Monday, November 13, 2017

Documentary: An Inflammatory Approach (2017)

Copyright: Dreamscape Media
The place where Western pharmaceutical and medical practices meet and clash with those outside of the same realm is always an interesting one. Teddy Hayes, a UK filmmaker recently explore the same domain when he traveled to India to meet a doctor who developed a completely new approach aimed at resolving inflammatory illnesses. The result is a fascinating film called An Inflammatory Approach and here’s what the documentary page states:

A medical discovery offers an alternative treatment to inflammatory-related diseases. Bobbili, India is where the work of Dr. Apparao Peddapalli has reaped incredible medical results despite business-related conspiratorial challenges-specifically the systematic discounting of his proven results by government and global pharmaceutical companies. 

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Two Paragraph Review - Wind River (2017)

Once more, the movie world puts a sniper rifle in the hands of Jeremy Renner, but this time, it exchanges the sun-scorched wastelands of Iraq for the frozen wastelands of Wyoming. There, a murder of a young woman belonging to the local Native American tribe brings in the law enforcement, but also many questions related to a community struggling with real-life problems, as well as their cultural identity and a sense of purpose.

The film was made by Taylor Sheridan, who had his part in movies like Sicario and Hell or High Water, which makes him a prime author of modern gritty thrillers. Wind River is also a very good thriller, but not much than this. For me, the main issue that comes across is the lack of real depth in relation to the Native American angle of the story. Aside from the expected sympathy for their silent plight and somewhat simplistic representation of many struggling characters, the film ends up being something that just did it research and then completely forgot about Wyoming or its inhabitants. For me, Mystery Road is an example how this type of a story can be told with less cinematographic polish but with a more hearth, which Wind River lacks just a little bit.