Recommended by my star-powered, producer nephew, Will Anderson, I lustily viewed with vast anticipation; directed by trans and non-binary filmmaker, Jane Schoenbrun I found it compelling, confounding but incomprehensible, I reached out to him for enlightenment; his perceptions, salient and introspective are worthy of quoting in entirety: It really moved me in a strange way. And I think you may …

You don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate this enchanting slice of life that owns no bias, parameters, visiting at whim all peoples regardless of sect, gender, creed; refreshing tale of disparate souls, connecting at the appropriate moment in their varied existence. “Between the Temples” is a poignant relief from the ubiquity of the “horror”, “Marvel” genres, monopolizing, overwhelming movie …

The bludgeoning skin care industry globally generates over 144 billion USD$ and climbing; Generation Z (between 12 & 27) leading the hordes of consumers. Director/writer Austin Peters gets targeted aspects of faux LA glamour on the “nose”: quest for beauty and perpetual youth; strappings of wealth (cars, flashy, fur-trimmed ensembles) pneumatic chests, plasticity pulsates on creaseless faces with eyelashes destined …

Expecting saccharine sentimentality, mawkish, cloying, syrupy manipulation; surprisingly, those maudlin expectations were dashed by Blake Lively’s (producer) stratospheric performance as “Lily Blossom Bloom” complemented by Justin Baldoni’s (director) equally high-volume depiction of neurosurgeon “Ryle Kincaid”. Both actors, majorly invested in the creation of the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover: abusive, marital, familial relationships and their lasting effects on their progeny. …

Inadvertently, I visited “Kneecap” without even a whiff of its content. I do not care, another whiff, for rap! If it’s generational, I missed it by decades and did not mourn its loss. So, sitting with an audience of prepubescent attendees, I found myself laughing, with requited glee, bouncing in my seat to its iconoclastic rhythm, lyrics and high-fiving its …

Goodness, Gracious, Great Globs of Gobbledygook! A self-styled discourse on erasing decency, tasteless titillation, ribald, rutting humorless dialogue, gratuitous, gutting savagery; smashing the 4th wall (invisible, imaginary shield between actors and viewers) and reveling in its iconoclasm. Dreadful dirge. This was my first and final entrance into a realm that is anything but “marvelous”. A person very close to me …

RTA, Rehabilitation Through the Arts. It works miraculously and its redolent power surges through the backbone of this remarkable film. Incarcerated inmates, serving interminable, hopeless sentences; real men rising above their crimes, circumstances, reveling in the vicissitudes of Shakespearian fictional and non-fictional characters, historical heroes and villains; unbridled talent oozing from their core, dormant since birth but flaming in a …

This, my first excursion, into the “Twister” franchise, was a startling surprise; glued to my seat, slack-jawed, and hypnotized every frenzied second, it was a commanding and totally overwhelming filmic feat. Primarily, it made me happy. Happy to be wallowing, engrossed in visual phenomena, charismatic performances, and buzz-worthy cinematography. From the outset actor Daisy Edgar-Jones is commanding as the neophyte …

The “Horror” genre is pungently, throbbingly alive!   “Le Manoir du Diable”, (“The House of the Devil”) mid-1890”s by Georges Milies, credited as the first horror film; now, in the 21st century one cannot escape its domination of multiplex theatres; not bothersome, and has held my movie appetite for spine-tingling titillation, since first exposed long ago. Never apologizing for its attraction, I …

In my years, which are vast, of movie viewing, it is rare when I visit a film lacking an ounce of legitimacy, worthiness, or a solitary redemptive attribute. “Kill”, not only falling into a cavity of pointlessness but into a cesspool of gratuitous, savage, gore: cinematography embracing stabbed, sliced throats (women are not excluded) gorging guts, splayed up close and …