Netflix and Beyond

Cecil B. DeMille’s  1956 “The Ten Commandments” still shimmers as one of the most iconic films of all time; technological wizardry, blatantly remarkable, set the bar for future filmmakers; it is a masterpiece enjoyed yearly by millions as a Passover/Easter traditional viewing experience; Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner are memorably cemented as the eponymous embodiment of “Moses” and “Ramses”. Christian …

Woefully, for the first twenty minutes of this abused Bollywood theme (saviors vs villains) my impulse was to run, demand a refund, conserve my sanity, luxuriate in the freedom of three undetermined hours; reasoning aside, I remained. Ajay Devgan is the Eastern composite of: Sylvester Stallone, Charles Bronson, Bruce Willis,  Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise; superheroes who have felled thousands of …

In 1977 Robyn Davidson trekked 1,700  miles across Australian desserts; she lionized her pilgrimage in “Tracks” a heartfelt, blatantly honest account of her journey; the 2013/14 film starring Mia Wasikowska is prescient in depicting Davidson’s vicissitudes during her seven-month odyssey. Eighteen years later (1995) Cheryl Strayed, driven by grief and moral turpitude, straps on a hundred -pound backpack, the “Monster” …

Frederick Wiseman’s masterpiece takes place over three hours in the hallowed halls, galleries of one of the world’s richest museums, ensconced on Trafalgar Square in London; the length of the documentary adds to its depth; we troll the galleries with visionary educators, blinders removed, intensely looking, intellectually devouring iconic works; works still thriving, long after their masters have perished; painstaking, …

It is refreshingly restorative watching a man withering physically, soaring intellectually. Eddie Redmayne (“Les Miserables”), gives a tour de force performance as Stephen Hawking (“A Brief History of Time”) who quested to discover “one single unified equation that explains everything in the universe”; diagnosed with motor neuron disease in 1963 (twenty-one- years old); glum prognosis, two years to live; he …

Jon Stewart (“The Daily Show”) depicts a remarkable, somewhat fictionalized, tale of one man’s “red badge of courage”; in 2009 Maziar Bahari (“Then They Came for Me”) was arrested and incarcerated for filming the riots in Teheran, Iran after the election; Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal soars as “Bahari” an Iranian-born, London-based journalist working for Newsweek; Western confidence and ebullience …

In the profoundly silent first moments of the film we watch a solitary wrestler in a balletic performance with an  anthropomorphic partner; Mark Schultz, Olympic Gold medalist, practices his quintessential wrestling techniques; Channing Tatum gives the greatest performance of his career as this lost, isolated athlete, living in the shadow of his older brother (17 months), Dave, also an Olympic …

Knowing that audiences were to be served only a portion of the third book in Suzanne Collins’s “Hunger Games” trilogy; leaving partially satiated appetites, unanswered dilemmas, lacking the magnetism of previous “Game” movies; light on energy, heavy on angst; difficult to be invested in the half-baked. The commencement is ploddingly slow: “Katniss Evergreen” (abundantly talented Jennifer Lawrence) must psychologically accept …

Chile, a long, skinny country defined by extremes: inferno, desert heat/frigid, snow-clad mountains; cacophonous, colorful Santiago/isolated, serene Easter Island; Chile sooths and stimulates simultaneously, cauterizing the heaviness of everyday minutia, allowing the lyrical to pierce one’s spirit. For two weeks my friend and I were soaked and lathered by a myriad of highlights. Primarily Easter Island, the loneliest place on …

In the meantime here are a few previously not reviewed, but worth a watch in the theatres or On Demand: “1,000 TIMES GOOD NIGHT”, Juliette Binoche is stunning as a war photographer, torn asunder by her profession and family. FOUR STARS!!!! “JOHN WICK”, Keanu Reeves has carved the quintessential niche as the avenger, slayer of the nefarious; the body count …