Hollywood

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 …

Clint Eastwood, truly a legendary human being, at ninety-four, has produced and directed a film worthy of approbation, applause, and a first class score; it is a mind-twister, a panegyric thriller so engrossing it tips the scales in titillation, confounding confusion and the ultimate challenge of what would you do in a similar situation?; supremely intelligent, the scenario weaves its …

Director Sean Baker (“The Florida Project”) won this year’s Palme d’or at the Cannes Film Festival; it is nothing short of riveting and actor Mikey Madison (Russian-American) as the quintessential sex worker is astounding. Commencing with synchronized, grinding, pulverizing sexuality she takes prisoner her clients and requites their every fantasy, control, her ultimate asset. That control is tested when she …

Based on the 2016 novel by prodigious author Robert Harris, this gutsy, fictionalized peek at the secretive election of a new Pope is a rarefied and plausible take on the politics of the Catholic Church and those lobbying for its highest office. Director Edward Berger’s film resonates with political tricks and shenanigans we’ve been redolently bombarded with the past few …