For a meager twenty seconds, there were two winners in the Peneflix contest; those twenty seconds destroyed the Academy’s legitimacy for years to come. How can viewers trust the sealed envelope? In retrospect, I bleed for Warren Beatty, lacking the prescience, when he realized the error, to speak out, he was rendered comatose, and poor Faye, spoke too soon. In …
Read More »A UNITED KINGDOM
Director Amma Asante (“Belle”), British filmmaker of Ghanaian ancestry has masterfully crafted a dramatic, true love story around a political quest for autonomy; 1947, London, heir apparent to the Bechuanaland (present day Botswana) protectorate, Seneste Khama (polished performance by David Oyelowo), his studies complete, meets and plummets precipitously in love with typist Ruth Williams (enchanting portrayal by Rosamund Pike) whose blind …
Read More »JOLLY LLB 2 (HINDI: ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
With the passage of time Bollywood’s versatile actor Akshay Kumar has grown in stature, as a remarkably gifted force in the genre; his serious roles surpass, in my estimation, the comedic sojourns, “Airlift” and “Rustom” are superlative studies of a man challenged, besting superhuman obstacles. Director Subhash Kapoor in “Jolly LLB 2 ” allows Kumar (Jolly) to spread his proficient …
Read More »FIFTY SHADES DARKER
A number of years ago someone asked me if I had read the “Shade” trilogy by E. L. James (why bother with sensational rubbish?); after thawing from frigid stultification, I ordered the whole shebang on my Kindle, resurrected my long dormant Evelyn Wood speed reading versatility and spent three days in the sadomasochistic world of “Christian Grey” and “Anastasia Steele”. …
Read More »I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
African-American artist Kerry James Marshall, born in Birmingham, Alabama, 1955, the year that Rosa Parks, seated in the colored section of the bus, refused to relinquish her seat to a white person; Marshall’s meteoric career has focused on the black aesthetic; from the mundane to the iconic, his blazing skill, pictorially represents the black experience in America; a number of …
Read More »KAABIL (CAPABLE) (HINDI: ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
Bollywood stars Hirthik Roshan and Yami Guatam give blazing performances as a couple, blind from birth; no stigma or angst is exhibited by their lack of sight; their romance is imbued with all the attributes of young love and fascination; “Su” is a pianist in a dance school, “Rohan” surprises her with a visit, resulting in one of the pre-eminent …
Read More »JULIETA SPANISH:ENGLISH SUBTITLES
Another alluring film by Pedro Almodovar based on three short stories (“Runaway”) by Alice Munro. Almodovar’s vast comprehension of the female condition, grasping their resiliency, intensity, intricacies, especially the binds entwining mothers and daughters, is sublimely refined in “Julieta”. Almodovar/Munro, the perfect pairing. A middle-aged classic professor “Julieta” (incredible Emma Suarez) is readying to move to Portugal, from Madrid, with …
Read More »WORLDS APART (GREEK/ENGLISH)
“Worlds Apart” took me by surprise; its complexities, beauties, pain and pathos, resulting in a tapestry of love so vital, riveting, touching the astounding similarities, anomalies of a heart’s uncontrolled flight when pricked at the will of “Eros”, the Greek god of love; masterfully entwining three disparate couples with the harsh threads of Greece’s contemporary financial crisis and the delicate …
Read More »"ELLE" & "TONI ERDMANN" FRENCH, GERMAN (ENGLISH SIBTITLES) COMMENTARY
Two powerfully disturbing, provocative films centered on two twentieth-first century women, maneuvering successfully, in previously male populated arenas. “Elle” , “Michelle LeBlanc” (remarkable, brilliant Isabelle Hubert) runs a Video Game Company; she is violently raped in the first scene while her cat passively watches; she decides to discover the rapist using her own tools of detecting; shameless, empowered, her calculated, …
Read More »Peneflix Annual Academy Awards Contest Returns!!
Get ready to make your predictions for this year’s Peneflix Annual Academy Awards Contest and win!! This year if you beat the predictions of Peneflix.com you can win $150! Keep your eyes out for the announcement of this year’s contest. Posting Soon!!
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