As a lifelong Tom Cruise fan, (“Risky Business” and “Born on the Fourth of July” sealed my devotion) I went full throttle, excited to the max, without trepidation to the first showing of “Top Gun: Maverick”; happily, my expectations were not only met, but wildly surpassed. I loved the film from the onset; it is magnificent and must be experienced in the theatre. Jeffrey …

Double your pleasure, comfortably, with two stunners now watchable on Netflix.  “Operation Mincemeat” is a captivating, engrossing enactment of a British 1943 mission of deception, a key to eventually besting the Germans in WWII; director John Madden (“Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, “Shakespeare in Love”, “Miss Sloane”) with actors Colin Firth, Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen portray an intensely intelligent, fiercely detailed …

Having never visited the popular series of the inimitable Crawley family, I judge the films as entities totally without preconceived intimacy of the characters; possibly unfair, but films take precedence above and beyond the world of television (which I also admire). I found 2019’s “Downton Abbey” rather abysmal, apart from Maggie Smith as matriarch “Violet Crawley”; since her riveting Academy …

Foreign films have always held a deep-seated fascination for me; they demand a high level of concentration because of the subtitles and the edifying exposure to the intricacies of filmmakers from variant cultures; their appeal is enormously gratifying. Director Eskil Vogt’s (“The Worst Person in the World”) creepily brilliant tale of children, one with psychokinesis, determining a milieu devoid of …

Having read Mario Puzo’s Godfather trilogy, viewed the films, but it was not until I visited “The Offer” that I became aware of the intricacies, fluctuations, political intrigue informing the epic production (winner of three Academy Awards, including Best Picture); “The Offer” is my top pick in today’s screening milieu; starring Miles Teller (“Whiplash”) as producer Al Ruddy (garnished an …

“VORTEX”  Dedicated “To all those whose brains will decompose before their hearts”; directed by Gasper Noe, “Vortex”, filmed as a diptych, a metaphor for the bifurcation of two lives, once entwined, now irrevocably fractured by age and its devastating vicissitudes; a husband and wife, “Liu” and “Elle” (incomparable Dario Argento and Francoise Lebrun) navigating the once familiar, now foreign, unknown …

Robust Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn owns “Runway 34”, as director, producer and star he controls, with an iron fist, the tightly wrought scenario; based loosely on the Jet Airways Doha to Kochi flight 9w 555 on August 18th, 2015; as pilot “Captain Vikrant Khanna”, blessed with an eidetic memory, he arrogantly doffs the rules followed by lesser mortals; Devgn’s implacably …

“BALTAZAR”  Never have I grieved more for a fictional character than at the bleak conclusion of “Baltazar’s” third season; other protagonists have sequestered permanent residency in my memory vault: House, Foyle, Morse but none possess the illumination,  compelling endearment, concrete charm of “Raphael Balthazar”; Tomer Sisley’s Herculean portrait of the forensic pathologist is slathered in cunning, inimitable style, grace, insouciant …

Magic percolates within the carnage of director Robert Eggers (“The Lighthouse”) “The Northman;” seething with Norse mythology, witchcraft, vengeful promises; audiences are submerged in Viking lore, reminiscent of the hierarchy in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and King Arthur’s legendary sword Excalibur; a murdered King, kidnapped mother/wife and a son predestined to repeat the legacy. Alexander Skarsgard with heft and bravado depicts the …

“KGF CHAPTER 2”                 (HINDI: ENGLISH SUBTITLES)  THEATRES  Bombastically challenging is the second chapter of Robin Hood facsimile, “Rocky”, a humble boy who rises to gargantuan wealth, power and inspiration of the lower classes; Bollywood hunk, Yash, stars as the gilded gangster (generating adulation in India’s youth) and his monumental physique dominates every pungent, cacophonous moment of this action infused, bloody, …