Netflix and Beyond

Rarely does a film come along that is in perfect alignment: flawlessly acted, magnificently  written/ directed, rhythmically stunning, an electrifying story that clings to the conscience long after experiencing; “Whiplash” is an experience not to be missed. Miles Teller sinks his sensational skills into the role of “Andrew Neyman”; a portrait of a young man’s obscene obsession, a maniacal drive …

For 50 years (the oldest competitive film festival in the United States) one man has reigned, commanded with prescience, inimitable courage and foresight at the helm; channeling its vision universally, fifty-two countries displayed their features in this year’s festival; fearlessly, a parameter-destroyer, a man whose indefatigable initiative has never waned, gifting viewers a perpetual avalanche of entertainment. Michael Kutza is …

Director Joanna Rudnick’s remarkable iconoclastic commentary on traditional, expected norms of beauty: thin, waif-like, gauntly-chiseled countenances, leggy models who grace the covers of fashion magazines are replaced, shattered by the inimitable photographer Rick Guidotti who sees beyond the facade and unearths, brings forth the gorgeousness of those with physical aberrations; “disfigured” by Albinism, hypo –pigmentation, Sturge-Weber syndrome and chromosome 18 …

A strange phenomena occurs while watching three to four films a day; similarities, idiosyncrasies, poetic ploys, resonate as they would not under normal viewing circumstances: smoking informs approximately 80% of the films, regardless of the country they represent; cell phones, despite the direness of living conditions, are a major tool of contemporary filmmakers (“Timbuktu”);  child stars are a prime, compelling …

Swedish playwright August Strindberg (1849-1912) wrote “Miss Julie” in 1888; son of a bankrupt aristocrat and a waitress, his troubled and tumultuous childhood infused his remarkable writings, none more so than “Miss Julie”; a play resonating with class warfare, misogyny, “hysteria” (a Victorian reference to female sexual frustration), borderline schizophrenia; shocking fodder for a straight-laced society at the turn of …

Watching this fine, outstanding film one word kept galloping through my mind; every scene, each performance; pristine, prescient directing was laden with “integrity”; two hours of blatant honesty, infused with genealogical, unresolved issues; personal and professional trials, patterns of pain, anchored in years of obfuscation, segregation. The audience voyeuristically watches as the Palmer family flays the past, confronting the present,  …

Bollywood’s anemic and hardly recognizable imitation of Hollywood’s  2010 “Knight and Day” starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz;  India’s eleven-fingered, handsome,  heartthrob Hrithik Roshan (with an abdomen so defined it defies pulsation; questioning the veracity of such tautened ripples, resembling robotic, digital action toys), is “Jai” the daredevil protagonist, capable of phenomenal wizardry; stealing the Koh-i-noor Diamond from the Tower …

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) did his most prolific writing between the years 1589-1613; he was the quintessential Bard, has never come close to being duplicated; his works, themes, resonate today as they did hundreds of years ago; no one captures the foils, fantasies, baseness or heroics of the human condition as did this timeless genius. Director Vishal Bhardwaj’s “Haider” is a …

Religiously faithful to Gillian Flynn’s stunningly successful novel; an unmatched character study of an initially enviable relationship gone haywire; succinctly directed and cast, even those familiar with the book will be drawn into the labyrinth of irreducible intrigue. David Fincher scores again (“The Social Network”, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”) with a scenario, pervasively known, blessing it with layers …

Accidentally, I ventured into this enchanting fantasy about a disillusioned psychiatrist, confronting the monotony of his everyday, vacuous  existence; compulsively organized, his home and patients, robotically relegated into slots of predictability. Simon Pegg is marvelous as the befuddled “shrink”; he exits his formal, prestigious English domain, travels the globe on an amorphous expedition, looking for answers to the elusive, inconclusive …