Netflix and Beyond

Auteur Jerzy Skolimowski at eighty-four endows film lovers a divinely consummate movie experience; inspired by Robert Bresson’s 1966 “Au Hasard Balthazar”; “EO” (compilation of six donkeys) follows an unscripted path, through the eyes of a donkey, whose odyssey opens the minds and sensitivities of all who view it. From the onset, EO stoically accepts his/her fate; as an observer, from …

I love foreign films; possibly because of the riveting concentration needed to follow the narrative or maybe because I lust after cultures different from my own, cultures that add to the elasticity of my brain, expand my imaginative landscape and enhance my existence. “Lost Illusions” (winner of 7 categories at 2022 Cesar Awards including Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Xavier …

“BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER” Overcoming palpable hesitancy, not imagining a “Black Panther” without the epochal Chadwick Boseman (1976-2020), but at the insistence of my youngest and astronomically smart friend, I went; it was every bit as superlative as described and redolently reverential to the deceased actor. Pungently powerful as the technical effects, cinematography, acting acuity, the underlying message of strength …

THE FABLEMANS                       (IN THEATRES) Individuals of iconic, legendary stature are, at a pivotalpoint, retrospective; pursuing their walkway to prominence; in recent years directors have splayed upon the screen the intimacy, the embryonic process to eminence: “Lady Bird”2017 (Greta Gerwig); “Roma”2018 (Alfonso Cuaron); “The Souvenir” 2019 (Joanna Hogg); “Belfast” 2021 (Kenneth Branagh); “The Hand of God” 2021 (Paolo Sorrentino). Surpassing all theabove biographical scenarios, Steven Spielberg at seventy-five bequests his pubescent history in the fabulous “Fable”mans”; consisting of the essential elements of a fable: symbolism, lessons, …

Individuals of iconic, legendary stature are, at a pivotal point, retrospective; pursuing their walkway to prominence; in recent years directors have splayed upon the screen the intimacy, the embryonic process to eminence: “Lady Bird” 2017 (Greta Gerwig); “Roma” 2018 (Alfonso Cuaron); “The Souvenir” 2019 (Joanna Hogg); “Belfast” 2021 (Kenneth Branagh); “The Hand of God” 2021 (Paolo Sorrentino). Surpassing all the …

Director Luca Guadagnino’s sublime sensitivity, “I Am Love”, “Call Me By Your Name”, “Brideshead Revisited”, is limitless, stratospheric; he has visualized, put on the screen, a narrative, emotions others have felt, but are incapable of expressing; his vision travels into untouched realms, recognizing, accepting the “other”, gifting viewers insights into those shunned, oftentimes horrified by; “Bones and All” (not for …

CAUSEWAY (Apple TV) Jennifer Lawrence is certifiably a grand actor; her skill reverberates and defines to perfection her every characterization: “Ree Dolly” (“Winter’s Bone”), “Katniss Everdeen” (“The Hunger Games”, Trilogy), “Tiffany” (“Silver Linings Playbook”), the list exponentially expands as she advances to her pinnacle. In tandem with director Lila Neugebauer, Lawrence imbues recovering soldier “Lindsay” (wounded in an explosion in …

If for no other reason, seek out this film to see Colin Farrell’s transformative performance; he is mesmerizing, stupefying as “Padraic”, living a secluded life on the fictional island of Inisherin, off the Irish coast; Padraic, a farmer, borderline “daff”, content living with his sister, “Siobhan” (sensitive Kerry Condon) and interacting daily with “Colm” (phenomenal Branden Gleeson) his closest friend; …

Writer Erich Maria Remarque’s (1898-1970) iconic novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1929) film depiction is positively outstanding, compellingly watchable and one of the finest productions on television today; riveting to the point of exhaustion, German director Edward Berger vivisects the naivety of teenagers rallying around the “flag”, ignorant of the hideousness of the battleground; and the immediate, crushing …

Two outstanding Academy Award winners (Jessica Chastine, Eddie Redmayne) with exhaustive efforts could not spur viewers to the level of interest, that on paper, should have soddened our attention for its entirety. The good nurse, Amy Loughren (Chastine) emotionally, psychologically, physically must come to terms with the evil embedded in the bad nurse, Charlie Cullen (Redmayne); both actors immerse their …