Netflix and Beyond

A recent Chicago Shakespeare Theatre’s remarkable production of “Julius Caesar” imbues, without altering a word, a contemporary interpretation; hawkers selling “Caesar” T-shirts, hotdogs and huge signs encouraging voters to go to www.juliuscaesar.com to register; proving Shakespeare’s power to habitually defy the archaic, lending ubiquitous credence to his  massive appeal throughout the ages. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, brothers whose efficacious, formidable …

Unless you have a warped curiosity to see the First Lady (Ashley Judd) die in a car crash;  White House walls, resemble a Jackson Pollock painting; the President and  Secretary of State, (Aaron Eckhart, Melissa Leo) tied and tortured; a solitary human drone (Gerard Butler) defeating a cabal of Korean (ambiguous as to which side they represented, if any) terrorists, …

1962: Samoa granted independence from New Zealand, John Glenn is the first American to orbit earth, Jackie Kennedy gives a televised tour of the White House, Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro; “Escape from Alcatraz” a film starring Clint Eastwood based upon the U.S.-British nuclear test in Nevada; historically, the most monumental, colossal event: the Cuban Missile Crisis, the catastrophic …

Unabashedly, if it weren’t for Sarah Palin I might not have known of Tina Fey, until her recent film career; spending most of my waking hours in darkened theatres, leaves skimpy, and extremely precious moments for television; admittedly, almost shamefully, I confess to never having seen “Saturday Night Live” or “30 Rock”; at this stage it is difficult to see …

A challenging, morose, metaphysical, metaphorical film by Christian Mungiu (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”); not for those looking for fluff or fantasy. Based on an historical event in Romania (2005);  atmospherically medieval, somber (much like “The Turin Horse”); a monastery (The New Hill) devoid of electricity, plumbing; water dredged from a well, technology has not brushed the “nuns”, …

1939 still resonates as one of the most iconic year’s in film history; films that to this day are watched and relished consistently: “Gunga Din”, “Goodbye Mr. Chips”, “Stagecoach”, “Dark Victory”, “Wuthering Heights”, and my two favorites, “Gone with the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz”. So it was with massive trepidation that I went to see “Oz: The Great …

Ingenious topic!  Imposing, compelling scenario, married with Halle Berry’s consummate characterization; director Brad Anderson and writer Richard D’ Ovidio open the windows to the innermost bowels, mechanisms of the 911 Emergency “hive” in Los Angeles. The sophistication of the tracking devices;  frenetic cacophony, seconds culminating in success or failure; never having spent a modicum of mental muscle wondering about the …

It is tragic when a film has the genesis of greatness but somehow fizzles in the creation process; such is the case with “Emperor”. A fascinating slice of history, focusing on the demise of Japan’s Emperor Hirohito; immersed in the carnage of Hiroshima (August 6th, 1945) and Nagasaki ( August 9th, 1945); a landscape screaming for redemption, purification after the …

1980, East Berlin. “Barbara” a brilliant doctor is shunted to the “provinces’ because she applied for an exit visa; masterfully developed and directed, initially her reasons unknown; she is under constant surveillance, subjected to haphazard and degrading searches by the Communist German Democratic Republic, “Stasi”; Nina Hoss, as Barbara, is poetic, hypnotic; her pain, palatable, her dedication to medicine supersedes …

Recently, an erudite mentor posed a question to his twenty-year-old mentees (of mixed backgrounds), “what makes America great?” Watching this fine film about the sacking of Chile’s dictator, Augusto Pinochet in 1988; an election he felt compelled to initiate; I was pivotally reminded of our free election process; negative campaigning by all parties is simultaneously shunned and accepted; no one …