Foreign

Director Laszlo Nemes’ nascent Academy Award winning “Son of Saul” tipped the scales in mind-crunching innovation, revolutionary emotional upheaval, allowing the viewer to walk in the shoes of a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, metaphorically choking on Zyklon B gas; existence, a circumstantial whim of fate; a manifestation, incarnation of palpable evil, touched by the refined embodiment of man’s …

I do not believe in a God of Carnage; but 10 Pakistani men over November 26-29, 2008, assassinated 164 people in the name of Allah, squelching India’s way of life, as they did in the United States, September 11, 2001; director Anthony Maras, without blinders or sensationalism, reenacts and personalizes the calamitous hours of terror endured by guests and staff …

Deliciously quirky, fantastically off quilter, writer/director Benedikt Erlingsson teamed with stupefying actor Halldora Geirharosdottir, introduces viewers to a character(s) never to be duplicated or forgotten. Twins “Halla” and “Asa” approaching fifty are spiritual loaners; Halla a “Divine Demolition Diva”, an environmentalist, in Robin Hood style, single handedly slays the instruments threatening the ecological purity of her Icelandic landscape; we cheer …

German director Christian Petzold’s ingenious interpretation of Anna Seghers’s (1900-1983) 1942 novel of the same title, is compelling on a variety of levels; primarily a contemporary take on Nazi roundups in the late 1930’s and 40’s; reminiscent of Seghers personal experiences during WWII: born into a Jewish family, marrying a Hungarian Communist, arrested by the Gestapo, renouncing Judaism, fleeing to …

For the first time, because of the dynamics of this year’s competition, a consolation prize will be given to Brian B. for going all the way, until he was foiled by “The Green Book”; congratulations on your prescient choices. For the most part, the evening was bland, benign and lacked the cohesiveness of a host; blessedly shorter than previous productions; …

Just received the entrees for Peneflix’s Annual Academy Award Contest; hundreds have an opportunity to win; always buoyed by the regulars! This year was extremely problematic for me; credit phenomenal material, directing and equally grand characterizations; indecisiveness rarely invades my realm but this year’s nominees kept me in foggy, filmic fug. My main conundrums were: 1. Best Female Actress: until …

Once again February has shed prominence on the stars, movies and those behind the scenes. This year is the most difficult, challenging to date, due to the range and diversity of the films and nominees. I feel there should be separate categories for drama and comedy. I also question “Roma” being in “Best Movie” and best “Foreign Film” categories. Every …

Once again February has shed prominence on the stars, movies and those behind the scenes. This year is the most difficult, challenging to date, due to the range and diversity of the films and nominees. I feel there should be separate categories for drama and comedy. I also question “Roma” being in “Best Movie” and best “Foreign Film” categories. Every …

From its inception, this epically grand film (188 minutes) ambushes one’s attention, and in my case, has not relinquished its hold, days after experiencing it; a phenom, magnificent in scope, narrative and vision; hypothetically based on the life of celebrated painter, Gerhard Richter (1932); director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (“The Lives of Others”) tackles the ambiguity of artistic modes, meandering, …

Once again February has shed prominence on the stars, movies and those behind the scenes. This year is the most difficult, challenging to date, due to the range and diversity of the films and nominees. I feel there should be separate categories for drama and comedy. I also question “Roma” being in “Best Movie” and best “Foreign Film” categories. Every …