Hollywood

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and his supernaturally bleak imagination translated into thrilling, titillating prose and poetry, has long held an undeniable fascination, compellingly haunting appeal: “Lenore”, “Annabelle Lee” their absence festers at the heart of Poe’s sensibilities, he mourningly acclaims the expiration of beauty; “the pale blue eye” of the purest ingenue, denied maturity. “The death of a beautiful woman …

WOMEN TALKING The power of intelligence resonating at the core of this prodigious film is astonishing; at certain points, wishing to “pause”, “rewind”, and “replay”, cementing a vocabulary of deducted reasoning, purely processed, through the words of women, sorely abused, illiterate, questioning the dictates of a religion that demands “forgiveness” for egregious behavior, perpetrated by a male population, justified in …

WHITNEY HOUSTON: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY (IN THEATRES) Naomi Ackie (Houston), Stanley Tucci (Clive Davis, record producer) and Ashton Sanders (husband, Bobby Brown) cannot salvage, what should have been a dynamic biopic, from mediocrity. Her blistering rise, from the age of nineteen to her tragic demise at forty-eight, was infused with impending gloom: nasty parenting, drug enabling husband, doomed …

Lovable, despicable? Possibly, bucketsful of both. Undebatable, it is electrifying, mesmerizing, hypnotically addictive for every second of its three plus hours. Writer/director Damien Chazelle (“LaLa Land”,”Whiplash”) gifts a glorious, energetic, oftentimes inordinate paean to Hollywood’s embryonic bygone era. Commencing in 1926 silent movies are at their peak and idolized leading man “Jack Conrad” (Brad Pitt, with age exponentially swells, imbuing …

Occasionally, I see a film, that in retrospect, I wish I hadn’t; Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” captures the top prize in this category besting “Mother”, Aronofsky’s 2017 movie starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem and Michelle Pfeiffer; examples of boundary destruction at the “celestial” level; a more fitting title would have been “Death by Diet”. Granted Brendan Fraser’s ardent, overpowering depiction …

Olivia Coleman, out of 156 nominations has won 66, including an Academy Award (“The Favourite”, 2018) and three Golden Globes; this year she is again nominated for her stunning characterization of a floundering, fragile woman tenuously teetering on the thread between reality and disillusionment; treating viewers to an astounding, catastrophically heartbreaking performance; “Hilary Small”, manages the Empire Theatre on the …

Never have I reviewed a film a second time; but at the finale of the 10/14 (FOUR STARS!!!!) review I knew I had to see it again; I was troubled by the inconsistencies, conundrums, anomalies overshadowed by Cate Blanchett’s immensely prodigious performance as “Lydia Tar”.     Initially, I did not like Lydia; she was too perfect, too controlled, too …

“BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER” Overcoming palpable hesitancy, not imagining a “Black Panther” without the epochal Chadwick Boseman (1976-2020), but at the insistence of my youngest and astronomically smart friend, I went; it was every bit as superlative as described and redolently reverential to the deceased actor. Pungently powerful as the technical effects, cinematography, acting acuity, the underlying message of strength …

Individuals of iconic, legendary stature are, at a pivotal point, retrospective; pursuing their walkway to prominence; in recent years directors have splayed upon the screen the intimacy, the embryonic process to eminence: “Lady Bird” 2017 (Greta Gerwig); “Roma” 2018 (Alfonso Cuaron); “The Souvenir” 2019 (Joanna Hogg); “Belfast” 2021 (Kenneth Branagh); “The Hand of God” 2021 (Paolo Sorrentino). Surpassing all the …

Director Luca Guadagnino’s sublime sensitivity, “I Am Love”, “Call Me By Your Name”, “Brideshead Revisited”, is limitless, stratospheric; he has visualized, put on the screen, a narrative, emotions others have felt, but are incapable of expressing; his vision travels into untouched realms, recognizing, accepting the “other”, gifting viewers insights into those shunned, oftentimes horrified by; “Bones and All” (not for …