“Claire” is a mess, traumatically scarred, physically and psychologically; we encounter her in a group support session where the suicide of a former member is analyzed; Claire is isolated,  remotely uninterested in recovery;  her attendance defies feasibility . Every second of every frame capitalizes on her agonizing pain; she lies down in vehicles, devours massive, illegally attained drugs, gallons of …

Marion Cotillard is a dazzling, superb Academy Award  (“La Vie En Rose”) winning actress; her every role is infused with overwhelming dignity, deep understanding, pungently powerful interpretation; she partners with  Belgium directors/ brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne in “Two Days, One Night”; “Sandra” a factory worker on sick leave is at the mercy of her co-workers; they have voted for …

PENEFLIX  6th ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARD CONTEST is coming soon! The nominees are located here. It is that time of year, when once again I prove incapable of separating my mind and heart; they are so entwined that an autopsy would prove inconclusive. I vote for the film and nominees that I consider the best in their category. I do not play …

In the first scene we see the “sniper” lying on his belly in war- torn Iraq; his weapon focused on a woman and child; the child is handed a grenade and runs toward a US convoy entering the area; does he kill the child? “American Sniper” is Clint Eastwood’s gloriously stunning tale of Chris Kyle, an ordinary man, keen marksman, …

Alzheimer’s disease does not discriminate when it waves its lethal wand and strikes the gifted, challenged, dedicated, irresponsible; two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women. Julianne Moore as Professor “Alice Howland” is luminous, shining as a woman of magnificent formidability in her career, as a wife and  mother; she is fifty years old, diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s; devastating, debilitating; …

1981: Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th President of the United States; 69 days into his Presidency John Hinckley failed in his attempt to assassinate him; Pope John Paul II, also wounded by a crazed assassin; Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, was not given a stay of grace,  was murdered;  Iran Hostage Crisis, concluded; the Aids Virus diagnosed. Violence …

Director Amit Sharma’s “Tevar”, loosely translated “attitude/anger” is monotonous, predictable, cacophonous, intolerably boring; a major conundrum is why this formula is perpetually pervasive in the Bollywood genre; hundreds of films, sundry actors, ubiquitous scenario.  Arjun Kapoor a porky, athletic, rebel -rouser, “Pintu”, comes to the aid of a “damsel in distress’ (myriads of them pulsate on the India screen, waiting …

A gloomy, sordid tale based on the 2009 Thomas Pynchon novel. The action takes place in California, 1970; black times warped by the Vietnam War, rampant drug use, pervasive, cynical disillusionment of the young; freedom, release found in evading the draft, sleeping on beaches; life anesthetized; reality frozen by illegal substances; era of “hippies”, Charles Manson, Richard Nixon and “Larry …

Mark Walberg gives a stultifying, robotic performance as “Jim Bennett” a gambler with a mythic quest to self-destruct. Unlike James Caan in director Karel Reisz’s 1974, poignant and beautiful portrait of a man incapable of controlling his demonic urges, Walberg’s character, directed by Rupert Wyatt, is always in control; crassly, cavalierly dispensing his mother’s “grace” money; flaunts, and taunts his …

Despite some historical inaccuracies “Selma” is surpassingly worthy of audiences from the age of ten and beyond. Insightful, instinctive redolent performances, especially by David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin  Luther King, Jr.; a half century has passed, today’s society is informed by incidents revolving around the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown; sorrowful examples of history repeating itself. Director Ava …