ToniHunterOne

Nicole Quinn has written a hauntingly beautiful love story that transcends time and space. Racing Daylight has an unusual opening with frenzied music playing over the quiet photographs of homes and places in Cedarsville going back four or five generations. Cedarsville is a quiet observer gently protecting the resident's history and their secrets. Sadie Stokes returns to Cedarsville to take care of her aging grandma; they are the last two surviving Stokes in Cedarsville. The refrain is: There have always been Stokes in Cedarsville. Very early we learn that Sadie has always believed she would go insane. She has been experiencing hallucinations, but she tells no one preferring to just let it happen. Sadie discovers that it is freeing to not fight insanity. Sadie is shy and lonely and would like to reach out to a childhood friend, Henry, who always seems to be around when she needs him. One day Henry tells her of a very old letter he found tucked into the wall of a shed on her property. When she reads it Sadie discovers it was written to Anna a Stokes ancestor. Things begin to change for Sadie upon reading the letter. Her hallucinations are becoming interactive which makes you wonder are they hallucinations or is she being possessed and pulled out of time by the spirit of Anna? Except for the chaotic music in the opening you'll find the music is beautiful floats along with the babbling brook, buzzing insects and summer songbirds you can almost feel cool afternoon breezes as you walk along with Sadie in her travels. The characters are wonderful and funny, especially Henry, and they help to tell Sadie's story. Just when you think you have Sadie's story figured out... There are many twists and turns in this 300 year old ghost story. I will be adding this to my personal collection.

I am stunned. Max Bright played by Patrick Warburton is a completely piggish and unredeemable character. He's sexist, aggressive and completely egocentric. The film is raw. You get the sense that it's all filmed on home movies and then played back as a big hellish joke. But on who, though? If ever a character was destined for hell, it is Max Bright. I mentioned at the beginning that I was stunned. I still am. I found the language to be more violent than the actions were brutal; and I've seen Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Fight Club.. It's been a long time since a film's ending has brought me to tears in the way The Civilization of Maxwell Bright has. I found myself weeping at the end. If you have the time and can handle the language; this film is well worth the journey to the end. Outstanding performances were provided by Marie Matiko and Patrick Warburton. The supporting cast is perfect. This is not just a man's film. ~06/21/2012

I just finished watching Luis Berdejo's "The New Daughter". Berdejo adapted it from Irish native writer John Connolly's short story of the same name. Just short of beginning "It was a dark and stormy night..." Berdejo's story begins with an upper middle-class family uprooted by divorce. The father, a writer, hoping for a new beginning relocates his teenage daughter and young son to a lovely country estate on the outskirts of a small town. There are innumerable films out there with an angsty teen girl torn from her emotional attachments leaving her open to the insults of a school bully and the neighborhood unknown entity. TND is rife with just such American clichés; the caring single dad searching for answers, the available concerned teacher, the vague rumors of something "not right" about the estate by the local townsfolk, the anthropology professor, and a dubious American Indian legend surrounding a native American burial mound that just happens to be located on this country estate. Are you beginning to see a pattern here? TND starts out slow and builds to a mediocre pace that barely gets the pulse going even as it approaches the climax of the film. The actors all seem to be sleepwalking through this; the norm for Kevin Costner. Costner has provided us with some great performances such as Crash Davis in "Bull Duram", Charley Waite in "Open Range" and Jake in "Silverado. This is not one of them. I gave this a 3 out of 5 rating because I'm feeling charitable. ~ToniHunterOne 09-3-2012