Hollywood

Director Kitty Green gifts viewers one of the most innovative, surprising films of the year. Two young Canadians “Hannah” (Julia Garner) and “Liv” (Jessica Henwick) find themselves running out of funds while experiencing the sights, seductiveness of the only country in the world that covers an entire continent, Australia; the daunting vastness minimizes its inhabitants especially in the parched outback …

“THE ORIGIN OF EVIL”  FRENCH: ENGLISH SUBTITLES   (IN THEATRES & SOON NETFLIX) There is nothing as satisfying as a supreme whodunit, and the French excel at titillation and obfuscation. Actor Laure Calamy, “Stephanie”, in a transformative performance seeks to reunite with her estranged, wealthy father “Serge” (virtuoso role by Jacques Weber); from the onset surprises await at every turn; director …

Again, Agatha Christie (1890-1976) commands center stage in theatres capturing the enigmatic, floating, watery wonderland of Venice in 1947; atmospherically lyrical, raucous rain clutches archival architecture on ghostly Halloween. An eerie, spooky soundtrack with dashing drawings, resembling works of Edvard Munch, Wiliam Kentridge, and Kara Walker prance across the screen while children render excitement and terror to the decaying mansion …

Seen in succession, a feminine gender bender; three disparate women, fictional and factual begged comparison in this critic’s estimation; similarities required major excavation but rewarded with extensive digging: inordinate security in who they are, their sense of self, lacking hyperbole, flawed but poised in personal conviction, earning our admiration regardless of their physicality; intelligence and dignity transcend their imperfections. Margot …

OPPENHEIMER: unequivocally one of the preeminent and possibly the greatest film ever created; a sensational marvel, from commencement to conclusion; director Christopher Nolan secure in his innovative, proven genius captures awe-inspiring heights, sights and sounds beyond comprehension, actors at their pinnacle: Cillian Murphy is today’s epochal method actor, donning the anatomical, psychological, intellectual might of atomic designer J. Robert Oppenheimer …

On a recent trip to Dubai, scaling the myriad of internal levels of the Burj Khalifa, (the tallest building in the world) enthralled by the videos of Tom Cruise and the film crew hanging precipitously from cables, on the exterior, from floors 123-130 (there are 163); “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” (2011) was the reason I went to Dubai; Tom …

Twisted. Never have I ever been rendered paralyzed within seconds of watching a film; “Sanctuary” is twisted, debauched, depraved, defiled in a tethered knot; yet, stunningly, mesmerizingly, blazingly brilliant. Director Zachary Wigon in tandem with writer Micah Bloomberg have created a work of inconceivable flair, infused with the astounding artistry of actors Margaret Qualley (“Rebecca”) and Christopher Abbott (“Hal’); a …

On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I had the privilege of visiting Lola VFX studio where I witnessed firsthand the de-aging process used in film; a “pod” a machine using algorithms to “analyze and manipulate the actor’s facial features, skin texture and other visual elements”; a remarkable, painless tool that was orchestrated to perfection in “Indiana Jones and the …

“Gardening is a manipulation of the natural world.” Joel Edgerton gives a perfectly preened performance as “Narvel Roth”, a punctilious horticulturist in charge of dowager’s “Norma Haverhill” (pristinely aged Sigourney Weaver) elegant estate; he is her pawn, carrying out demands both in and outside the mansion. Director Paul Schrader gifts the complicated Roth a robotic intensity: meticulous biographer of floral …

“One cannot count the moons that shimmer on her roofs/or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.” Saib-e-Tabrizi Two films focusing on the travails of American soldiers and their interpreters in the unchartered, explosive, terrifyingly beautiful landscape of Afghanistan. There is keen edification in both films but Guy Ritchie’s “Covenant” is a more intimate, accurate dissection of the dependency, bond …