Hollywood

Russell Crowe performs well as evil incarnate in director Derrick Borte’s “Unhinged”, tale of road rage on steroids. The opening scene is a commentary on today’s destructive chaos: rioters, looters, volatile, palatable hatred between strangers as they navigate highways, intersections, congested avenues. Mimicking the carnage exhibited in Portland, Chicago, Los Angeles, exhibiting a reality that should only be fiction. We …

After a five-month drought it was déjà vu and weirdly comforting returning (masked) to the same theatre I frequented on Friday March 13, 2020: the historical shut down; strangely, familiarity did not breed contempt: unchanged, were the identical theatres, alphabetized rows, even the bathroom graffiti and malfunctioning toilets seemed welcoming in their constancy; time, frozen in its evasion of a venue that celebratespast, present and future.  Director …

I live in a magnificent, powerful, strong metropolis; a lake enhances its beauty, even its pandemic infections did not cauterize its optimism. Now “is the summer of our discontent” egregious factions are cannibalizing our streets, bulldozing commercial property, destroying at whim our civility, our neighborhoods; orchestrated destruction erasing confidence, hope, faith in a future of cohesiveness, tranquility, where factions are …

Based upon J.M. Coetzee’s 1980 novel of the same title is a giant metaphor for imperialism in any form and the country it infects; Great Britain, the crowning imperialist, gobbled chunks of: 13 American colonies, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand and Africa; we do not have to wait for the “barbarians”, they arrive instantaneously in the guise of “Colonel Joll” …

The Franco brothers (James, Tom and Dave) continue to impress with their prodigious capabilities; conquering a myriad of disciplines: acting, painting, art collectors, screenwriters, producers, directors; intelligence informs their ambitions and they are unafraid of unchartered frontiers. Dave Franco’s directorial debut, “The Rental”, had promise, commencing with brothers “Charlie” (Dan Stevens, “The Guest”) and “Josh” (Jeremy Allen White), renting with …

Of the countless films, programming, entertaining options viewed over the last five Covid months, “Greyhound” suffered pivotally from the pandemic; reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s 2017’s “Dunkirk”, its magnificence needed the vastness of a cinematographic experience, instead of the confinement (regardless of the screen size) of an in-house exploitation; Tom Hanks exponentially, through the years, has matured as an actor and …

Most of us have had it with homeland incarceration; abiding by authoritative regulations, our relationship with the outside world, revolve around our television/computer. Here are a few to view or shun: “GRANDCHESTER”: a British detective series  (PBS, AMAZON PRIME) in its fifth season, surviving the loss of magnetic James Norton (does an about face, from saint to sinner in “Happy …

This, my third foray, into the legendary arena of the American Revolution (1775-1783), starring Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) was scintillatingly positive; first exposure was the play in New York City, at an obnoxious ticket price (my fault, no one held a pistol to my head) that actually had a negative effect on my entertainment scale; fortunately, I was one of the …

Unerringly poignant, sublimely sensitive, an exquisite story within a story directed by Hirokazu Koreeda (“The Shoplifters”); actors Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche, imposingly comfortable in their craft are commanding as a mother/daughter team, with unresolved issues; Deneuve, “Fabienne” at the nadir of her career as a scion of the film industry, struggling with memory deficiency, has written a fabricated autobiography; Binoche, is her daughter, “Lumir”, …

And I suggest you do the same; a watery, nebulous copycat version of 1980’s “The Shining” (hard to top Jack Nicholson’s performance, scary scenario and the eerie, elegant, deserted hotel that haunts with impunity). Kevin Bacon (has many jewels in his filmic crown “You Should Have Left” is faux); “Theo Conroy” a wealthy man acquitted of the murder of his …