Netflix and Beyond

With trepidation I watched, what initially was a prime example of pure madness, but morphed into a “coming of age” tale never before actualized, nor “ever” will be repeated.  Who, even in an inebriated state, would decide to bring his buddies, serving in the Vietnam War (approximately 1965-1975) a beer, (Pabst Blue Ribbon)? Well, John “Chickie” Donohue (1941-) had the …

Tragically titillating expose on the minimal life of Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jean Mortenson, (1926-1962) directed by Andrew Dominik based on Joyce Carol Oats 2000 fictionalized version of her doomed ephemerality. Unfortunately, there are no surprising insights, just predictable salaciousness: a menage trois (Edward G. Robinson Jr. (Evan Williams) and Charlie Chaplin, Jr. (Xavier Samuel); an abusive thug, Jo DiMaggio (Bobby …

THE PATIENT (Hulu) Abashedly, a friend and I walked out of 2005’s “40-Year-Old Virgin” with no regrets, never revisited it; also ignored “The Office”; it wasn’t until “Foxcatcher” (2014) followed by “The Big Short” (2015) and “Beautiful Boy” (2018) that I awakened to the stimulating fact that Steve Carell was so much more than a funny man; incubating beneath a …

“BULLET TRAIN” (in theatres) It has been a rather thin, squishy summer of film; a myriad of mediocrity unworthy of brain waves, exceptions: “Top Gun”, “Official Competition”, “Hallelujah”, “Vengeance” and the recently reviewed “The Good Boss”. To shun ennui, I visited “Bullet Train” (Brad Pitt the primary draw); superciliousness on steroids but for some inexplainable rationale I found myself enjoying, …

“ORPHAN: FIRST KILL” (streaming & in theatres) Isabelle Fuhrman gives a sensationally eerie depiction of a serial killer afflicted with Highlander Syndrome (hypopituitarism, stunted physical growth); she looks twelve but is thirty-one; an orphan from Estonia who poses as an American child, abducted years ago; Julia Stiles, “Tricia” the despondent mother, is equal to the challenge of a newfound daughter. …

Last Sunday’s New York Times’s extensive article on writer/director Michael Mann, concentrating on his upcoming movie “Heat 2”, piqued my interest in a film I had never seen; a film of exceptional power, staggering achievement, mesmerizingly dazzling; “Heat” should be seen by anyone who wallows willingly in film’s “absolute beauty, visual joy and dreamlike sensibility”. “Heat” is a crime tale …

If one is commanded to watch one documentary a decade; “The Day the Music Died” is unequivocally, unmatched. From my first “listen”, “American Pie” with its bewitching lyrics, timelessness, inclusivity, sent chills from my brain, cascading through every organ, electrifying my soul and culminating in a dance, that even with age, takes flight and defies boundaries; I never experience life, …

PERSUASION (NETFLIX)             Novelist Jane Austen’s (1775-1817) “Persuasion” has survived a myriad of adaptations, many excellent, especially the 2007 version starring Sally Hawkins, Rupert Penry-Jones, Tobias Menzies; the 2022 Netflix rendition is an abomination; miscast, instead of electrifying, disastrously boring, using contemporary actors of all hues, squirming in their restrictive wardrobes, stilted dialogue, sprinkled with platitudeness cliches permeating an emotionless, limited scenario. Dakota Johnson’s (“50 Shades” celeb) valiant struggle …

“INTIMACY”              (SPANISH: DUBBED ENGLISH)         NETFLIX A timely tale resonating with today’s invasive and chilling technology; a rising politician is surreptitiously filmed as she and her lover are carnally entwined on a deserted beach. Predictably, it goes viral, and the series evolves as the protagonists gallantly fight to resolve and cope …

“PEAKY BLINDERS” 6TH SEASON   NETFLIX In my estimation this season tops the others in writing, intense characterization and the effects of moral turpitude; Cillian Murphy, redolently ripe as “Tommy Shelby” sears as a man plagued by his misdeeds, its consequences, and religious retribution; farfetched, but reeks of legitimacy and the power of the mind to transcend reality. FOUR STARS!!!! …