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As a film actress, she was in DarkFury (1995) credited as Dawn Mullan, and a subsequent sequel's International Teaser Trailer (2005). She has done in-house commercials for colleges and universities. Furthermore, she has been interviewed by Good Morning America (unaired) and various media outlets.
For the theater, she has been in a number of productions on stage from musicals (Carousel) to dramatic readings (The Lord of the Rings), community college plays (The Emperor Has No Clothes) and behind the scenes in professional stage productions (assistant stage manager) for an Emmy Award-winning actor turned director (Bell, Book, and Candle; The Good Doctor).
Ms. Mullan is the author of ten short fiction/novels and several poetry books. This Hollywood Scriptwriter (Kate & Ally) -trained writer is also an award-winning artist and poet.
As for acting, her characterizations are so real and persuasive that even a long time co-worker could not separate her from her character she did on stage. She has even done four or more characters in singular speeches/dramatic interpretations, for which she impressed a professional entertainer. After that, she never had to audition for a college play. The instructor just handed her scripts.
DL Mullan brings that experience and exceptionalism to her writing. With completion of numerous creative projects with more to come, Ms. Mullan is set to write in her Legacy Universe.
If you want an original creative mind who incorporates, folklore, legend, mythology into modern-day storytelling, then look no further than DL Mullan. She is a true Renaissance woman of her generation.
For more information on this one-of-a-kind talent, please visit her online at www.Undawnted.com.
*****
To read her Movie Reviews, please visit her Amazon and IMDB Profiles.
If you would like a review/critique done by Ms. Mullan for a film, (a short, episode, series/season, movie), then contact her via her Contact Form http://www.undawnted.com/p/contact-undawnted.html.
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Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Atonement (2007)
Atonement, but What Are We Being Redeemed For? Human Frailty?
Atonement is a mystery that unfolds first in a child's mind and as the story progresses the audience learns the truth about what actually occurred all those years ago.
What would happen if you had a chance to right a mistake? Would you do it as soon as you discovered your error? Or, would you wait decades after everyone is dead to confess?
These questions are what people should ask themselves.
*****
Atonement
When Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), thirteen-years-old and an aspiring writer, sees her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) at the fountain in front of the family estate, she misinterprets what is happening, thus setting into motion a series of misunderstandings and a childish pique that will have lasting repercussions for all of them. Robbie is the son of a family servant toward whom the family has always been kind. They paid for his time at Cambridge and now he plans on going to medical school. After the fountain incident, Briony reads a letter intended for Cecilia and concludes that Robbie is a deviant. When her cousin Lola (Juno Temple) is raped, she tells the Police that it was Robbie she saw committing the deed.
IMDB
*****Spoiler Time*****
The Breakdown
When a series of misinterpretations of a young girl puts her sister's love for a servant's son in jeopardy, what will she do to right a wrong she caused?
Briony Tallis, played by Saoirse Ronan, is a brat of a child who mistakes adult behaviors as ones of depravity instead of what actually happened. She goes on to accuse Robbie of rape, when the real rapist is a friend of the family.
Cecelia Tallis, played by Keira Knightly, is in love with Robbie Turner. Her world is destroyed when her sister, Briony, lies about Robbie. Her family disintegrates because of that lie.
Robbie Turner, played by James McAvoy, is a servant's son and accused of raping a child that he did not. This lie by Briony led him to be convicted and later conscripted into the British military during World War II. Because the young Briony mistook his infatuation and love for her sister out of context.
Atonement is the search for redemption. After 21 novels, the writer, Briony Tallis, is decades older and has now brain disease, she writes her last novel giving her sister and lover the life they both deserved: a long and happy love affair. In all those years, Briony had never forgiven herself for being a headstrong and envious child, but she did nothing to correct her error when it mattered the most: when both Robbie and Cecilia were still alive.
This film has been rated: 7.8/10 Stars on IMDB.
*****
The Review
Older Briony: So, my sister and Robbie were never able to have the time together they both so longed for... and deserved. Which ever since I've... ever since I've always felt I prevented. But what sense of hope or satisfaction could a reader derive from an ending like that? So in the book, I wanted to give Robbie and Cecilia what they lost out on in life. I'd like to think this isn't weakness or... evasion... but a final act of kindness. I gave them their happiness.
This movie is a beautiful visual masterpiece. There is no argument there. If the audience takes the story on face value, then the narrative is a 10 out of 10 stars all the way.
Unfortunately, the story has some issues. The conviction of Robbie Turner of rape, would he be eligible for military service, even in wartime? Then there are the timing issues of world events, Dunkirk for instance, that do not match up with what the story shows. There are more discrepancies than these.
What felt disjointed at the end was an older Briony trying to make up for her lies with rewriting history in a fiction novel that is more autobiographical in nature. Instead of being contrite, she is matter of fact about the whole situation. The interview scene seems off. The editing jumped from here to there. Sometimes the viewer did not know where the story was headed or had been as a matter of the timeline. So when the interview with the older Briony was introduced, the scene felt odd at first.
The principle acting is superb. The visual photography and effects are fantastic. The narrative is emotionally gripping. However, the facts of the story, from a historical perspective, and editing appear to need some assistance.
For all the awards this film was nominated for and won, Atonement has its flaws.
Watched free on Prime Video.
*****
The Tally
My review will be posted on Prime as well as IMDB.
Prime... 4 out of 5 stars
IMDB... 8 out of 10 stars.
Have a great and wonderful day.
Georgia Rule (2007)
Georgia Rule Because Without Rules Children Become Sexually Exploited and Rebel in Frustration
Georgia Rule is an emotive and provocative film about the consequences of alcoholism and sexual exploitation of a minor. The low rating on this movie is not a wonder given the topic. Most people shy away from such serious matters, but reality is reality.
Child rape/molestation is a problem. An issue society refuses to discuss unless there is an arrest of a sexual predator and the story is newsworthy. That needs to be corrected.
This film discusses the issue with drama, as well as humor, but also with maturity and grace. Sometimes people have to lose their way in order to realize what is most important to them. Georgia Rule is about those hapless wanderers who finally understand the meaning they have lacked, but finally discover for themselves as a cohesive bond to each other.
*****
Georgia Rule
Rachel comes to stay with her Grandmother Georgia for the summer, leaving some obvious problems behind at home. Her alcoholic mother doesn't even stay the night before rushing back out to California to be with her husband. Rachel shakes up the town, a beautiful girl in the boring Mormon country. Then she reveals her deepest secret to one of her new friends, and her mother comes rushing back to find out if its true. In the midst of this crisis the three woman become closer than ever and start to understand each other more.
IMDB
*****Spoiler Time*****
The Breakdown
What would you do with an out of control teenager? Well, send her to grandma's house of course. That is where the story begins.
Rachel, played by Lindsey Lohan, is a troubled young woman. After her father's death, her mother, Lily, played by Felicity Huffman, remarries. Unfortunately Rachel's mother is an alcoholic just like her father and leaves her daughter to the appetites of her second husband, Arnold, played by Cary Elwes. Rachel is rape/molested by her stepfather and when she ends the affair, the stepfather tries to bribe and manipulate her to begin the tryst again now that she is over the age of consent.
Lily, played by Felicity Huffman, is a mother whose childhood haunts her. Guilt and resentment lead her to follow in her father's footsteps into her own addiction to alcohol.
Georgia, played by Jane Fonda, is the mother of Lily and grandmother of Rachel. In order to feel some control of her life, Georgia controls everything else, including strict adherence to eating schedules or taking the lord's name in vain.
When combined, these three characters show that their negative behaviors feed off one another. The consequences of being self-indulgent and self-centered comes to a head when the secret is discovered about Rachel's stepfather sexually abusing her from a young age.
In the search for the clarity, as Rachel and Arnold both deny the affair, but Lily and Georgia know the truth, the three women come to terms with their own destructive and aloof behaviors.
This film has been rated: 5.9/10 Stars on IMDB.
*****
The Review
Rachel: Okay, see, I tried to be nice, but let me put this a different way because you're not really getting it right now. If you call me a name, if you throw something at me- ever again!- if I see you talking to Harlan, yelling at Harlan, having anything AT ALL to do with Harlan, I will find all of your boyfriends and I will f@ck them stupid. Okay? Get it? Thanks guys.
Witty humor helps keep this story from going too far into the darkness that this topic creates. A few comedic situations arise from Rachel's bawdy behavior, especially with Harlan.
Through the course of the story, Rachel begins to let her secret slip out until her mother and grandmother figure out the truth from her lies. The characters disintegrate, shedding their own defensive walls and finding solace in the love and camaraderie with each other.
The men in their lives, Harlan and Simon, see the meltdown and do what they can to support the truth that will eventually set the grandmother, mother, and daughter free from their destructive behaviors.
Thank you, Lindsey Lohan, cast and crew, for taking on a controversial story like this one, so we can have a frank discussion about this important topic. Too often is this subject treated as a taboo and thus allowing sexual predators to hide their evil acts against minors with the cover of darkness.
The only tragedy exposed by this film is society's inability to protect their children from sexual predators.
Watched free on Prime Video.
*****
The Tally
My review will be posted on Prime as well as IMDB.
Prime... 4 out of 5 stars
IMDB... 8 out of 10 stars
Have a great and wonderful day.
Filth (2013)
Movie Review: Filth is a Tragic-Comedy about Office Politics, Mental Illness, and the Downward Spiral
Filth is the story of a Scottish police officer who slips from normality into madness. Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson is out of control when he is sober, but when drugs and alcohol are introduced to an already fragile mind, he loses his grip on reality: totally, completely, fully.
Mental illness is the elephant in the room in Western society. This film shows the descent from barely hanging on to outright unhinged. The movie is a statement piece, and perhaps we should heed its warning.
The humor (is it Scottish humor? Because I am checking my Scottish heritage card here) is repulsive at best: sex, drugs... and dance music. The writer is Scottish, we'll give him a break. If you like Blazing Saddles, then a film like Filth will not phase you.
*****
Filth
Scheming Bruce Robertson (James McAvoy), a bigoted and corrupt policeman, is in line for a promotion and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Enlisted to solve a brutal murder and threatened by the aspirations of his colleagues, including Ray Lennox (Jamie Bell), Bruce sets about ensuring their ruin, right under the nose of unwitting Chief Inspector Toal. As he turns his colleagues against one another by stealing their wives and exposing their secrets, Bruce starts to lose himself in a web of deceit that he can no longer control. His past is slowly catching up with him, and a missing wife, a crippling drug habit and suspicious colleagues start to take their toll on his sanity. The question is: can he keep his grip on reality long enough to disentangle himself from the filth?
IMDB
*****Spoiler Time*****
The Breakdown
Bruce Robertson is a cruel, unapologetic Scottish police officer who treats people as he views the need to treat himself: with disdain, disrespect, and disloyalty. Since childhood, Bruce Robertson has suffered tragedy and guilt. He has bipolar disorder, for which he takes pharmaceutical medication as well as self-medicates with drugs, sex, and alcohol. The audience comes to understand that Bruce is an unfortunate and miserable soul, as he is remorseful over the death of his brother (an accidental death he caused) from childhood, his wife with their daughter has left him for another man, and he dresses up as his wife to feel a connection to his family. He is a man without hope, looking for redemption in a promotion to Detective Inspector.
When he is demoted from Detective Sargent to Constable for having his emotional, mental breakdown in full view of his colleagues, he plans his suicide. A knock on the door happens right as he is about to commit suicide. Does Bruce Robertson die at the end by his own hand, or is he saved by the woman he wishes he was good enough for? I think we all know the answer to that question.
R. I. P. Bruce.
This film has been rated: 7.1/10 Stars on IMDB.
*****
The Review
Bruce Robertson: The games are always, repeat always, being played. But nobody plays the games like me. Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson, soon to be Detective Inspector Bruce Robertson. You just have to be the best, and I usually am. Same rules apply.
Although the film is disheveled in places where the pacing of the film is discordant with the plot, the plot itself meanders, its ribald comedic nature and dramatic death spiral, as the audience, we must understand we are seeing the world from Bruce Robertson's point of view. And, Bruce's point of view is unraveling before our eyes. We are descending with him into insanity.
Without an anchor of his wife and daughter, Bruce has no reason to remain stable or good or kind. Bruce has no reason to be stable, good, or kind to himself. He is crying out for help, and yet no one can see the desperate state he is in. A police department trained to see the signs of instability in the public is unprofessional and uncaring when the same characteristics present themselves in one of their own officers.
The games people play... with other people's mental health.
Thank you, James McAvoy, cast and crew, and Irving Welsh for bringing to light the horrible necessity for so many people to shove mental illness under the rug. Yet, hiding mental illness means that the problem goes unresolved. Filth is a tragic-comedy (black comedy) that isn't about depravity, profanity, or obscenity of a rogue police officer. This film is about the indecency of our society that ignores all the warning signs of mental illness and uses its own incompetence to ignore the cries of so many who require mental/emotional help.
The tragedy of this film is one of society's failures.
*****
The Tally
My review will be posted on Prime as well as IMDB.
Prime... 4 out of 5 stars
IMDB... 9 out of 10 stars.
Thank you, have a great and wonderful day...