Hollywood

Hermine Beck (1923-2022) was a formidable woman who “sucked the marrow out of life” and graced its presence for almost a hundred years; I met her in Kolkata, India in 2004 and knew karmically that this was the “beginning of a beautiful friendship”, it was, until its finality. Hermine introduced me to “The Power Broker” by Robert Caro (1935-) a …

Fredrik Backman’s 2012 novel “A Man Called Ove” translates prodigiously in director Marc Forster’s version of a charismatic curmudgeon, circumstantially forced to keep living after the death of his wife; Tom Hanks (in tandem with his son Truman Hanks, as an aged and youthful “Otto”) dazzles as a man at the precipice of despair, aching only to be united with …

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 …

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and his supernaturally bleak imagination translated into thrilling, titillating prose and poetry, has long held an undeniable fascination, compellingly haunting appeal: “Lenore”, “Annabelle Lee” their absence festers at the heart of Poe’s sensibilities, he mourningly acclaims the expiration of beauty; “the pale blue eye” of the purest ingenue, denied maturity. “The death of a beautiful woman …

WOMEN TALKING The power of intelligence resonating at the core of this prodigious film is astonishing; at certain points, wishing to “pause”, “rewind”, and “replay”, cementing a vocabulary of deducted reasoning, purely processed, through the words of women, sorely abused, illiterate, questioning the dictates of a religion that demands “forgiveness” for egregious behavior, perpetrated by a male population, justified in …

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 …

Lovable, despicable? Possibly, bucketsful of both. Undebatable, it is electrifying, mesmerizing, hypnotically addictive for every second of its three plus hours. Writer/director Damien Chazelle (“LaLa Land”,”Whiplash”) gifts a glorious, energetic, oftentimes inordinate paean to Hollywood’s embryonic bygone era. Commencing in 1926 silent movies are at their peak and idolized leading man “Jack Conrad” (Brad Pitt, with age exponentially swells, imbuing …

Occasionally, I see a film, that in retrospect, I wish I hadn’t; Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” captures the top prize in this category besting “Mother”, Aronofsky’s 2017 movie starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem and Michelle Pfeiffer; examples of boundary destruction at the “celestial” level; a more fitting title would have been “Death by Diet”. Granted Brendan Fraser’s ardent, overpowering depiction …

Olivia Coleman, out of 156 nominations has won 66, including an Academy Award (“The Favourite”, 2018) and three Golden Globes; this year she is again nominated for her stunning characterization of a floundering, fragile woman tenuously teetering on the thread between reality and disillusionment; treating viewers to an astounding, catastrophically heartbreaking performance; “Hilary Small”, manages the Empire Theatre on the …

Never have I reviewed a film a second time; but at the finale of the 10/14 (FOUR STARS!!!!) review I knew I had to see it again; I was troubled by the inconsistencies, conundrums, anomalies overshadowed by Cate Blanchett’s immensely prodigious performance as “Lydia Tar”.     Initially, I did not like Lydia; she was too perfect, too controlled, too …