Hollywood

Writer/director Scott Cooper’s flawed but potent thriller about the “Baze” brothers, dealing with substantial issues in Pennsylvania’s steel landscape, 2008.  Christian Bale’s portrayal of “Russell” is sensitive and formidable; Russell has a kind heart and disposition while “Rodney” (solid performance by Casey Affleck) is volatile, most likely suffering from PTSD after serving four stints in Iraq; gambling and fighting are …

Director Spike Lee’s remake of Park Chan-wook’s Korean, 2003 film of the same title, is shatteringly brutal, ugly and by far the most horrifying, disturbing movie of the year; its bloodthirsty, barbaric scenario is not for those of feint  sensitivities; its meanness continues to haunt, days after viewing. If revenge is best served cold “Oldboy” hovers at the Antarctica level. …

Alexander Payne’s poignant and heartfelt slice of Midwestern reality never strikes a false cord. Bruce Dern as “Woody Grant”, walking from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect his million dollar sweepstakes prize, is riveting; he captures the ageing paranoia, painful frustrations of a man whose options and life are close to the finish line; grasping at any illusion to …

After three culturally prodigious days in New York City, days and evenings infused with the majesty of Magritte, Chagall and Shakespeare,  I was content being a  passive spectator to the post-apocalyptic universe of “Panem”, an autocratically dominated environment where predestination is orchestrated by an amoral “President Snow” (Donald Southerland once again, recreates his delicious, devilishly destructive role). Never having read …

Director Malcolm D. Lee’s sequel to the 1999 “The Best Man” unites the terrific, well-seasoned cast in the first “happy holiday” film of 2013; hopefully , a positive forecast for a festive, fun commencement to a year in need of a jovial jolt. After years of separation “Mia” (sensitive, poignant performance by Monica Calhoun) invites college friends, whose lives and …

We worship, lionize our heroes, those who succeed, accomplish the impossible; we keep them protected in rarefied vitrines; we never dream of besting or defying their insurmountable, indefatigable feats;  they’re immortal, unflawed. Documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, under the mesmerizing spell of legendary Lance Armstrong, seven- time (1999-2005) winner of the prestigious Tour de France, commences by making a film of …

Long anticipated,  Markus Zusak’s 2005 novel “The Book Thief” is pulsating from the wide screen; it has a certain glitz, fairy -tale, manipulative quality, but if you flow with the fantasy, allow the titillation, ignore the sensationalism, you’ll be enchanted, entertained. Narrated by the “Grim Reaper” , it’s 1938 Nazi Germany, his gluttonous plate perpetually burgeoning;  focuses on the world …

Urged by a super intuitive, intelligent friend, I grudgingly went to see “All Is Lost”; remarkably, one of the finest films of the year. I am in her debt. My trepidation was the resiliency of “Cast Away” (2000,film); Tom Hanks’  stupendous performance as a Fed Ex engineer stranded for years on an island; his sole companion “Wilson” (never have viewed …

There was a time when I found Charles Dickens, “Miss Havisham”(Helena Bonham Carter crafted for the character) wildly, weirdly, romantic; jilted on her wedding day, spending her life, encased in her bridal finery as sanity morphs into lunacy; preparing her ward, “Estella” for society and manipulating poor “Pip” whose “expectations” never attain “greatness”. Sadly, the tale is stale and incapable …

Matthew McConaughey joins the elite league of actors who have shed morbid amounts of weight to define the role’s they are depicting: Christian Bale  “The Machinest” Michael Fassbender, “Hunger”, contemporaries; three men, young enough to replenish what they sacrificed in months of scary, voluntary anorexia. Matthew McConaughey, as nonfictional “Ron Woodroof”: raunchy, alcoholic, drug- addicted, heterosexual; diagnosed HIV positive in …