Nerdy Squirrel Reviews by Pasckie Pascua

“Beast” (2017, Amazon Prime) British psychological thriller , written and directed by Michael Pearce, stars Jessie Buckley as 27-year old Moll, who is treated by her controlling mother as flawed and a burden. (You may wiki the rest of the premise or plot.)         Although critics consider 2018's “Wild Rose” as her breakthrough, “Beast” was Ms Buckley's first movie and may well be one of her best performances. I haven't seen all her movies (including “Wild Rose” and 2021's “The Lost Daughter,” which gave her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress) so I can't really say “Beast” is her best. But I saw her in about 5 or 7 movies.         All that I can say is, Jessie as Moll, is power performance, restraint and forewarning like a fuse to a dynamite. So the eventual explosion (although not entirely expected) jars the viewer's nerves. Co-lead Johnny Flynn as the tortured soul Pascal is also fine but this is all a Jessie Buckley ride. You'd disregard the

“Civil War” (2024, Max) dystopian thriller , follows a team of war journalists traveling from New York City to Washington, D.C. during a civil war fought across the United States between a despotic federal government and secessionist movements, to interview the president before rebels take the capital city.        The movie's pulse basically pumped in the last sequence: The D.C. siege. The capital city in scarred disarray, bombs exploding, swashbuckling gunfight. Yet if you already saw similar war scenes in the past, that'd be just like what it was. No big deal.        The real drama, confined in the four characters’ individual stories, would have been more interesting if those were explored beyond the movie's 109 minutes. Which means, a series would have been more compelling.  Yet all four account for themselves remarkably fine.          Kirsten Dunst as Lee Smith, a renowned war photojournalist. Her first name is a reference to famed World War II photojournalist L