Periodically you visit a film that strikes the perfect cord, totally in sync, aligned with the human condition. “Bob Travino Likes It” is such a film, unique in its universality, appealing to anyone whose life has been informed by parental love or denied it; “Lily Travino” (Barbie Ferreira’s, stratospherically gifted performance stuns with its remarkability) quivers with the total absence …

Director Barry Levinson and actor Robert De Niro have a long and varied filmic relationship: “Sleepers”, “Wag the Dog” “What Just Happened”, “The Wizard of Lies”, and present day “The Alto Knights”; De Niro bests his previous roles depicting gangsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese; never are viewers confused as to who is who. It is a homage to men …

Stylishly slick.  Prescient, well-honed actors at their physical peak working under the direction of Steven Soderberg. Writer David Koepp’s sensationally written script sucks audiences into a whirlpool of deception, espionage, infidelity, monogamy, dizzying intrigue. It is a festering guessing game guaranteed to demand one’s keen concentration, its hair-raising pace sears with divine, glamorous deceit. A black bag  exists, but also …

“Salome” and I have been friends for eons; our first encounter was in Bible Studies, she was introduced as a Jewish princess, daughter of Herodias and step-daughter of Herod Antipas; cursed with immeasurable beauty and an ungodly, iniquitous mother, demanding the head of John the Baptist, basically strip-teasing for her licentious stepfather; at sixteen she should have known better. Nonetheless, …

I liked “Anora” (review here) but never to the extent of its victories at this year’s Academy Awards; there is an undiagnosed, mystifying meme that seems to infect, percolate between the voters; this year it reflects the mission to elevate the sex-worker to the same level as “Oppenheimer”, “12 Years a Slave” etc. I have no objection to the theme …