Hollywood

Director Barry Levinson and actor Robert De Niro have a long and varied filmic relationship: “Sleepers”, “Wag the Dog” “What Just Happened”, “The Wizard of Lies”, and present day “The Alto Knights”; De Niro bests his previous roles depicting gangsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese; never are viewers confused as to who is who. It is a homage to men …

Stylishly slick.  Prescient, well-honed actors at their physical peak working under the direction of Steven Soderberg. Writer David Koepp’s sensationally written script sucks audiences into a whirlpool of deception, espionage, infidelity, monogamy, dizzying intrigue. It is a festering guessing game guaranteed to demand one’s keen concentration, its hair-raising pace sears with divine, glamorous deceit. A black bag  exists, but also …

“Salome” and I have been friends for eons; our first encounter was in Bible Studies, she was introduced as a Jewish princess, daughter of Herodias and step-daughter of Herod Antipas; cursed with immeasurable beauty and an ungodly, iniquitous mother, demanding the head of John the Baptist, basically strip-teasing for her licentious stepfather; at sixteen she should have known better. Nonetheless, …

I liked “Anora” (review here) but never to the extent of its victories at this year’s Academy Awards; there is an undiagnosed, mystifying meme that seems to infect, percolate between the voters; this year it reflects the mission to elevate the sex-worker to the same level as “Oppenheimer”, “12 Years a Slave” etc. I have no objection to the theme …

Actually, a better choice is to revisit Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” which commences thousands of years ago where two tropes of gorillas, are fighting for dominance (reminiscent of 2024 election between the Democrats and Republicans); Kubrick’s genius in 1968 is revelatory in its vision: viable planets, unimaginable transport, and the remarkability of Artificial Intelligence (“Hal” vs “Siri”) opening …

Another banner year in movie-making history; in so many ways it was glorifying, shockingly innovative and uproarious, titillating fun. Countless times I exited smiling, smirking, thinking “I got it”, I wasn’t fooled, but enriched by the ambiguity; directors have unleashed their colossal control, allowing viewers to fill in the blanks. Recently a woman told me that she felt from the …

Everyone, at one time or another has sensed, without seeing, the presence of an unknown entity or experienced déjà vu, or knowing the phone is about to ring. This instinct is not terrifying, often gratifying, comforting, or the supreme satisfaction that a deceased loved one is still vigilant in protecting one. Directed by Steven Soderberg’s “Presence” is wonderful, innovative and …

Commencing immediately there is a poetic, romantic poignancy pulsating at its lyrical core; in a myriad of ways reminiscent of the golden years of the Ziegfeld Follies and the 1936 “The Great Ziegfeld”, a time of spectacle, grandeur, an age where a woman was sensationally adored for her beauty, poise and kickable acuity. Those were the days when the dreariest, …

Director/writer Brady Corbet gifts film/art/architecture/ history lovers more than one’s digestive system can masticate in almost four hours; it is an epic masterpiece worthy of intense analyzation; knowledge of the Holocaust and the detritus of its evil, shadowing, stalking survivors like Jewish emigree “Laszlo Toth” (incomparable Adrien Brody); the Bauhaus movement, a revolutionary school, founded in Germany (1919-1933) sought to …

“One Day in September” (1999) won the 2000 Academy Award for the Best Documentary; brilliantly brutal scenario of the horrific slaughter of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. More than the massacre of innocents it dismantled the intrinsic, iconic goal of the Olympics…peace and harmony between ideologies, cultures; cancelling differences, uniting in spirt, sharing the competitions between mutual skills; …