Netflix and Beyond

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), masterful champion of “Impressionism” is brilliantly depicted by Michel Bouquet in Gilles Bourdos film about the legendary painter at the conclusion of his life, in tandem with his second son “Jean” (1894-1979, destined to be the iconic filmmaker), at the commencement of his, (Vincent Rottiers); linked by “Andree” (Christa Theret) the luminous, endorphin-infused, final muse of Renoir …

Matthew McConaughey, son of a gas station owner,  first captured and glued my attention in the 1996 “A Time to Kill”; he has had some bad films (“Ghosts of Girlfriends Past”) but throughout his career, the forty-four- year old actor has been incredibly perspicacious in role selection. As “Mud” he excels, as a good- hearted miscreant who manipulates two fourteen …

Pablo Berger’s homage to silent, black –and -white film’s legendary history was the opening feature at the Palm Springs Film Festival in January. Referencing the Grimm Brothers historical fairy tale; flaying “Disneyesque” (1937), benign, whistling interpretation, Berger’s heroine is of stronger, tougher “stuff”; “Carmen” (“Snow White”) inherits from her father, a matador’s muleta. Seville, Spain in the 1920’s harbors the …

Riveting, thrilling “Disconnect” is paradigmatic of the twenty-first century’s addiction to cell phones, internet; obsessed with 24/7 connectivity; diners, noncommunicative spheres; emailing, texting, eating, “I tweet, therefore I am”; constant collisions on streets and sidewalks; coffee shops, airports are hotbeds of the colossal mania to Twitter, Skype; Facebook has electrified, energized relationships, correspondence; also piloting the death of introspection. Director …

In recent years there has been a monumental surge of apocalyptic films, highlighting the devastation, detritus, bruised and broken monuments and sparse inhabitants roaming in lawless, “survival of the fittest” abandonment: “The Road”, “The Book of Eli”,  “Warm Bodies”, “Walking Dead”, upcoming “After Earth” ; all of these films resonate powerfully with  young audiences, a conundrum I found mystifying until …

Many remember the days of riots and ruination; 1968, the Democratic Convention in Chicago gave birth to the “Chicago 7”, “Weatherman” “Weather Underground”, “Revolutionary Youth Movement”; sad, delusional, debilitating time when young people worldwide violently protested America’s involvement in Vietnam; a war that altered America forever; creating the division between modern and post modern society; people of promise, jailed or …

Terrific acting informs this convoluted conundrum of flashbacks revolving around the theft of a Francisco Goya (1746-1828) painting (“Witches in the Air”); which is where the audience hovers between nonfiction and the twilight zone; Danny Boyle’s slick scenario, at best, is masterful manipulation but flounders when dealing with the consequences of the therapeutic process focusing on hypnosis (“trance”) and those …

Heroes. We know them. We read about them. They come in all shapes, sizes, hues, genders, ages. Ranging from the six-year-year-old who saves a classmate from a bully;  policemen preserving civility; firemen saving victims from conflagrations; a bystander chasing a perpetrator to redeem a stolen purse. There are a myriad of ways that “heroes” are made: some born, the majority …

I do not care for animation; even as a child I found it boring and enervating. If any film could convert me to the genre it is “From Up On Poppy Hill”; it is an enchanting tale set in 1963, Yokohama, Japan. “Umi” our seventeen-year-old heroine runs a boarding house with an exquisite view of the sea, aided by her …

A romantic title that spins a trilogy of stunning believability; structurally perfect, intrinsically flawed; grossly thought-provoking; fervently strong commencement, weakens as it progresses but not enough to maim the entertainment value. Ryan Gosling, staggeringly fine in his portrayal of “Luke” a circus performer, whose virtuoso on a motorcycle matches the wizardly of the tattoo masters who have referenced every artistic …