2023 was a spectacular, banner year for films. Never have I given so many Five Star credits, or rarely have I visited movies more than once; 2023’s products were more than worthy of multiple exposures. Without listing all the choices in each category, I will gift you, faithful readers, my number one picks in the myriad of classifications: BEST PICTURE: …
Read More »THE TASTE OF THINGS (French: English subtitles) in theatres
Today’s internet is gorged with photographs, videos, of gastronomical feats, posted by the well-traveled bourgeois, those divorced from their kitchens, feel obliged to secure a memory of a dish whose remarkability is beyond their culinary comprehension. “The Taste of Things” is a symphony, a harmonious composition of an art still vibratingly redolent, thriving, throbbing universally; we revere Escoffier, Robuchon, Ducasse, …
Read More »PERFECT DAYS (Japanese:English subtitles) in theatres
How many of us have experienced perfect days? Days where all our stars are aligned; physical, emotional, psychological health are in sublime harmony; without aches, longings or unrequited dreams; we have imbibed in the daily, luscious delights of living, revering those minimal flawless days. German director Wim Wenders (“Paris, Texas”, “Anselm” ) resplendently in tandem with actor Koji Yakusho has …
Read More »THE PROMISED LAND (DANISH, GERMAN: ENGLISH SUBTITLES) IN THEATRES
There is something pungently powerful about the actor Mads Mikkelsen’s countenance; silent or loquacious he kidnaps viewers’ attention, releasing its hold only after he has maneuvered his intent, frightening and satisfying simultaneously. Commencing in 1755 Denmark, Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mikkelsen) receives grudgingly, permission to cultivate the sterile landscape of Jutland heath, in hopes of founding a settlement and a titled …
Read More »THE TEACHERS LOUNGE (GERMAN: ENGLISH SUBTITLES) in theatres
Periodically you meet a film that from its onset is perfectly proportioned, a flawless scenario intelligently scripted and sublimely performed, pushing all the right buttons, earning magnificent respect and awesome admiration from the viewer. “The Teachers Lounge” co-written and directed by IIker Catak garnishes the deserved medal for excellence. “Carla” (exceptional Leonie Benesch) an idealistic middle school teacher, has an …
Read More »THE END WE START FROM (in theatres)
A dreary, “drenching”, gem of a tiny film with gargantuan gleaning from director Mahalia Belo based on the book by Megan Hunter; Jodi Comer (“Killing Eve”) paradigmatic performance as “Woman” foraging a deluged milieu (London) howls with innovative discernment and penetration; she has a child while a watery world is encompassing her, swallowing her home, separating her from her husband …
Read More »ZONE OF INTEREST (GERMAN: ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
Director Jonathan Glazer has accomplished the remarkable in his adaptation of Martin Amis’s novel of the same title (which bears little resemblance to Amis’s script). The film resonates, pierces the psyche, transcends the scenario, adept performances, it sears redolently with the SOUND of the unimaginable; eyes shut, the soundtrack bleats with symphonic chords of horror, annihilation, ethnic elimination; Mica Levi’s …
Read More »ALL OF US STRANGERS (in theatres)
Grief. Loss. Isolation. Unfathomable pain. Director Andrew Haigh and actor Andrew Scott with masterful precision scalp layer after layer of emotional, psychological trauma hidden in the depths of a damaged soul; a wound, festering for a lifetime, that must be excised, cleansed, allowed to scar. “Adam”, (Scott) a screenwriter, insulated in an empty high rise in London, spots another dweller …
Read More »SALTBURN (in theatres)
Tantalizingly, titillatingly twisted; Emerald Fennell accomplishes the hat trick as writer, producer, director with a film guaranteed to hibernate for eons in one’s memory; there are scenes shockingly deplorable but fittingly apropos of the major protagonist “Oliver Quick”, Barry Keoghan’s (“Banshees of Inisherin”) staggering performance, guaranteed to rival Cillian Murphy’s (“Oppenheimer” and Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro”) at this year’s Academy Awards; …
Read More »MORSELS FROM THE SCREEN & TV
“THE HOLDOVERS” IN THEATRES Poignantly predictable, two contradictory characters (“Professor Paul Hunham”, Paul Giamatti, and student “Angus”, Dominick Sessa), lock horns over a Christmas holiday at a boy’s boarding school; it is 1970 and director Alexander Payne remains true to the era; Giamatti’s curmudgeonly, warm and wonderful performance as a brilliant, flawed ancient civilizations teacher, …
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