kunz, Graham Greene

Release Date February 4th, 2022

The Wolf and the Lion is a harmless trifle, a modestly charming family movie with zero edge and occasionally baffling continuity. The heart of the filmmakers is mostly in the right place but you can sense the marketing strings being pulled and tears being jerked with excessive force. Based on the true story of a real life friendship between a baby wolf and baby tiger who grew up together on a Canadian island, The Wolf and the Lion is inelegant but harmless. 

The Wolf and the Lion stars Molly Kunz as Alma, a piano prodigy dealing with the loss of a beloved family member. Alma’s kooky granddad owns an island on the coast of Canada where he worked to protect local wildlife from hunters and other human incursions. Granddad passed away and has left his island to his granddaughter in hope that she will keep up his conservation efforts for the local wildlife.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Wind River

Wind River (2017) 

Directed by Taylor Sheridan 

Written by Taylor Sheridan 

Starring Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olson, Graham Green, Gil Birmingham, Q'Orianka Kilcher  

Release Date September 8th, 2017 

Published September 8th, 2017 

Wind River is one of the most emotional experiences I have had at the movies in 2017. The modern western from writer-director Taylor Sheridan is a cold and harsh drama about a cold and harsh place where these characters don’t merely live, they survive. The film also shines a devastating light on the plight of Native Americans and the criminal lack of care we give to their living conditions and well-being. That it takes a white writer-director and two white movie stars to get this story told says nearly as much as the movie itself.

Wind River begins terrifyingly with a young Native American woman running through a barren, snow covered valley. You can feel the cold simply from her manner and the way Sheridan films her running at a distance. Upon closer look your fear for her amps up as it is revealed that she is not wearing shoes or gloves. She collapses and tries to get up and keep going, she’s bleeding. The scene fades to black with her running toward a forest on a mountainside.

The body of the young girl, Natalie, is found a day later by Corey (Jeremy Renner), a hunter employed by the US Fish and Wildlife Administration as he is tracking mountain lions that have been attacking livestock. Corey knows the young girl and her family, they live on the reservation where he met his now ex-wife (Q’Orianka Kilcher). The dead girl was a friend of Corey’s late daughter.

Since the death happened on an Indian Reservation, the jurisdiction is murky, somewhere between County Sheriff’s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the FBI. The FBI is represented by Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olson), an inexperienced agent from Las Vegas who is ill-prepared for the frozen conditions of Utah; she is somehow the closest available agent for the job despite being stationed nearly 400 miles away.

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media