Hollywood

Lin-Manuel Miranda serves a banquet of sumptuous joy; a feast for the pandemic-starved, melancholic, woebegone viewer; from its marvelous commencement to its spectacular conclusion, its edifying, glorious, musically magnificent score, innovative, ingenious choreography, stupendous cinematography, culturally iconic scenario, miraculously refashioned an audience steeped in a despondent, yearlong fug, into an exuberant mass, kvelling, knowing this is the stuff of happiness. I loved this movie, there are not enough adjectives to …

A lifelong Stephen King devotee, my fantasy has been to wander the dark, blighted, possessed corridors of his fecund imagination, just for a palpable hour, touching, feeling, experiencing the wizardry pulsating beneath his unorthodox artistry; “Lisey’s Story” might not share the hierarchy of “The Stand”, “The Shining”, “Misery” or one of my favorites “Thinner” but is hefty, semi-autobiographical and sensationally …

“Oslo”, based upon the Tony Award- winning play (J.T. Rogers), which is gloriously reminiscent and equally worthy of experiencing as a film, choreographs an incredulous moment in history: the power of a visionary couple blending intransigent advisories, Israel and Palestine, channeling their missions into a viable solution for peace;  Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott with remarkable aptitude depict Mona Juul …

Director John Krasinski’s second film about the hunted, haunted Abbott family is surprisingly better than the earlier “A Quiet Place”; it is tautly structured, synchronicity weaves its compelling coincidences involving humans out-maneuvering aerial aliens, keenly sensitive to sound, and presciently frightful to behold; there is magic in its meaning and profoundly acted by the previous cast, and a new member …

Documentarian Luke Holland (1948-2020) spent his life bringing to the fore man’s errors, injustices, crimes against mankind: campaigning on behalf of threatened tribal people; highlighting Ruby Kennedy’s campaign to compensate slave labourers under Hitler’s demonic regime; it is “Final Account” that will stabilize, confirm his legacy of intuitive brilliance; as a grandson of Holocaust victims; commencing in 2008 he interviewed …

Christoph Waltz in his directorial debut and starring as the obsequious, uxorious “Ulrich Mott” (loosely based on the murder of socialite Viola Herms Drath) validates, once again, his transformative powers; with chameleon aptness he imbues Mott’s pathological gallantry with slithering, scintillating charm; he convinced Washington Grand Dame, “Elsa Brecht”, (indomitable Vanessa Redgrave) besting him by forty years, to become his …

“THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD”             HBO MAX & THEATRES Really? Angelina Jolie, with a face capable of launching a fleet of warships, Rapunzel tresses, a fire fighter? A role Frances McDormand could have pulled off; director Taylor Sheridan bombs with his choice of Jolie as his heroine; her attributes were a hinderance, detraction from, …

“Revenge is best served cold”; two prime protagonists, serving vigilante reparation after the death of loved ones; Mads Mikkelsen stars as “Markus” a frigid, calculating Afghani soldier, returning to Denmark to avenge the death of his wife, killed in a horrific train accident; Mikkelsen’s deliciously terrifying performance anchors this sublimely well-written (writer/director Anders Thomas Jensen) scintillating scenario; beautifully balanced, “Riders …

There was a strange spirituality, almost a reckoning, comparable to exiting a bomb shelter and checking the remains, revealing the hereafter; a ghostly specter of another era permeated the evening; a staged, glitzy Gotham, populated by ideal mannequins, a purified zone of equality and perfection.  Gone were the “hosts” with their self-deprecating, stale schtick, guffaws and unintended slights; winners, given …

With a plethora of options I have become cavalier when investing time in front of my mini movie screen; if it doesn’t look good or kidnap my attention within the first ten minutes, I make a speedy exit, with no regrets. Here are a few that kept me binging well into the wee hours: “Shtisel” (Hebrew: English Subtitles) (Netflix). The …