Hollywood

Pulverizing, thrilling from its commencement in war ravaged Afghanistan; Marshall Bennett (phenomenal, Michael Roark) a key in the U.S. Army Ranger Motorcycle Unit, injured in the line of duty, saving his partner; returning, disabled to his wife “Sophie” (lovely, feisty, Allison Paige) and father “Cal” (terrific Trace Adkins) and young son; dealing with his damaged foot, depleted financial status, realizing …

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.” Out of desperation I visited this “horror” film solely to analyze Australian Samara Weaving’s performance as “Grace”, a nascent bride on her wedding day, forced to play a game of initiation into one of the weirdest, wealthiest filmic family’s ever invented; writers Guy Busick and Ryan Murphy along with directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler …

Predictability, sensationalism, oftentimes, can be comforting; knowing the “hero” will be around to fend off future threats to society; evil felled,  appropriate “bad guys” slain, all in the name of righteousness and a day’s work. “Mike Banning” (ubiquitous Gerard Butler) perpetual savior, initially lacking the spryness of past heroics, eventually saves the nation(hardly a spoiler) with the aid of his …

If a foreign film deeply resonates, oftentimes the American version, is acutely disappointing;  two recent examples, “The Upside” is an anemic adaptation of France’s,  “The Intouchables”, an even sorrier scenario is “Florence Foster Jenkins” contrasted with, again, France’s “Marguerite”; another pale imitation was “Gloria Bell”, Hollywood’s rendition of Chile’s 2014 “Gloria”; 2006’s Danish film, “After the Wedding” ranks as a …

A yummy, creamy, crunchy slice of filmic fun; directors Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz in “The Peanut Butter Falcon” serve a chunk of ingenuity, packaged in the form  of Zack Gottsagen as “Zak”, a “Down Syndrome character” who creatively escapes his smothering institution to fulfill his wrestling career; Shia LaBeouf is startling, in his best role in years, as a …

“Bernadette Fox” (ambitionally strained, Cate Blanchette) is mean, misanthropic, acerbic and if that isn’t enough, psychologically unbalanced; we intensely dislike her by the time we learn she won a MacArthur Genius Grant for architecture, over twenty years prior to the commencement of this flat, lifeless scenario; married to a savvy techie, “Elgie Branch” (clueless, lost depiction by Billy Crudup) and …

A film of such exuberant wonderment, I never wanted it to end; a dream actualized by the power of an artist to inspire; similar to Stockholm Syndrome, kidnaps and converts one to its cause; Bruce Springsteen, approaching seventy, has to be kvelling with this homage. Directed by Gurinder Chadha (“Bend it Like Beckham”), starring Viveik Kalra, as “Javed”  (memoir of …

Transformation. In recent years actors have gone to remarkable lengths to completely mask their persona, conforming to the physicality of their role; unimaginable dedication and pain, resulting in stunning, award-winning performances: Charlize Theron, “Monster”; Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”; Christian Bale, “The Machinist”, “Vice”; Patricia Arquette, “Escape at Dannemora”; Michael Fassbender, “Hunger.” Russell Crowe, “The Loudest Voice” tips …

“The brighter the “light” the darker the shadow”. “Luce” (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) is dazzling, beyond charismatic, he is seventeen, an orator, athlete, class valedictorian; he is also a rescued victim of war-ravaged Eritrea, where at seven, he was a trained killer; his adoptive parents “Amy and Peter Edgar” (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth) have dedicated ten years to his rehabilitation …

Jamie Bell is convincingly compelling as Neo-Nazi, Byron Widner; he is a totem, poster boy for every racist, anti-Semitic, white supremacist, mendacious nitwit poisoning the disenfranchised, marginalized, those terrified of anyone who is not colorless, of pure Aryan stock; ironically, their corps is tattooed, unshaven, filthy icons of hate. Widner is a real life paradigm of miraculous upheaval; his catalyst …