Netflix and Beyond

If Sunday night’s telecast of the Golden Globe Awards was sequestered in a time capsule and viewed a hundred years from now, people would be dumbfounded; these are actors?  Stuttering, shaking, stammering their inane acceptance speeches; surprised? They have known for months that they have a 20% chance of winning; hire a speech writer, be prepared NOT to make a …

Knowing the tragic, disastrous outcome of the 2005 Navy Seal team 10’s  mission in the unforgiving mountains of Afghanistan, made the film even more daunting and traumatic. Writer/director Peter Berg creates a beautifully filmed, brilliantly acted scenario based on Marcus Luttrell’s book “Lone Survivor:The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of Seal Team 10”. Mark Walberg as …

There are times when one does not venture out of house, apartment, ranch or tent; weather, frame-of-mind, or general ennui; the lure of the couch, greasy snacks and mindless movies placate the psyche. ON DEMAND’s fare generally serves the detritus of the film world (with the exception of second-run films); movies not generally released, hibernating in the limbo of films, …

“Jep Gambardella” (Toni Servillo) is a voyeur, flaneur gliding through life, observing, perpetually longing for “the great beauty” to accost him; a muse of inspiration capable of igniting the creative transformation he yearns for. Director Paolo Sorrentino’s homage to glorious Rome, its hedonistic lifestyle, commences with “Jep’s” sixty-fifth birthday party; freakishly beautiful members of Rome’s elite, sinuously writhing, frenetically dancing …

Being a glass “3/4” full person, I  usually find something redeeming in the majority of films I see; although many of you will find this unbelievable,  there are movies I intentionally, deliberately avoid;  anything to do with vampires, hangovers, anchormen, grudge matches, “this is the end”, or Las Vegas. When questioned about the BEST and the WORST films of the …

James Thurber (1894-1961) a short story writer and cartoonist for the New Yorker magazine created “Walter Mitty” and his secret, fantasy world in 1939; when I read this story, decades later, I realized what a masterpiece of literature it was; a pecan that will resonate as long as it is read. Walter Mitty, minus any assertive characteristics, is a universal …

Earns its “R” rating: salacious, scandalous sex (ancient Rome’s Tiberius, a distant second) voracious drug use; total absence of accountability and bereft of a moral compass; debauchery, greed, Olympian ambition, addiction; based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, the “wolf” whose heroic rise to millions, and ultimate collapse is depicted in the film, based on the book he wrote, …

Watching this film I became anxious, agitated, frustrated, finally depressed; it was sad, scary, problematic and painfully pathetic; director/writer Spike Jonze and actor Joaquin Phoenix have created the most unique and soulful character in recent film history. For all its smothering discomfort, this strange and weirdly compelling film tackles a future society’s reliance on electronic connections for business,  personal relationships; …

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Watching this film I became anxious, agitated, frustrated, finally depressed; it was sad, scary, problematic and painfully pathetic; director/writer Spike Jonze and actor Joaquin Phoenix have created the most unique and soulful character in recent film history. For all its smothering discomfort, this strange and weirdly compelling film tackles a future society’s reliance on electronic connections for business,  personal relationships; …