Being a glass “3/4” full person, I usually find something redeeming in the majority of films I see; although many of you will find this unbelievable, there are movies I intentionally, deliberately avoid; anything to do with vampires, hangovers, anchormen, grudge matches, “this is the end”, or Las Vegas. When questioned about the BEST and the WORST films of the …
Read More »Monthly Archives: December 2013
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY
James Thurber (1894-1961) a short story writer and cartoonist for the New Yorker magazine created “Walter Mitty” and his secret, fantasy world in 1939; when I read this story, decades later, I realized what a masterpiece of literature it was; a pecan that will resonate as long as it is read. Walter Mitty, minus any assertive characteristics, is a universal …
Read More »THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
Earns its “R” rating: salacious, scandalous sex (ancient Rome’s Tiberius, a distant second) voracious drug use; total absence of accountability and bereft of a moral compass; debauchery, greed, Olympian ambition, addiction; based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, the “wolf” whose heroic rise to millions, and ultimate collapse is depicted in the film, based on the book he wrote, …
Read More »Her Movie Review
Watching this film I became anxious, agitated, frustrated, finally depressed; it was sad, scary, problematic and painfully pathetic; director/writer Spike Jonze and actor Joaquin Phoenix have created the most unique and soulful character in recent film history. For all its smothering discomfort, this strange and weirdly compelling film tackles a future society’s reliance on electronic connections for business, personal relationships; …
Read More »Enter to win a $100 Target Gift Card
Hello movie lovers, I hope you had a wonderful holiday! There are only a few more days left to win a $100 Target gift card, so you can enjoy your favorite movies at home! Enter at: http://www.peneflix.com/sweepstakes/ For Now……Peneflix
Read More »HER
Watching this film I became anxious, agitated, frustrated, finally depressed; it was sad, scary, problematic and painfully pathetic; director/writer Spike Jonze and actor Joaquin Phoenix have created the most unique and soulful character in recent film history. For all its smothering discomfort, this strange and weirdly compelling film tackles a future society’s reliance on electronic connections for business, personal relationships; …
Read More »DHOOM 3 (HINDI: ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
Run, drive, fly to see Bollywood at its scintillating, shimmering, sensational best; breaking box office records when it opened in India, here is a film worthy of any, and all audiences. The first two were entertaining but “Dhoom 3” is remarkable filmmaking, stunningly- acted, phenomenally, breathtakingly powerful to view. Aamir Khan, in his finest role since “Ghajini” is “Sahir” an …
Read More »INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
For its entirety I felt like an outsider watching “Inside Llewyn Davis”; while my friend kevelled, rhapsodized, sang with the actors from commencement to conclusion. What was I missing? The versatile Coen brothers paint a realistic portrait of the “folk” music genre, popular in the early sixties; Greenwich Village: grimy, seedy, smoke-filled bars; struggling, starving and in “Llewyn’s” scenario homeless, …
Read More »SAVING MR. BANKS
At one point in this enchanting film, Mrs.Travers (Emma Thompson) and Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) visit Disneyland and ride a merry-go-round; if that is the only scene you experience, it is sufficient; it captures the dormant child in everyone, the child that never dies, that perpetually resides, comfortably ensconced, in the attic of one’s soul; it is joyful, poignant and …
Read More »AMERICAN HUSTLE
There are moments in David O. Russell’s “American Hustle” that capture the profundity of film’s power to transport, entertain at the celestial level; the actors are stratospherically brilliant in their depictions of con- artists, sovereigns of subterfuge, ambitious FBI agents, jealous, disgruntled housewives, greedy, seedy politicians. Imbued with a myriad of hilarious twists, audiences breathlessly anticipate each tingling, scintillating curve. …
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