Hollywood

Director Pablo Larrain’s third tribute to a feminine icon: “Jackie” 2016, starring Natalie Portman; “Spencer” 2021, gloomy actor, Kristin Stewart and the final film of the trilogy, “Maria” featuring the preeminent Diva, operatic legend, Maria Callas depicted by Angelina Jolie. In essence I found the trinity lacking in pungency, power and engrossment. Possibly Larrain’s awe of the protagonists clouded his …

Watching this nebulous, evocative film, Thomas Mann’s (1875-1955) “Death in Venice” kept plundering the forefront my mind; a distinguished writer so obsessed with a much younger boy that it destroys his rationale, eventually leading to his demise. In “Queer”, replaced by a decadent, drug and alcohol addicted “William Lee”. Daniel Craig’s, metamorphosis is astounding, erased is the 007, suave, “shaken, …

Director Justin Kurzel could not have selected a timelier era to debut this true travail which occurred in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1980’s; a white, antisemitic cabal led by charismatic Robert Mathews (a superb Nicholas Hoult), messianic leader of The Order and believer in the annihilation and recreation of the American government; funded by organized bank robberies. Enter …

One of the weirdest, strangest, but oddly compelling films of the year; based on 2021’s Rachel Yoder’s novel of the same title; I did not read the book, so the premise came as a shocking example of the most extreme postpartum depression ever depicted or imagined. An intentionally weightier Amy Adams growls, chews and roars as she slowly turns into …

“This is the end-for me, the beginning of life”. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s (1906-1945) last words on the day he was hung by the Nazis, April 9th, at 39 years of age, days before the end of the war. It was a tragic conclusion to a life lived without regret; a life where a darkened shadow of doubt never interfered with the …

Director Ridley Scott  has had twenty-four years to ruminate on the success of 2000’s “Gladiator”, winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director (Scott), Best Actor (Russell Crowe), Best Supporting Actor (Joaquin Phoenix) Best Original Screenplay (David Franzoni, John Logan, William Nicholson); “Gladiator II”  bests its forerunner in cinematography, battle sequences (bloodied, severed limbs and heads) aerial views …

Never has wickedness been served so mellifluously, deliciously, supercalifragilisticexpialidociously sensational as in director Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked”; a film so splendidly crafted, acted, choregraphed it was impossible to breathe with the breath, depth of its wonder. Every glittering glorious moment resonates with truth, integrity and lessons for living, understanding and embracing the goodness of the unknown, outlier, no matter their …

In the stratospheric realm of Taylor Swift and Beyonce concerts, tenor Andrea Bocelli elevates Opera to a celestial level; sightless, his voice has enveloped millions in a genre encompassing all human emotions: incomprehensible joy, desecrating grief, positivity of remembrance, moments in life, forever scarred, forever sacred.  Levitating, watching wonderous staging, at roofless Theatro Del Silenzio in Tuscany, music and nature …

Will not debate the intelligence of actor/writer /director Jesse Eisenberg nor the acting acuity of Kieran Culkin; both men star as mismatched cousins “David (Eisenberg) and “Benji (Culkin) Kaplan”, journeying to Poland, a pilgrimage to the home of their recently deceased grandmother. They are members of a disparate tour group whose varied reasons for attending are unearthed as the days …

Peneflix through the years has periodically concentrated on the horror genre; to be taken seriously there are certain rules that must be adhered to,  to qualify as terrifying, number one is its feasibility; the probability that it could happen, surreal sacrificed for reality as in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” or Australian “Wolf Creek”; but leaving “Heretic” this afternoon, I recognized …