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Years ago, I experienced one of the “greatest” performances ever actualized on the stage, Hugh Jackman in “The Boy from Oz”, a dynamo of incredible proportions, he sang, danced, played the piano and flawlessly morphed into every stage of songwriter Peter Allen’s career; an unimaginable exploit, anchored forever in my archival theatric treasures. “The Greatest Showman” is not in that …

Tonya Harding from her birthdate, November 12th, 1970, never stood a chance at normalcy; fathered by her mother’s (LoVona) fifth husband, absconds early in her life, exists in poverty outside Portland, Oregon; a skating prodigy, but perpetually abused verbally, physically, emotionally by a harridan from hell, LoVona Harding. Allison Janney gives a dazzling depiction of a disgruntled, humbug who feels …

Director/writer Luca Guadagnino paints a portrait of luscious sensuality, a sublime, ethereal sensuousness;  intimacy vivisected on an altar of rarefied goodness; “Call Me By Your Name” is painfully, palpably beautiful. It is the summer of 1983 and American antiquity and archaeology Professor, “Pearlman” (insightfully wonderful Michael Stuhlbarg) invites a graduate student to spend the summer at his retreat in Crema, …

Writer/director Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”) once again capitalizes on his fecund imaginative prowess and serves a delicious banquet of fantasy, enchantment, deviousness and subterfuge; “The Shape of Water” weirdly wonderful, is a fantastic, tantalizing, titillating, exquisitely romantic experience. It is 1962, at a Baltimore research facility an “asset” (Doug Jones) is delivered, caged and howling (aka King Kong) from …

Audiences have recently been satiated with a myriad of “Winston Churchill” depictions: John Lithgow,”The Crown”, Brian Cox,”Churchill”, Michael Gambon,”Churchill’s Secret”, but not one can compete with Gary Oldman’s dazzling, intuitive interpretation of a man who changed the course of history. Director Joe Wright’s “Darkest Hour” brilliantly concentrates on Churchill’s initiation as England’s Prime Minister; it is 1940, Hitler with blitzkrieg …

Director/writer Dee Ree’s riveting masterpiece, focuses on racial divisiveness after WWII, in rural Mississippi; two families: “McAllan”, husband and wife “Laura” and “Henry” (Carrie Mulligan, Jason Clarke), brother “Jamie McAllan” (Garrett Hedlund) and “Pappy” (Jonathan Banks); “Jackson”, “Hap” and “Florence” (Rob Morgan, Mary J.Blige) and son “Ronsel” (Jason Mitchell); except for ownership, both families live within the eye of poverty’s …

It is a masterful, prodigious auteur who can produce a terrific film from one of the most disastrous movies ever realized. James Franco has accomplished, with verve, imagination and inimitable style, the magical. Mimicking the enigmatic Tommy Wiseau who wrote, directed, produced and starred in 2003’s catastrophic dud “The Room”; Franco’s interpretation, flawless indefinable accent, is gifted; Tommy, goth-like, dyed …

From its publication on Christmas Eve in 1843 Charles Dickens’ (1812-1870) “The Christmas Carol” has informed the life of every child in the free world for a hundred and seventy-four years; “The Man Who Invented Christmas” is a fantastic, fanciful concoction of Dickens’s madcap, frenetic rush to complete the “carol” by December 24th; Dan Stevens, with aplomb and, full-voltage electricity, …

Director/writer Dee Ree’s riveting masterpiece, focuses on racial divisiveness after WWII, in rural Mississippi; two families: “McAllan”, husband and wife “Laura” and “Henry” (Carrie Mulligan, Jason Clarke), brother “Jamie McAllan” (Garrett Hedlund) and “Pappy” (Jonathan Banks); “Jackson”, “Hap” and “Florence” (Rob Morgan, Mary J.Blige) and son “Ronsel” (Jason Mitchell); except for ownership, both families live within the eye of poverty’s …

Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) is a Mexican holiday celebrated between All Saints Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day,  October 31st-November 2nd every year; “ofrendas” (altars) take center stage, with photos of the deceased; laden with food, flowers and mementos, the dead spirits cross over into the land of the living; it is a …