Foreign

“When a great genius appears in the world you can know him by this sign: that the dunces are all in a confederacy against him.” Jonathan Swift Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938) railed against his detractors until he was championed by Max Perkins (1884-1947), editor of Charles Schreiber’s Publishing. Max, a man whose prescience recognized and lionized writers Ernest Hemmingway, F. Scott …

Penelope Cruz gives a dazzling performance as a vibrant schoolteacher, mother coping with the ugliness of breast cancer;  she soars as “Magda”, never shunning, hiding from the inevitability of her prognoses; she loves her soccer-playing son “Dani” (poignant portrayal by Teo Planell) with pure, uncensored, palpable devotion. Magda’s contagious, uninhibited  joy infects all who enter her sphere;  grieving “Arturo” (beautiful, …

There are minimal films where an actor is so remarkable that their performance transcends sentimentality: 2014’s “The Fault in Our Stars”, starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, whose profound characterizations pulverized the tear ducts of the most frigid cynics, and now “Me Before You’’ (based on the novel by JoJo Moyes) director Thea Sharrock’s weepy, wonderful story of a beautiful, …

Oh, for the era when barbs were delivered deftly, charmingly, the victim unaware of being vivisected until exsanguination affirms that the arrow, skillfully aimed,  has hit its mark.  (Films starring Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy). Director Whit Stillman has masterfully interpreted Jane Austen’s novella “Lady Susan” and Kate Beckinsale splendidly gifts the lambent, conniving, shrewd widow with inimitable control over …

At 2015’s Cannes Film Festival it was impossible, no matter the length of time spent in line, to get into this monumentally-hyped film by director Yorgos Lanthimos (“Dogtooth’); I viewed it today with six others in a cavernous theatre. It is one the bleakest, saddest, cruelest movies I have ever witnessed and I fervently wished I hadn’t. It takes place …

Dystopian detritus.  Periodically you experience a film that is unquestionably idiotic; blatantly bludgeons credibility; leaving viewers wondering about the validity of such “muck”; a metaphor gone disastrously awry. Based on the 1975 book by J.G. Ballard, director Ben Wheatley casts mega talents Tom Hiddleston (“I Saw the Light”, “The Night Manager”) and Jeremy Irons (“A Man Who Knew Infinity”) as …

Revisiting the stunning 1969 “La Piscine” directed by Jacques Deray or 2003’s  “The Swimming Pool” directed by Francois Ozon and starring the inimitable Charlotte Rampling; this version unfortunately does not have the energy and potency of a “bigger splash”. Androgynously elegant Tilda Swinton plays “Marianne Lane” a rock star at the “Prince” level recuperating from throat surgery on the Sicilian …

Raw. Poignant. Perfectly, powerfully performed and executed in present-day Havana; “Jesus” and his miscreant father “Angel” live atop “the most beautiful slum in the world”. There is so much beauty in “Viva”, achingly personal and real, that investment in every character is cemented with the first introduction: “Jesus” (Hector Medina) survives by shaping the wigs of drag performers; he wistfully …

The decimal number system can be traced to the Indus Valley (3000 BCE); the concept of “zero”,  the ubiquitous ruler, all were conceived in India. Indians have a natural affinity for mathematics and science. Writer/director Matthew Brown delves into the remarkable story of gifted, unschooled mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) born in Tamil Nadu, India and brilliantly educated G.H. Hardy (1877-1947) …

It doesn’t happen often, but when it does,  it is sensational; that jolt, awakening, knowing you are experiencing the finest ingredient of filmmaking…..pure, scintillating entertainment. “Sing Street” written and directed by John Carney (“Once”, “Begin Again”) captivates viewers long after the theatre is bright and the screen dark. Ireland in the 1980’s, “Conor/Cosmo” (remarkable Ferdia Walsh-Pello) a fifteen-year-old high “schooler” …