Hollywood

EL James successfully capitalized on sexual titillation that has been practiced by archival cultures for eons: India’s “Kama Sutra”, China’s Taoist texts during the Han Dynasty, even Confucius had opinions on the “joining of the essences”;  author James Clavell in novels “Shogun” and “Tai- Pan” gives a more contemporary twist in Eastern “pleasing pleasures”; these civilizations considered “coupling” as an …

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Why? Why would two credible actors decide to star in this maladroit attempt at the horror genre? Was it the charm of director/brothers Michael and Peter Spierig? Academy Award winner Dame Helen Mirren might have been enticed by the enigmatic Sarah Winchester (1840-1922), daughter-in-law of Oliver Winchester (1810-1880) founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company; her daughter Annie died after …

Possibly, not the worst, but far from the best of times; the Vietnam War (1955-75) transformed the Western world, heralded the death of idealism, giving birth to post-modernism, erasure of naivety; “The Age of Aquarius” (The 5th Dimension) is in full swing, gifting sexual license, mind-enhancing drugs, anything to escape the reality of government culpability; lying Presidents who allowed American …

From the onset there is a romantic perversity luridly lurking at the core of each scene; at times clandestine, oftentimes overt, always lusciously tantalizing a mesmerized, unsuspecting viewer.   Writer/director (P)aul (T)homas Anderson’s “Pygmalion” scenario goes deliriously, deliciously awry. “Reynolds Woodcock” (astounding Daniel Day-Lewis) a nascent fashion designer for the rich and titled in 1950’s London; effete and imperially slim, …

While on hiatus Peneflix has been immersed in the miraculous, curative effects of binging on Netflix; yes, it is an addiction and I’ve spent hours committed to self-analysis, why one allows these fictional forces to wrap their slippery tentacles around one’s psyche, kidnapping viewership for the duration of their tempestuous, taunting existence? Like Ulysses “Sirens” once exposed, doomed; they have …

As I peruse other critics best and worst films I feel fortunate that, because of my pay grade, have rarely seen many of the “worst”; no matter the product, each year there are enough quality films, that in retrospect my passion  is satiated. Granted I have not seen, “The Post”, “Phantom Thread” “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool”.  So here …

Ridley Scott’s biopic, revolving around the 1973 kidnapping of J. Paul Getty’s (1892-1976) grandson, sixteen-year-old, high school dropout, J. Paul III, seethes with the despicability of an amoral man, whose zealous quest for wealth consumed any human decency, that should have led to philanthropy, but instead to egregious greed and Olympian, myopic, insensitivity, heartlessness. In the 70’s Getty’s oil empire …

Aaron Sorkin’s feature directorial debut shines a beacon on Molly Dubin Bloom (1978-), the “Princess of Poker” and her revealing book “Molly’s Game” (2014); the film is smart, really smart, but you don’t have to be an intellectual to comprehend its nuances, just recognize that they’re there. I, for example, with the exception of “face” or “tell”, know bubkis about …

Years ago, I experienced one of the “greatest” performances ever actualized on the stage, Hugh Jackman in “The Boy from Oz”, a dynamo of incredible proportions, he sang, danced, played the piano and flawlessly morphed into every stage of songwriter Peter Allen’s career; an unimaginable exploit, anchored forever in my archival theatric treasures. “The Greatest Showman” is not in that …