Hollywood

Mephistopheles is cackling from his eighth level of hell, as “Elizabeth Sparkle” (magically sculpted by Demi Moore) succumbs to her Faustian fallacy; a perpetual mirrored image of her ingénue years; rather implausible since we meet her on her 50th birthday. Director Coralie Fargeat (48 years-old) pounces on the ubiquity of denial, futility of staving off the aging process and the …

An oxymoronic title is the first hint of what is to come, and it plays out deliciously in Christie/Holmes style; lavish wedding on a sanctioned estate goes awry in the wee hours of the wedding day; beautiful, dead guest “Merritt Monaco”, (luscious Meghann Fahy) surfaces on the Nantucket shore of an apparent drowning/suicide. Estate owners “Greer Garrison Winbury”, a renowned …

Sorrowful, adulterated talents of Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway in this totally irrational scenario of a mother’s devotion and love. Directed by Benoit Delhomme, based on the novel by Barbara Abel; it is a cross between fantasy and horror, and fails in both arenas. Taking place in the early 1960’s when women are stretching the boundaries between professionalism and motherhood; …

Gut-wrenching, supremely intelligent, empathetically profound, director/writer Azazel Jacobs squeezes every ounce of emotional angst and hubris from his three protagonists: “Katie” (Carrie Coon), “Christina” (Elizabeth Olsen), “Rachel” (Natasha Lyonne), uniquely perfect performances by this trinity of superbness: Katie, the eldest, bossy, bright, sees the situation of their dying father through a lens of rigidity; Christina, metaphysical, lost in an unknow …

Recommended by my star-powered, producer nephew, Will Anderson, I lustily viewed with vast anticipation; directed by trans and non-binary filmmaker, Jane Schoenbrun I found it compelling, confounding but incomprehensible, I reached out to him for enlightenment; his perceptions, salient and introspective are worthy of quoting in entirety: It really moved me in a strange way. And I think you may …

You don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate this enchanting slice of life that owns no bias, parameters, visiting at whim all peoples regardless of sect, gender, creed; refreshing tale of disparate souls, connecting at the appropriate moment in their varied existence. “Between the Temples” is a poignant relief from the ubiquity of the “horror”, “Marvel” genres, monopolizing, overwhelming movie …

The bludgeoning skin care industry globally generates over 144 billion USD$ and climbing; Generation Z (between 12 & 27) leading the hordes of consumers. Director/writer Austin Peters gets targeted aspects of faux LA glamour on the “nose”: quest for beauty and perpetual youth; strappings of wealth (cars, flashy, fur-trimmed ensembles) pneumatic chests, plasticity pulsates on creaseless faces with eyelashes destined …

Expecting saccharine sentimentality, mawkish, cloying, syrupy manipulation; surprisingly, those maudlin expectations were dashed by Blake Lively’s (producer) stratospheric performance as “Lily Blossom Bloom” complemented by Justin Baldoni’s (director) equally high-volume depiction of neurosurgeon “Ryle Kincaid”. Both actors, majorly invested in the creation of the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover: abusive, marital, familial relationships and their lasting effects on their progeny. …

Goodness, Gracious, Great Globs of Gobbledygook! A self-styled discourse on erasing decency, tasteless titillation, ribald, rutting humorless dialogue, gratuitous, gutting savagery; smashing the 4th wall (invisible, imaginary shield between actors and viewers) and reveling in its iconoclasm. Dreadful dirge. This was my first and final entrance into a realm that is anything but “marvelous”. A person very close to me …

This, my first excursion, into the “Twister” franchise, was a startling surprise; glued to my seat, slack-jawed, and hypnotized every frenzied second, it was a commanding and totally overwhelming filmic feat. Primarily, it made me happy. Happy to be wallowing, engrossed in visual phenomena, charismatic performances, and buzz-worthy cinematography. From the outset actor Daisy Edgar-Jones is commanding as the neophyte …