Hollywood

“THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7”  (NETFLIX) Director Aaron Sorkin once again uses his magical might in creating a pristine reminiscence of a bleak period in American history; 1968, Democratic National Convention disrupted by factions against the Vietnam War: Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen, physical facsimile); Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne); Mark Rylance and Frank Langella are expert renditions of William Kunstler and …

“MANGROVE”            AMAZON PRIMEDirector/writer/ artist Steve McQueen perpetually stuns with his historical films, based on egregious tales of injustice; Mangrove, a restaurant in west London and the trial of nine black activists in 1971 is blatantly honest, radiantly performed with a prescient message more vibrant today than yesteryear. FOUR & ½ STARS!!!! “NOCTURNAL ANIMALS” (2016)  NETFLIX Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance is enormous; paired with Amy Adams and stunning contemporary art, acutely satisfying. …

Traditionally, Christmas Day is movie mania, in my household; redundancy accomplished, at home, in pajamas with leftovers and my adult pacifier, the remote. “Wonder Woman 1984” was a wonderous flop, “unsalvageable” by Gal Gadot, Chris Pine; Kristin Wiig as the scatterbrained sycophant, “Barbara/Cheetah” phenomenally miscast (perpetually locked in “Bridesmaids” mode) served as comic relief,  guffawing, fawning until her “wish” is …

I have an innate prejudice when it comes to dystopian, apocalyptic films; acknowledging their technological wizardry, the aftermath leaves me in a queasy, dissatisfied, jetlagged fug: “The Road”, “Total Recall”, “Mad Max”, “Oblivion”, “Children of Men” and in particular “The Lobster”, were so systemically oppressive, depressive; no matter the ills of the twenty-first century, it is a “far better world” than these futurist prognoses; …

A Covid Cure for 2020 and beyond; joy unexperienced since the world closed it doors, windows; shrinkage of entertainment venues and the intimacy of darkened halls, resurrected by  “American Utopia” a visionary reminder of what once was and will rise again; palpable hope oozes from its prognostic pores; visionary David Byrne, a stylistic revivalist, an Elmer Gantry, preaching his code …

Chadwick Boseman’s (1976-2020) electrifying, meteoric, candescent depiction of “Levee”, a high strung, volatile trumpet player in August Wilson’s (1945-2005) award winning “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”, is pragmatically the “Virtuoso” of male performances this year; his physical diminishment, resulting in the magnification of a role, regardless of his health, written in the stars; crushingly grand is his every sentence, lithesome movements; …

Profoundly poetic. Director Francis Lee’s achingly pure love tale, starring Kate Winslet as paleontologist Mary Anning (1799-1847) and Saoirse Ronan as her lover, Charlotte Murchison is beautifully unsettling; the rawness of a landscape, accommodating to ancient fossils, unsympathetic to earthlings, intensifies the relationship between two outliers; misfits that bond over weeks spent probing for artifacts long dead, tainted only by …

Universally panned, especially James Corden for his stereotypical portrayal of a gay Broadway performer, which I did not find offensive; the major criticism heralded from the LBGT community on his interpretation (Director Ryan Murphy applauded) of “Barry”, Corden is straight. Desperately seeking positivity in this pejorative, superfluous imitation of a Broadway musical, focusing on four (including the aforementioned “Barry”) “over- …

My nascent exposure, in the mid 1980’s, to Orson Welles’ Homeric epic, “Citizen Kane” did not resonate as an iconic, monumental film destined, for archival prominence; almost forty years hence, with a matured aptitude, my sensitivities now grant it the lionization it has always deserved and for the most part received. Viewing “Mank” (previously reviewed) and knowing the war of …

Herman J. Mankiewicz (1897-1953) won an Academy Award (along with Orson Welles) in 1942 for Best Original Screenplay, “Citizen Kane” (loosely based on iconic businessman, Howard Hughes); controversy has shadowed their victory for decades and director David Fincher with punctilious attention addresses the conundrum of authorship in “Mank”; a project fathered by his dad, Jack Fincher (1930-2003), is brought to …