Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Podcast (theatrical-movie-review-podcast): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
THE FORGIVEN MOVIE REVIEW
A wealthy collection of bored elites gather out in the Moroccan desert for a party thrown by a snarky couple (Matt Smith and Caleb Landry Jones) but there’s a problem. One couple (Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain) while on their way to the location accidentally hit a local boy on the road and kill him. Taking the body with them back to the party, which is generally not a good way to liven things up, leads to the father of the boy coming there and requesting that Fiennes comes back with him to his home, as this is ‘the way things are done here’. Fiennes agrees and leaves with him and another man (Saïd Taghmaoui) on a very long desert journey with an uncertain moral destination. Meanwhile the party keeps going, for whatever that’s worth. And generally speaking, Chris, Frank, Alan, and Marco didn’t think it was worth much: the party half of the movie, anyway. But still, any movie by John Michael McDonagh (The Guard, Calvary) is well worth a look and although our reviewers didn’t all agree on The Forgiven, it certainly led to a spirited discussion about it.
DIRECTED BY: John Michael McDonagh
STARRING: Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Ismael Kanater, Caleb Landry Jones, Saïd Taghmaoui, Christopher Abbott, Abbey Lee, Mourad Zaoui, Marie-Josée Croze, Alex Jennings
YOUR REVIEWERS
Christopher Lawrence Cox (Founder, Da Boss)
Born in the wilds of northern Virginia, Chris managed to put all of his survival skills to use and barely escaped with his life to Austin Texas in 1992 where ever since he’s dabbled in everything from plumber’s assistant to sandwich maker, from band to bar management. An opportunity to see theatrical release films for free by becoming a critic on a local public access show called “The Reel Deal” turned into a full-time job when Chris and his friends decided to take it to the internet. They built the site Spill.com, adding multiple podcasts and animated features, to no small amount of success. During this time, a fortuitous friendship sprung up between Chris and young Brian Salisbury, who was also a local film critic, and they merged their forces of will, and their laundry list of ideas for shows, to eventually build this community of critics. While Brian eventually followed his heart to a new family, Chris continues on with a cast of colorful folks from all over the country (and a few others). You can also check out Chris in his videocast, along with Martin Thomas and Danni Danger, that One Of Us does with our friends at Bell of Lost Souls: Crossover Event. He also regularly guests on the video game website Rage Select. Follow Chris on Twitter and Facebook and check out his Amazon Wish List.
Frank Calvillo (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad)
Born and raised in South Texas, Frank currently lives in Austin and has been in love with movies ever since his father showed him some Three Stooges shorts when he was five years old. Today he loves all kinds of film, regardless of era, country, budget or genre. He believes every film has an audience and is at least one person’s favorite movie. After writing for Sight & Sound and Slackerwood, he now writes for Cinapse where his increasingly random taste in all flavors of cinema (from Rashomon to Mars Attacks!) continues to thrive. His ultimate goal is to write a script for his boyhood crush, Michelle Pfeiffer.
Alan Galinsky (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Deliberations of Doom)
Born and raised in Texas, Alan Galinsky is a lifetime movie fan. As a youth, he would rent multiple movies every weekend and go to the theater for the latest releases, and that pace has remained steady. When Alan isn’t watching movies, you can find him talking about movies. When he’s not talking about movies, you can find him playing music in the band Delicate Boys.
Marco Noyola (Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Audio Editor)
By day, Marco is a mild-mannered office worker, but by night he is a mild-mannered movie watcher. He does other mild-mannered stuff too.
“You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody!”
You can subscribe to the Highly Suspect Reviews and Screener Squad series of podcasts on iTunes, Spotify, and more, or use our RSS feed on whatever podcast service you use: https://oneofus.net/feed/theatrical-movie-review-podcast/ and please leave us a review!
Please think about becoming a paid subscriber to Oneofus.net, support our huge network of shows, and get access to tons of bonus shows and videos in our forums! We cannot keep this site going without support from our listeners. For added information about being a subscriber, the benefits, and the forums, please go here.
