Reel Reviews

Against The Sun -- This film reveals a fascinating phenomenon: just about any story becomes more compelling when it takes place during World War II. Any movie featuring that time and place automatically gets a boost--even now, 70 years later. As it turns out, this tale needs little extra help to come across as compelling. The story of three Navy airmen who ditched in the South Pacific and survived a thousand mile trip in a life raft has compelling written all over it. Like the recent and similar--but, importantly, fictional--All is Lost, this movie presents its simple premise and provides a riveting story without a lot of bells and whistles to heighten the drama, because it hardly needs any such ornamentation. This really is a find, and is simply put a tremendous movie to watch. Don't miss it.