“Sweet”, a word I’ve always shied away from (except when referring to dessert); rhyming with “meek”, “tweak”, “geek”, “reek” , just a wishy-washy word lacking pungency or redolence. “Learning to Drive” (based on an article written by Katha Pollitt) has changed my perspective on sweetness and its properties. Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley shine as student and teacher in the …

Wondrous words, haywire hilarity, auspicious acting imbue writer/director Paul Weitz’s “Grandma” with a treasure trove of entertainment. Lily Tomlin as “Elle”, a bitingly brilliant poet; a woman whose partner of thirty-eight- years “Violet” has been dead for over a year; we meet Elle as she is caustically casting out her latest paramour, “Olivia” (Judy Greer); any hope of revival shrivels …

Almost thirty years ago this powerfully pungent, redolent, avant garde musical genre slammed our audio landscape; I found it salacious, inciting, and pejorative; “rap” predicted to fizzle and fade, surprisingly has entrenched and defined a culture so many shunned.  “Straight Outta Compton” is a terrific biopic of young, gutsy, talented boys, from Compton, Ca. where youth is ephemeral, strangled by …

1976, San Francisco; home of the burgeoning pop and drug culture, Haight-Ashbury, women’s liberation; a city where needs and whims are exacerbated, gratuitously exploited; a city that caters to the disenfranchised, disillusioned, draft dodgers; the dark underbelly of an otherwise, elitist population. Written and directed by Marielle Heller (based on the book by Phoebe Gloeckner) “The Diary of a Teenage …

Greta Gerwig co-wrote with Noah Baumbach (director) and stars in this zany “Holly Golightly”, flippantly glib, inherently intelligent tale of thirty-year-old “Brook”, mistress of countless capabilities but a master of none; Gerwig is sensational in the role; Brook is a flame, dynamic, compelling, an addictive force that cements the devotion of her potential “stepsister” “Tracy”, (Lola Kirke, devastatingly divine),  college …

Reviews commencing August 22nd!   Peneflix

Based on the book by Gillian Flynn (“Gone Girl”) and starring celestially beautiful Charlize Theron as the only witness to her family’s massacre twenty-eight years ago. “Libby Day” (Theron) has lived her life bilking the notoriety, undeservedly visited upon her;  brother “Ben” has been incarcerated all these years because of her testimony. Libby, jobless, penniless, reluctantly accepts the financial offer …

“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones”. William Shakespeare’s grasp of the human condition was stunning; Joel Edgerton’s  brilliantly conceived, directed, performed, “The Gift”, is a psychological masterpiece with Shakespearean  overtones. A mid-summer’s thrilling  “gift” to moviegoers. Jason Bateman cements his stardom as “Simon”, a likeable, glib,  upwardly mobile, Security Systems …

Infallible Meryl Streep as “Ricki Randazzo”, a pathetic anachronism, a “flash back” to the 80’s, is cringingly embarrassing as a waning rock- and- roll maven in her 60’s; a hairstyle and wardrobe reminiscent of a biker babe, the American flag tattooed on her back; she returns penniless to Indianapolis from a remote California town, when her daughter “Julie” (Mamie Gummer, …

Compelling, hypnotic simulated incarceration project initiated by Professor Philip Zimbardo in 1971 at Stanford University. Billy Crudup (mesmerizing as Zimbardo)  and the actual Professor were guests on “Charley Rose” recently; the interview piqued my interest, especially the manipulative, addictive powers of role-playing. Zimbardo, a philosophy professor, creates a scenario to test the psychology, mentality of prisoners and guards; after a …