Hollywood

Paul Walker (1973-2013) was the prime reason I went to see “Furious 7”; my only indulgence with the “Furious Franchise; what is it about the death of the young and beautiful that haunts? The “Kennedy’s” father/son; Marilyn Monroe; Princess Diana; saved from the vestiges of age, clipped from the everyday; petrified in time; unrealized potential. Only the living can fill …

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), an Austrian Symbolist painter, whose genius has grown exponentially through the ages; an awe-inspiring wizard, an alchemist with a brush; gold leaf enhanced the beauty of his portraits; once exposed to his works one never forgets their metallic magic.  In 1907 he was commissioned to paint the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1881-1925) , ethereally luminous, an …

This portrait of teen bullying should be required viewing from primary school through the college level (plus their parents/guardians); brutally, achingly realistic, writer/director Amy S. Weber’s pseudo documentary is a masterpiece of blindness: parents unaware of a child’s devastation; children hiding their psychological trauma; teachers shunning their responsibilities, accepting the norm; bullies, their deadly tactics; what deep-seated, festering problems gave …

Recently, I turned on the “Charlie Rose” show and lo and behold there was “Danny Collins”; I had seen the film starring Al Pacino at a screening a week earlier; moderately entertaining, loosely  based on Steve Tilston, a British folk singer who received a letter from iconic John Lennon, almost forty years after it was written. Pacino had not doffed, …

What might have been an interesting scenario, spirals down tubes of improbabilities, landing on a flatbed of absurdity, resulting in melodramatic,  pandering obfuscation, highlighting the pneumatic pectorals of Sean Penn. Commencing in 2006 in the blighted detritus of the Congo, an unnamed monolithic corporation, uses assassination as a tool for controlling the natural resources; “Jim Terrier” (sour, surly Penn) is …

Once upon a time, in the year 1697 a Frenchman, Charles Perrault wrote “The Glass Slipper”; in 1812 The Brothers Grimm elaborated upon the tale of beautiful, orphaned “Ella”, relegated to the status of servant by her heinous stepmother and her two wretched daughters. So, for centuries this bewitching fable has touched the hearts and imaginations of all who have …

“Nothin says lovin like somethin from the oven”, the Pillsbury Dough Boy would have expanded to unlimited proportions in the kitchens, of once ubiquitous delicatessens, now just a “chosen” few. “Deli Man” is a scrumptious,  succulent, salivating love story; the heart of this delicious documentary pulsates with the vibrancy of David “Ziggy” Gruber a third-generation “deli man”; Cordon Bleu trained, …

Beware of films “On Demand” before they open in theatres; more than likely they are awful and “Maps to the Stars” is a prime example. David Cronenberg exploits every salacious taboo shunned by those with a modicum of morality; blatantly bludgeoning viewers with themes of incest, pyromania, narcissism; repulsive, sickening to view; fine actors wallowing in the roles of slimy, …

A distant, vastly disappointing “second”; unfathomable, dreary interpretation of characters so alive and vibrant in the first “chapter”; gone is the exciting, enticing flavor of India; this bland, silly scenario could have taken place anywhere. The same cast, marginalized by mundane writing and superfluous directing (John Madden, “Shakespeare in Love”). Dev Patel, “Sonny” the endearing proprietor of the “Marigold Hotel” …

Interestingly “Focus” intrigued me on a surprising level; not as a “con”, “sting” film, nor as a placid love story, but as a devilish, “slight-of-hand”  scenario;  anyone who has been a victim  (or a potential victim) of invasive thievery will be stunned at the skill and finesse practiced by these artists of trickery, surgeons of stylish, cunning undetected removal of …