Foreign

Gratuitous gore, guts and inhumaneness inform the premise of writer/director Goran Stolevski’s film, located in 19th century Macedonia; witches, lusting after the blood of newborns, muting infants; girls are the ultimate prey, transformed into cannibals, they mutilate with impunity, slaughtering for revenge, power; anthropophagites devouring each other, only to become the devoured; savagery stars in this baseless thriller; identity wallows …

Brash, bold, colorful couture bombarded the red carpet; I never realized that would be the highlight of the evening; an evening that suffered a low never experienced in Academy Award history; dignity destroyed on an altar of self-righteousness; no rebound, no “win” can ever erase or reward egregious behavior, witnessed worldwide. The actor should pray for paltry ratings.  As in …

Testament to the magnetic power of film, its accessibility, universal appeal, regardless of age, gender, heritage it has generated almost as many critics as imbibers; periodically you experience a critic, a devotee of the genre that soars above the flock, a person with an inimitable command of the English language; vocabulary alone paints a filmic scene, in no need of …

Two explosive and extremely traumatic films based on actual events; one inadvertent and one intentional; both are viscerally challenging to watch. “The Bombardment” from its inception is shocking: an idyllic landscape in the outskirts of Copenhagen witnesses the bombing of a taxi holding three virginally beautiful women in white; a young cyclist, “Henry” (Bertram Bisgaard) rendered mute by the sight …

Years ago, a friend and I had the privilege of touring the Dharavi slum in Mumbai; staggering in its viability, actuality in its focus on poverty at its nadir, but also depicted the ingenuity of its in habitants; it was a hotbed of industry, vibrating with entrepreneurship: bakeries, cleaners, schools, with uniformed children; these inspirational exceptions eased, but did not …

The complexities, literary, cultural references are vastly entertaining, if you recognize the sources of enlightenment, but even if you enter this divine diversion with a pure mental slate “Drive My Car” will cling fervently, entrenched perpetually in one’s filmic library. Admirers of Russian playwright and short story writer, Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), introducing modernism, revolutionizing the short story genre, a symbol …

Earlier this week I was privileged to be included in a lecture on “Identity” given by the eponymous, brilliant Founder of “The Nourishment Projects”, Soma Roy; a mind of infinitesimal scope, encompassing vast cultures, wondrous landscapes, elements of all matter; religion, philosophy, mythology, varied forms of music, art; as an engineer, “master of the universe” she heuristically enables her audience …

Both films based on actuality, finely tuned truthful tales, handled with keen finesse by directors Rachel Griffiths (Ride…) and Felicity Morris (Tinder…); females depicting, with esteem, diplomacy, and admiration, the triumphs and travails of notable women. “RIDE LIKE A GIRL”. In the recently reviewed “Jockey” we witnessed the excruciating process of a man’s mission to stay in the horseracing arena; …

“A HERO”. Academy Award winning  director Asghar Farhadi’s (“A Separation”, “A Salesman”) latest auteur challenge is just as complex and ambiguous as his previous winners; he is a man whose pleasure lies in allowing viewers subjective interpretations of characters, events; filling in the blanks, solving the complexities; just when you feel the issues have been answered, Farhadi, with supple skill, …

Bollywood treats its cricketers with reverence, without eradicating human frailties, giving them life and vibrancy, palpating exuberance informs every scene, seizing the viewer’s attention from commencement to conclusion; director Kabir khan, focuses on the 1983 World Cup and India’s gut-wrenching march to grasp an almost unattainable victory; the “march” is worthy of every moment, every second of “83’s” compelling quest. …