Hollywood

“Claire” is a mess, traumatically scarred, physically and psychologically; we encounter her in a group support session where the suicide of a former member is analyzed; Claire is isolated,  remotely uninterested in recovery;  her attendance defies feasibility . Every second of every frame capitalizes on her agonizing pain; she lies down in vehicles, devours massive, illegally attained drugs, gallons of …

PENEFLIX  6th ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARD CONTEST is coming soon! The nominees are located here. It is that time of year, when once again I prove incapable of separating my mind and heart; they are so entwined that an autopsy would prove inconclusive. I vote for the film and nominees that I consider the best in their category. I do not play …

In the first scene we see the “sniper” lying on his belly in war- torn Iraq; his weapon focused on a woman and child; the child is handed a grenade and runs toward a US convoy entering the area; does he kill the child? “American Sniper” is Clint Eastwood’s gloriously stunning tale of Chris Kyle, an ordinary man, keen marksman, …

Alzheimer’s disease does not discriminate when it waves its lethal wand and strikes the gifted, challenged, dedicated, irresponsible; two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women. Julianne Moore as Professor “Alice Howland” is luminous, shining as a woman of magnificent formidability in her career, as a wife and  mother; she is fifty years old, diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s; devastating, debilitating; …

1981: Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th President of the United States; 69 days into his Presidency John Hinckley failed in his attempt to assassinate him; Pope John Paul II, also wounded by a crazed assassin; Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, was not given a stay of grace,  was murdered;  Iran Hostage Crisis, concluded; the Aids Virus diagnosed. Violence …

A gloomy, sordid tale based on the 2009 Thomas Pynchon novel. The action takes place in California, 1970; black times warped by the Vietnam War, rampant drug use, pervasive, cynical disillusionment of the young; freedom, release found in evading the draft, sleeping on beaches; life anesthetized; reality frozen by illegal substances; era of “hippies”, Charles Manson, Richard Nixon and “Larry …

Mark Walberg gives a stultifying, robotic performance as “Jim Bennett” a gambler with a mythic quest to self-destruct. Unlike James Caan in director Karel Reisz’s 1974, poignant and beautiful portrait of a man incapable of controlling his demonic urges, Walberg’s character, directed by Rupert Wyatt, is always in control; crassly, cavalierly dispensing his mother’s “grace” money; flaunts, and taunts his …

Despite some historical inaccuracies “Selma” is surpassingly worthy of audiences from the age of ten and beyond. Insightful, instinctive redolent performances, especially by David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin  Luther King, Jr.; a half century has passed, today’s society is informed by incidents revolving around the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown; sorrowful examples of history repeating itself. Director Ava …

British director, Gabriel Range’s  award-winning 2006 “Death of a President” depicts the fictional assassination of George W. Bush, the forty-third President of the United States, on October 19, 2007 in Chicago; there was some intellectual umbrage; but nothing like the draconian outrage, internet-sabotage, ruckus of what we have witnessed over the past month revolving  around Seth Rogen’s “The Interview” focusing …

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolorist and printmaker; revolutionary in melding luscious chiaroscuro; miraculously blending the hues of dazzling day and nascent night; with German contemporary, Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) stun in glorifying nature’s tempestuous transcendence over man. Both men were monumentally inspirational and forerunners of impressionism; they awe to this day. Director Mike …