Brash, bold, colorful couture bombarded the red carpet; I never realized that would be the highlight of the evening; an evening that suffered a low never experienced in Academy Award history; dignity destroyed on an altar of self-righteousness; no rebound, no “win” can ever erase or reward egregious behavior, witnessed worldwide. The actor should pray for paltry ratings.  As in …

Testament to the magnetic power of film, its accessibility, universal appeal, regardless of age, gender, heritage it has generated almost as many critics as imbibers; periodically you experience a critic, a devotee of the genre that soars above the flock, a person with an inimitable command of the English language; vocabulary alone paints a filmic scene, in no need of …

Two young women of extraordinary intelligence, drive, vision, whose hubris is of such magnitude that it transcends their mission, blinding them to the reality of their divergent decisions, comprising their journey to greatness, worthy of approbation. Theirs’ is a contemporary Shakespearian tragedy of overwhelming proportions.  Anna Sorokin (1991-) aka “Anna Delvey” the daughter of middle-class Russian parents, created a fictional …

Filmic whiplash has never been more exhilarating, intoxicating; once you feel surefooted, writer/director Graham Moore (“The Imitation Game”) has you spinning out of control, flying out of your seat, knowing you are experiencing the best film of 2022; viewers are incarcerated, on a snowy evening in 1956, Chicago; a tailor’s shop whose proprietor, an expat from London’s Saville Row, “Leonard” …

Two explosive and extremely traumatic films based on actual events; one inadvertent and one intentional; both are viscerally challenging to watch. “The Bombardment” from its inception is shocking: an idyllic landscape in the outskirts of Copenhagen witnesses the bombing of a taxi holding three virginally beautiful women in white; a young cyclist, “Henry” (Bertram Bisgaard) rendered mute by the sight …

THE BATMAN  (in theatres) If you have indulged in “Batman” mania this is one for the archives; he debuted in the March 30th 1939 issue of Detective Comics and has been portrayed on the screen by actors: Lewis G. Wilson, Robert Lowery, Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Bruce Thomas, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, plus a few fringe …

Years ago, a friend and I had the privilege of touring the Dharavi slum in Mumbai; staggering in its viability, actuality in its focus on poverty at its nadir, but also depicted the ingenuity of its in habitants; it was a hotbed of industry, vibrating with entrepreneurship: bakeries, cleaners, schools, with uniformed children; these inspirational exceptions eased, but did not …

One of the cruelest, heart-wrenching, valid portraits of grief, loss of a loved one, on today’s screen; it is the future and the family of three is suffering from the disintegration of a fourth member, of what was a nuclear brood; “Yang” (Justin H. Nin) an android, constant companion of “Mika” (Malea Emma Tajandrawidjaja) is loved and held dear by …

Years ago, while doing a stint in Bollywood, I had the opportunity of interviewing Soni Razdan (actor/director) and Mahesh Bhatt (director) parents of now prodigious actor Alia Bhatt; during the interview she returned home from school, meeting this sprite, never imagining her career would grow exponentially with her age; at 28 she is truly remarkable in the role of “Gangubai …

The complexities, literary, cultural references are vastly entertaining, if you recognize the sources of enlightenment, but even if you enter this divine diversion with a pure mental slate “Drive My Car” will cling fervently, entrenched perpetually in one’s filmic library. Admirers of Russian playwright and short story writer, Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), introducing modernism, revolutionizing the short story genre, a symbol …