Foreign

Penelope Cruz tips the scales in skill and virtuosity in Italian director Emanuele Crialese’s, “L’immensita” (immensity); shadowing his own struggle with gender identity in the 1970’s. It is a film metaphorically nuanced, reminiscent of today’s gender divisive world. “Clara” (Cruz) a dazzling housewife with three children, the oldest “Adriana/Adri” (prodigiously astounding Luana Giuliani) at twelve comfortable in his male identity, …

The name is the same, but not Georges Bizet’s (1838-1875) renowned Opera that premiered in 1875; instead, Benjamin Millepied (“The Black Swan”), dancer, choreographer, now director, presents his version of a woman who clandestinely steals into the United States from Mexico; Melissa Barrera (“Carmen”) is the heroine with a stricken past, captured by border patroller “Aidan” (Paul Mescal), suffering from …

The dashing, dimpled dandy with insouciant, uninhibited charm (Tomer Sisley) masking Shakespearian hubris, behind raffish, rascally wit; one dead wife who perpetually, deliciously, ghostly gives consul, another, a maniacal murderer, the mother of his baby daughter; his forensic genius, laced with aplomb, operates at the sharpest measure, with the aid of the murdered victims (whose dignification he champions) continuously titillating …

“Freddie” (pulverizing performance by Park Ji-Min) at twenty-five decides to visit her birth country; adopted, raised and loved by a French couple, curiosity led her to Seoul for a two week vacation and unearthing her biological parents; uninformed in the Korean language she relies on a newfound friend “Tena” (Guka Han) as her translator, as her quest easily discovered her …

“The art of art, the glory of expression, and the sunshine of the light of letters is simplicity.” “The Quiet Girl” directed by Colm Bairead is a masterpiece of simplicity; a tale of potent, heart-wrenching poignancy; a nine-year-old child, “Cait” (sublime innocence encased in Catherine Clinch) shunted off to distant relatives for a summer, a transformative few months, that viewers …

An intriguing film of deepest, noir espionage; unforgettable characterizations: focusing on Japan’s colonization of China during WWII; enigmatic portrayals of occupiers and subjects and their objectives during the traumatic enslavement of China’s population, (1937-1945). Delving into the psyches of the protagonists, viewers be forewarned, never trust the obvious; collaborators, communists, xenophobes? Actors Tony Chiu-Wai Leung (“In the Mood for Love”) …

Bill Nighy is overwhelming, stratospheric, instinctively perceptive in his role as “Mr. Williams”, based on the film “Ikiru” by Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa (“Seven Samurai”); here is a brilliant remake of a 1952 classic. No longer Japan, but London, where a robotic bureaucrat, Mr. Williams, learns of his imminent death and shockingly realizes he has never lived; impeccably imbued with …

WHITNEY HOUSTON: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY (IN THEATRES) Naomi Ackie (Houston), Stanley Tucci (Clive Davis, record producer) and Ashton Sanders (husband, Bobby Brown) cannot salvage, what should have been a dynamic biopic, from mediocrity. Her blistering rise, from the age of nineteen to her tragic demise at forty-eight, was infused with impending gloom: nasty parenting, drug enabling husband, doomed …

Auteur Jerzy Skolimowski at eighty-four endows film lovers a divinely consummate movie experience; inspired by Robert Bresson’s 1966 “Au Hasard Balthazar”; “EO” (compilation of six donkeys) follows an unscripted path, through the eyes of a donkey, whose odyssey opens the minds and sensitivities of all who view it. From the onset, EO stoically accepts his/her fate; as an observer, from …

I love foreign films; possibly because of the riveting concentration needed to follow the narrative or maybe because I lust after cultures different from my own, cultures that add to the elasticity of my brain, expand my imaginative landscape and enhance my existence. “Lost Illusions” (winner of 7 categories at 2022 Cesar Awards including Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Xavier …