Netflix and Beyond

“Wicked the First” thrilled me to the bones and deeper; it accomplished what a fine film should: stunning, innovative scenario, based on the fantastical book by Winnie Holzman and bestselling novel by Gregory Maguire.  Composer Stephen Schwartz delves into the depths of his creative cache and scores in “Wicked: For Good”; actors Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo (“Glinda” and “Elphaba”) …

Never has wickedness been served so mellifluously, deliciously, supercalifragilisticexpialidociously sensational as in director Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked”; a film so splendidly crafted, acted, choregraphed it was impossible to breathe with the breath, depth of its wonder. Every glittering glorious moment resonates with truth, integrity and lessons for living, understanding and embracing the goodness of the unknown, outlier, no matter their …

Jennifer Lawrence gives a career-defining portrait of madness and angst in “Die My Love” based on the 2012 novel by Arina Harwicz; director/writer Lynne Ramsay (“We Need to Talk About Kevin”) pulverizes viewers with the detrimental effects of postpartum depression’; “Grace” (Lawrence) was muddled before we meet her and her boyfriend “Jackson” (instinctive performance by Robert Pattinson) whose relationship, defined …

We are birthed with a cry and die with a sigh, or rattle. Director Oliver Hermamus gifts viewers a particularly poignant portrait of two young men instantaneously connected by their love and understanding of timeless folk tunes. Meeting at the Boston Conservatory in 1917 “Lionel” (Paul Mescal) and “David” (Josh O’ Connor) gracefully, plaintively, tenderly fall in love as Lionel …

Director Kelly Reichardt’s films creep in through the back door and emerge fully bloomed, in the living room, 75 plus minutes later. She is a mastermind of the benign, allowing viewers into the lives of the least noticed: working class, ordinary souls, nonthreatening or intimidating but through her lens, interesting. A myriad of movies define her intuitive aesthetic; my favorites …

Sabbaticals are refreshing, rejuvenating, a time to canvass the unnurtured, unexplored; a time to dive into the abyss of tasted, but underdeveloped curiosities: authors, like iconic genius Stefan Zweig, loved, but volumes yet to become “friends”, yearning to be guzzled; directors whose nascent films, unwatched: John Carpenter, maven of horror, finally, horrifically requited; vistas of the world, tempting, luring, begging …

Dear Subscribers, After close to 20 years, I have decided to take a sabbatical; time to plunder, nurture the other side of my brain before it atrophies. For all of you who’ve been in the movie market, chugging along with me, it’s been a jaunty journey, circulating, imbibing in the tame, innovative, foreign: mystery, romance, politics, war and every facet …

Dear Subscribers, After close to 20 years, I have decided to take a sabbatical; time to plunder, cultivate the other side of my brain before it atrophies. For all of you who’ve been in the movie market, chugging along with me, it’s been a jaunty journey, circulating, imbibing in the tame, innovative, foreign: mystery, romance, politics, war and every facet of the human …

Never have I fully understood the horror genre and its universal appeal: exhilarating, titillating, blood-pumping depravity erasing the mundanity of one’s everyday life?  Maybe the exploration of “man’s inhumanity to man”, when does cruelty, bullying expand into egregious, litigious behavior; when does moral turpitude usurp morality, leaving souls reveling in the demonization of mankind; chastity, decency, civility, undermined by pure …

Those weaned, gleaned on the poetic property of Jane Austen (1775-1817) will swoon over the enchanting, inappropriately titled “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life”; directed by Laura Piani it marvelously explores protagonist “Agathe Robinson” (insightfully wondrous Camille Rutherford)  a lonely, frustrated bookseller and romance novelist, through a contemporary lens, suffused with the late 18th, initial 19th century aesthetics: love, marriage, satirizing …