Foreign

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 …

Another banner year in movie-making history; in so many ways it was glorifying, shockingly innovative and uproarious, titillating fun. Countless times I exited smiling, smirking, thinking “I got it”, I wasn’t fooled, but enriched by the ambiguity; directors have unleashed their colossal control, allowing viewers to fill in the blanks. Recently a woman told me that she felt from the …

An intensely orchestrated and depicted feud between two Irish families in the solemn, untarnished, unforgiving landscape of the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland; Shakesperean in scale (Montagues & Capulets) the shepherding world collides catastrophically between the O’Sheas and Keelys; “Michael O’Shea” (Christopher Abbott, silently sensational), seething with a history of remorse and under the tyrannical tutelage of his father “Ray” (crucial …

The commencement of this potent, poignant, profound film is saturated in palatable love; director Walter Salles’s portrait of Rubens Paiva’s (a former Congressman opposed to the military dictatorship in 1960’s Brazil) family, seeped in saccharine, sugary, uxorious affection: Fernanda Torres is stratospherically phenomenal as Rubens wife, Eunice, mother of five and madly, ardently infatuated with her husband; theirs, a love …

Director Mike Leigh has created a paradigm of an individual who makes the act of complaining into an art form; “Pansy” (inappropriately named; Shakespeare’s favorite flower; there is nothing favorable about this woman) depicted with poisonous angst by Marianne Jean-Baptiste; her pulverizing hatred for herself, spews forth from a mouth tainted with abhorrence for mankind; the world is her enemy …

This film, more than any in recent memory, testifies to the miraculous, transformative power of filmmaking and the unswerving tenacity of a writer/director, producer who prevailed in his pursuit to create a beautifully-crafted, viciously realistic political thriller based on the 2022 civil unrest blistering across Iran after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini; she was imprisoned for “inappropriate dress”. Director …

In Saturday’s New York Times, columnist Michelle Goldberg address the “sexual politics” of the upcoming film “Babygirl” starring the ubiquitous actor, Nicole Kidman. I have not seen the film but have experienced the others mentioned: “Wicked”, “Nightbitch”, “The Substance”, “Anora”, all centering around female empowerment, control over the “male gaze” and the vicissitudes vanquished in their triumph. History, religion, culture …

“This is the end-for me, the beginning of life”. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s (1906-1945) last words on the day he was hung by the Nazis, April 9th, at 39 years of age, days before the end of the war. It was a tragic conclusion to a life lived without regret; a life where a darkened shadow of doubt never interfered with the …

Cillian Murphy steps as far as possible away from his Academy Award winning performance as prodigious J. Robert Oppenheimer; he is a struggling Catholic coalman, father of four daughters, caught in a righteous dilemma revolving around his local convent, led by “Sister Mary” (Emily Watson is a worthy, threatening adversary). Based on the novel by Claire Keegan, directed by Tim Mielants, …

“THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG” (IRAN, FRANCE, GERMANY) DIRECTOR, MOHAMMAD RASOULOF “Never trust the obvious” resonates continuously from the supposed “guilty” to the obvious “innocent”; soaked in the restricted city, Tehran, hounded by paranoid rules, a family flounders in this positively frightening political drama, that dares to challenge viewers sensitivities until the spell-binding conclusion and the discovery of the …